[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”224″]
[/media-credit]Jimmie Johnson led eight times for 193 laps in route to his seventh career victory at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. With this win Johnson moved ahead in the series points lead to two points over Brad Keselowski.
“We just had a great race car. And I think we’ve also learned our lesson here in the past in not pitting late and that certainly came into play and we made the right decision there. I’m so torn with emotion right now with winning here; and I’m so happy to be in the point lead.” Johnson said.
Keselowski, who came into Martinsville with a seven point advantage over Johnson, battled to the front and finished sixth after starting 32nd.
“This team has a tremendous amount of heart and I’m just proud of them. This championship is going to come down to Homestead. You just have to be in position where you’ve got a shot at it and we’re doing the things it’s going to take to be in contention at Homestead. We’ve got Texas coming up, very similar to Chicago. I’m sure it’s going to be a duel.” Keselowski said.
Kasey Kahne finished a strong third and moved up one position to fourth in the standings, 29 behind.
“We had to battle pretty hard. But luckily all the Hendrick Motorsports cars were pretty good today and congrats to the No. 48 team. Those guys did a great job. We were right there.” Kahne said. “But we ended up third, which is my best run in a long time here and I felt pretty good all day.”
Clint Bowyer led 154 laps and finished fifth after a battle with Jeff Gordon on the final laps. Bowyer moved up into the third position in the standings, 26 points behind.
“The 24 at the end, I mean, I didn’t want to. I was door-to-door with him and he just turned left to block me and I was already there. I hit the brakes and wheel-hopped, I hit him so hard and tried to stay off of him. It was a bad deal right there.” Bowyer said. “It was a good day for us. It was a lot of fun out there. We led laps and did what we wanted to do. Just came up short from winning the race.”
Despite dominating portions of the race, Jeff Gordon, who led 95 laps, finished seventh.
“We were on the outside and I mean we were sitting ducks on the outside. I was just trying to get down. I felt like I got down in front of him but maybe I didn’t I don’t know I haven’t seen the video.” Gordon said.
Greg Biffle finished 10th and Matt Kenseth finished 14th.
Making his first start after sitting out for two weeks with a concussion, Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 21st after being involved in a late accident.
“I was just really pissed off about how we finished that race. That was really ridiculous. I mean you’ve got to use a little common sense that was not a good move.” Earnhardt Jr. said.
Martin Truex Jr. finished 23rd, Tony Stewart 27th and Kevin Harvick finished 32nd after a blown motor.
Denny Hamlin finished 33rd after an electrical problem. Before the problem Hamlin had battled back from two pit road speeding penalties and a horrible starting position. Hamlin dropped from third to fifth in the standings, 49 points behind.
“It ended in disappointment,” Hamlin said of his day. “We overcame the pit road penalties, things like that. We had a great car. When these things happen, you just got to suck it up and move on.”
Official Chase Standings/Stats
After race 7 of 10
Tums Fast Relief 500, Martinsville Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php
| Pos. | Driver | (+/-) | Wins | Top-5 | Top-10 | Bon. | Avg St | Ave Fin | Laps | Ttl Laps | Points | Bnd |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 12 | 8.9 | 5.4 | 2257 | 2257 | 2291 | 0 |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski | -1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 19.6 | 5.7 | 2256 | 2257 | 2289 | -2 |
| 3 | Clint Bowyer | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 5.9 | 8.3 | 2255 | 2257 | 2265 | -26 |
| 4 | Kasey Kahne | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6.9 | 7.1 | 2253 | 2257 | 2262 | -29 |
| 5 | Denny Hamlin | -2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 12.4 | 12.4 | 2222 | 2257 | 2242 | -49 |
| 6 | Jeff Gordon | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 10.9 | 11 | 2178 | 2257 | 2237 | -54 |
| 7 | Martin Truex Jr. | -1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 10.4 | 11.4 | 2255 | 2257 | 2228 | -63 |
| 8 | Matt Kenseth | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 11.4 | 13.9 | 2226 | 2257 | 2226 | -65 |
| 9 | Greg Biffle | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 12.6 | 13.4 | 2214 | 2257 | 2222 | -69 |
| 10 | Tony Stewart | -3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 18.9 | 14.3 | 2250 | 2257 | 2220 | -71 |
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 15.1 | 2226 | 2257 | 2203 | -88 |
| 12 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 22.7 | 21.3 | 1808 | 2257 | 2151 | -140 |
*Note: These stats consist of only the final 10 chase races.
(http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php)
Biggest loser(s) after race 7: Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart. Stewart dropped three positions in the series standings to 10th and Hamlin drops to fifth, 49 points behind and out of the chase hunt.
Biggest gainer after race 7: Maybe not the biggest gainer, but Keselowski held his own and stayed right in the championship hunt despite a horrible starting position.
Biggest movers after race 7 (+/-): Clint Bowyer keeps moving closer into the hunt. Up one more position to third, 26 points behind.
