Hamlin wins, but Johnson keeps lead

MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Denny Hamlin didn't need to do anything funny to exact his revenge from Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville Speedway yesterday. He just drove right by him.

And then he drove away with ease on three restarts over the final 52 laps, ending the three-time defending series champion's remarkable run of five trips to Victory Lane in the previous six races at the shortest circuit in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.

Hamlin used an out-of-sequence pit stop after about 160 laps to move to the front, then held on until the entire leaderboard headed for pit road about 20 laps later.

"Once we got that track position, our car just kind of took off," he said.

The finish shaped up as another possible drama involving Hamlin and Johnson, who nudged Hamlin aside with 15 laps to go here in the spring and sailed to an easy victory. But with NASCAR having implemented double-file restarts since then, there was no trouble.

"The only difference was it was double-file restarts versus single file and you actually feel a little bit better with him right beside you than behind you," Hamlin said.

He wound up leading the final 138 laps after passing Johnson, and pulled away after a restart with 52 laps to go, another with 12 laps left and a then a two-lap sprint to the end.

The final restart was for debris on the track, which he thought curious.

"It was there in turn one," he said of the debris. "However it was there at lap 100. It was. I'm not kidding you. It was there. I don't know if there was another piece somewhere."

Johnson said he wished he had the car to reprise his bump-and-run pass of the spring.

"If I had a chance to pass him and to get to his bumper and work him over, I would have," he said. "But I wasn't going to come in with the second-place car and take a cheap shot and pass him that way. If I felt like I had a car to win the race, I would have been up there leaning on him some."

Instead, he protected his position and his points lead. Seeking his record fourth consecutive series title, Johnson extended his lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin from 90 to 118 points with four races remaining. Jeff Gordon, also of Hendrick, remained third, but saw his deficit grow from 135 to 150.

Hamlin's second career victory on the 0.526-mile oval kept the Virginia racer as the only driver besides Johnson to win on the paper clip-shaped track in the last seven races. He led three times for a race-high 206 laps, while Johnson led 164 circuits.