Author: Barry Albert

Jimmie Johnson captured his 62^nd career Sprint Cup Series victory on Sunday’s in the STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville Speedway.  Johnson led 346 laps in route to his eighth win and 20th top-10 finish in 23 races at Martinsville.

“I feel like the fastest car won the race. It was a very standard Martinsville race; although I thought some guys might peel off and take tires. It was just a hard race. This race track is tough to get around.” Johnson said.

Johnson started from the pole and dominated another race at this speedway.  Now only Richard Petty (15) and Darrell Waltrip (11) have more wins.

Clint Bowyer finished second, Jeff Gordon third, Kasey Kahne fourth and Kyle Busch finished fifth.

“We had a good car all weekend long so it’s incredibly disappointing to be honest to have such a good car.  Second is decent in this sport, but it still sucks.” Bowyer said.

Heading into the final laps it looked like another repeat from last years race with Johnson, Bowyer and Gordon fighting for the race win.  But Johnson got a great restart with eight laps to go and kept enough space between himself and Bowyer.  Gordon was also unable to make a run on Bowyer for second place in the closing laps.

“Well, we just didn’t need those cautions there at the end. I made a mistake on pit road and got us way behind. But, what an incredible effort for this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet team.” Gordon said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., the points leader heading into Martinsville had some late race contact with Danica Patrick and finished in 25^th, 2-laps down.

Patrick, who went two laps down at one part of the race, battled back onto the lead lap and finished a very respectable 12^th place.

“We obviously went down real early with that spin and then were two laps down at one point.  So I feel that is one of the things that I am most proud about is coming back from two laps down and being on the last lap.   Then grabbing a 12th place finish in the end was good and I think it was the right call to stay out because I don’t think tires were quite worth enough to pit, so it was a good run today.” Patrick said.

Johnson took over the series points standings by 6 points over Brad Keselowski and 12 over teammate Earnhardt Jr.

“We had a great weekend, probably the most calm, relaxed thought-out we’ve had. We really fell back on our experience and stayed committed to that,” said Johnson, who took over the Sprint Cup points lead with the win. “In the race we had to adjust on the fly. The track changed more than we thought it would. And then the 15 (Clint Bowyer) and the 24 (Gordon) showed up and I had my hands full.”

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Kyle Busch held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final restart, ending his 20 race winless streak on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.

Busch beat then leader Tony Stewart out of the pits during the final caution flag pit stops with 14 laps remaining.  On the restart, Stewart spun his tires again, giving Busch a 3-4 car length lead heading into turn-1. Earnhardt Jr. was able to make it around Stewart for second with eight laps to go.

With three laps to go, Earnhardt reports he is losing his brakes and Busch cruises to his 24th career win and the fourth consecutive spring race victory.

“We had some brake problems all race long. I had a great re-start and I ran really great for one lap and the pedal went back to the floor. I just had to pump it up all the way down the straightaway and I didn’t have any front brakes getting into the corner so I couldn’t get in real hard.” Earnhardt said.

Stewart dominated a lot of the race up until the final caution.  He finished third.

“Well, when the caution is for a plastic (water) bottle on the backstretch, it’s hard to feel good about losing that one, I mean. And we gave it away on pit road. So we did everything we could to throw it away; it got taken away from us. That’s the best car I’ve had a Richmond in a long time.” Stewart said.

Denny Hamlin fourth and Kasey Kahne finished fifth.

Greg Biffle finished 18th and has a 5-point lead over Earnhardt Jr. in the series standings

On Lap 320 Carl Edwards was black-flagged for jumping the restart. Stewart on the inside spun his tires, making it look like Edwards had a larger jump than he really did. Stewart was the leader, so Edwards had to do a drive-thru penalty. Stewart was able to stay on the lead lap until Stewart passed him with 28 laps remaining, putting him one lap down.

“This takes a minute to explain so bear with me. I was on the outside and thought Tony Stewart was the leader on the inside. NASCAR told my spotter about three seconds before the restart that the 99 was the leader. They put us on the scoreboard as the leader and I realized I was at a disadvantaged position on the outside land and NASCAR made a little mistake. I got the best start I could and Tony didn’t start or spun his tires and NASCAR black flagged us. I don’t know why they black flagged me. I don’t think it is right and I don’t agree with it. Before I say something stupid because I am real frustrated I would like to go talk to them.” Edwards said.

A caution flag came out with 13 laps to go, giving Edwards the “lucky dog” pass. Edwards was able to battle back to 10th place.

“I would give anything to be able to have that start again and be able to race to the end. That was going to be a heck of a race.” Edwards said.

Jeff Gordon’s disaster of a season continues. Gordon started sixth but had dropped back to mid pack by the 50-lap competition caution flag. On lap 57, Gordon got a little sideways, possible help from the no.43, went up the track got into Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch. Gordon had to pit for tires and repairs and came out 2-laps down in 31st position. Gordon was never able to overcome the laps down and finished 23rd and sits 17th in the series standings.

Kurt Busch also suffered damage but was able to continue on despite a tire rub. On lap 116 Busch spun out on the frontstretch, bringing out the caution flag and he looses a lap. Busch finished 28th.

The series heads to Talladega Superspeedway next week.

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”258″][/media-credit]Mark Martin qualified late and captured the pole for Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series Capital City 400 at Richmond International Raceway with a lap of 128.327 MPH (21.04 secs).

“I tried to get it on the first lap. I really didn’t want to run the second lap. I knew I was going to be close to wrecking and I didn’t want to wreck the car and when he (Rodney Childers, crew chief) didn’t call me off on the first lap, I knew that we hadn’t got it.” Martin said. “I had to buckle down and try to get a little bit more that second lap. It’s just a tribute to everybody that supports us at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing).”

This was Martin’s second pole of the season and the 53rd of his career.

Martin captured his first pole at Richmond 31 years ago.  He also breaks the previous record of the oldest pole winner at Richmond (53 years, 3 months, 19 days).

“I think a lot of guys like to see an old dude like me pull one off every once in a while. It’s pretty cool. Carl’s (Edwards) a good dude. It’ll be there other way around next time probably.” Martin said.

Carl Edwards qualified second, Kevin Harvick third, A.J. Allmendinger fourth and Kyle Busch qualified 5th.

“That is a good lap and we have Ford EcoBoost on the car which is a great product and hopefully this is a top-five or six starting spot. We have a better race trim package than we do a qualifying trim package so I am excited about that.” Edwards said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the final practice session and qualified 10th. Teammates Jeff Gordon 6th, Kasey Kahne 9th, and Jimmie Johnson qualified 27th.

Series points leader Greg Biffle qualified 28th.

“I don’t know what happened there. I just guess we didn’t have the grip we needed. I was probably just a little bit tight in the center I guess and that was all the grip I had. It was all that I could do.” Biffle said.

[media-credit name=”Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”228″][/media-credit]Ryan Newman holds off AJ Allmendinger on the final green-white-checkered restart on Sunday to win the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

The win was Newman’s first of the season, first at Martinsville and the 16th of his Sprint Cup career.

“We were not a dominate race car. Clint kind of cleared out turn one for us and we were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.” Newman said.

“It was just circumstances with the No. 10 there doing what he did. I’m not sure what happened or if he ran out of fuel or had a problem whatever happened.” Newman added.

A late caution flag came out for the stopped No. 10 car driven by David Reutimann. Trying to keep the team in the top-35 in the standings, Reutimann stayed out on the track until the car just quit. NASCAR had already black flagged him he was planning on pitting the next time around, but it was too little to late.

“The thing quit going down the back straightaway, and it shut off. I just didn’t stop there intentionally.” Reutimann said.

Teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were in a door-to-door battle for the race lead with 4 laps remaining when the caution flag came out. It appeared to be a sure bet that one of them was going to bring team owner Rick Hendrick his 200th Cup Series win, but circumstances did not allow it.

Gordon and Johnson did not pit under the final caution. On the first green-white-checkered restart both Gordon and Johnson were on old tires while the other lead lap cars behind them had new tires due to pitting for fuel and tires. Going into turn-1, Clint Bowyer dive bombed underneath Gordon as a result of a hard hit from the then fifth place Ryan Newman. The two cars bumped and moved up the track into Johnson who was on the outside. All three drivers spun and Newman dived low and took over the race lead. Newman then held off AJ Allmendinger for the win during green-white-checkered flag.

Johnson finished 12th and Gordon finished 14th.

“Clint is a friend of mine. He is a great race car driver. It was not like him to do that. He said he got a hit from behind from the No. 39. I didn’t get the best restart. The tires are really old. I spun the tires a slight bit. When I saw him go down to the inside of me I knew we were all in trouble. All I could do was just hold on tight.” Gordon said.

“We just restarted and got going. That inside lane is awfully inviting at times to dive-bomb on people. The No. 15 (Clint Bowyer) threw a dive-bomb in there. I’m sure once he got in there and realized it wasn’t the best idea. It turned me around. It turned the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) around. But it is what it is. It’s short track racing.” Johnson said.

“My frustration and certainly Jeff’s (Gordon) is to be the class of the field all day long and be up front and have something stupid like this take us out is frustrating and we want to get this 200th win for Rick real bad and we could have been 1-2 today easily.” Johnson added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third, Matt Kenseth fourth and Martin Truex Jr. finished fifth.

“The No. 15 dove to the bottom and it’s his right. He was doing what he wanted to do to try and win the race. It’s a green-white-checkered and that’s what you’re going to get here. So I think Clint did what he had to do. It just caused a little bit of trouble on the outside down there and we ran into the No. 24. But I just don’t know what the No.10 was thinking with a broken sway bar and driving around there at 15 mph for two or three laps. Come on pit road; hell, how many laps down are you? Get on pit road. Get out of the race. It shouldn’t have ended like that. It was unfortunate.” Earnhardt Jr. said.

“Those two guys were on 100-and-some-lap tires, so I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty honestly. I just tried to watch what was going on and I slowed way up for the wreck and I think that’s maybe how AJ got there, but I didn’t want to get caught up in a wreck at the end. I knew they were going to restart it.” Kenseth said.

Greg Biffle finished 13th and holds a six point lead over Earnhardt Jr. in the series standings.