By Reid Spencer
courtesy: NASCAR Wire Service

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -March 30, 2008- Hendrick Motorsports flexed its muscles Sunday, but Denny Hamlin’s team made the right call in the pits, propelling the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory in the Goody’s Cool Orange 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.

Taking fuel only to polesitter Jeff Gordon’s four tires and fuel on the final pit stop for both drivers on Lap 388, Hamlin beat Gordon out of the pits for a restart on Lap 394, after Ken Schrader’s Toyota spread oil on the track to bring out the 18th and final caution of the race.

Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards and Casey Mears stayed on the track during the Lap 388 pit stop, but one-by-one Hamlin picked them off. He passed Burton for the lead off Turn 2 on Lap 427 and held it the rest of the way, as the 500-lap race went green to the finish.

As the frontrunners worked through traffic in the closing laps, Gordon passed Burton for second and finished 0.398 seconds behind Hamlin. Burton held onto third, followed Jimmie Johnson (who rallied from a spin on Lap 296) and Tony Stewart. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished sixth and Mears seventh to give Hendrick four of the top seven positions. Jamie McMurray, Edwards and Clint Bowyer completed the top 10.

“You got a clock, baby, you got a clock,” shouted crew chief Mike Ford as Hamlin crossed the line, referring to the grandfather clock trophy that goes to the winner.

The victory was Hamlin’s fourth in the series in 85 starts and the first in his home state. The win also broke a 24-race dry spell prolonged by a streak of rotten luck, the latest installment of which occurred two weeks ago at Bristol when Hamlin’s fuel pickup faltered with him in the lead on a green-white-checkered-flag restart. Hamlin finished sixth.

“It’s the first Virginia win for me, and well, finally the curse is over -- I hope,” said Hamlin, who notched the second win in the series for Toyota. “We’ve had some bad luck these past few weeks. We’ve been so close so many times, and it feels great to finally break through.”

Like Johnson, Gordon lost track position in a mishap. Gordon’s occurred off Turn 4 on Lap 57 when the nose of his No. 24 Chevrolet was nicked during a four-car melee. Gordon restarted 32nd on Lap 65 and began a charge through the field; he regained the lead on Lap 269.

But the last two sets of tires didn’t work well with Gordon’s car. Handling issues and cold, wet track conditions made overtaking Hamlin impossible in the closing laps.

“It came down to pit strategy, and Denny and those guys definitely did the right thing,” said Gordon, who believed at the time that Hamlin had taken two tires instead of none. “I just couldn’t get going on those
last two sets.

“I was trying to figure out why the car had no grip out there the last few laps. Then I got out of the car and realized that we were racing in the rain.”

Adhesion didn’t seem to be an issue for Hamlin, who won the race on old tires after opting for track position on the final stop. Hamlin also survived a mistake on Lap 215 when his car crossed the pit road commitment line on the backstretch, forcing him to pit from the lead to avoid incurring a penalty.

Hamlin restarted 19th on Lap 219 and, like Gordon, charged to the front.

Unlike Gordon, Hamlin stayed there.

Notes: With series points leader Kyle Busch finishing 38th, Burton took over the top spot in the standings by 39 points over Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick. ... Gordon (ninth) and Johnson (10th)climbed back into the top 12 in points as did Hamlin, who moved up seven spots to eighth. Martin Truex Jr. (13th), Matt Kenseth (15th) and Kurt Busch (16th) fell from the top 12. ... Michael McDowell finished 26th in his Cup debut, beating teammates Michael Waltrip (35th) and David Reutimann (39th).

RESULTS

2008 Unofficial Race Results : Goody's Cool Orange 500

1 2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Freight 190/5 500 Running
2 1 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 175/5 500 Running
3 24 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility 170/5 500 Running
4 10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's 165/5 500 Running
5 9 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 155/0 500 Running
6 22 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet AMP Energy / National Guard 160/10 500 Running
7 39 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Kellogg's / CARQUEST 146/0 500 Running
8 5 26 Jamie McMurray Ford IRWIN Industrial Tools 142/0 500 Running
9 27 99 Carl Edwards Ford Claritin 138/0 500 Running
10 12 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet BB&T 134/0 500 Running
11 4 6 David Ragan Ford AAA Insurance 130/0 500 Running
12 11 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 127/0 500 Running
13 29 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Wrigley's Big Red 124/0 500 Running
14 33 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet DEI / Principal Financial Group 121/0 500 Running
15 25 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge McDonald's 118/0 500 Running
16 35 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet Pittsburgh Paints / Menards 115/0 500 Running
17 6 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 112/0 500 Running
18 14 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Yates Racing 109/0 499 Running
19 13 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 106/0 499 Running
20 19 16 Greg Biffle Ford Jackson Hewitt 103/0 499 Running
21 42 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 100/0 499 Running
22 43 40 Dario Franchitti * Dodge Kennametal 97/0 499 Running
23 40 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 94/0 497 Running
24 21 38 David Gilliland Ford FreeCreditReport.com 91/0 497 Running
25 32 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 93/5 497 Running
26 34 00 Michael McDowell Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine 85/0 497 Running
27 23 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV 82/0 497 Running
28 26 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 79/0 497 Running
29 37 10 Patrick Carpentier * Dodge Charter Comm. 76/0 497 Running
30 28 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT 73/0 496 Running
31 30 84 Mike Skinner Toyota Red Bull 70/0 496 Running
32 31 70 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Haas Automation 72/5 495 Running
33 20 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 64/0 493 Running
34 17 21 Bill Elliott Ford Little Debbie Nutty Bars 61/0 492 Running
35 16 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 58/0 483 Running
36 38 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 55/0 471 Running
37 7 49 Ken Schrader Toyota Microsoft Small Business 52/0 467 Running
38 8 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's 49/0 443 Running
39 15 44 David Reutimann Toyota UPS 51/5 441 Out of Race
40 41 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Charter Comm. 43/0 440 Running
41 36 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters 40/0 420 Running
42 3 8 Aric Almirola Chevrolet U.S. Army 37/0 379 Out of Race
43 18 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 39/5 374 Out of Race






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