Hamlin gets first win in Va.

MARTINSVILLE — Perhaps the gloomy days are a thing of the past for Denny Hamlin and his race team.
Hamlin, a “moody” sort according to Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs, hasn’t been in good spirits much this season. That all changed Sunday evening when he crossed the finish line first in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Goody’s Cool Orange 500 to win his first grandfather clock at Martinsville Speedway.
The Chesterfield, Va., native braved the cold and misty conditions to break through for his first win in his home state.
“It finally feels good to come here and get a win in front of the hometown fans,” Hamlin said. “I can’t wait. This is a sign of things to come, I believe.”
Hamlin won by .398 seconds over Jeff Gordon. South Boston, Va., native Jeff Burton finished third. Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, Hamlin’s JGR teammate, rounded out the top five.
“The reality is: If he runs well, he’s in a good mood. If he doesn’t, he’s not in a good mood. That’s it. That’s the bottom line,” Gibbs said of Hamlin. “So for him — this is kind of his hometown track — to get his first grandfather clock … and for Mike (Ford, Hamlin’s crew chief) and all the guys, trying to get the monkey off their back, it was special.”
Hamlin’s bad luck seemed to follow him through the season’s first five races. He finished 17th in the season-opening Daytona 500, a race he led five different times, and he was 41st a week later at Fontana.
Even his top 10 finishes — he was sixth at Bristol two weeks ago — seemed like letdowns.
“It’s hard to be patient,” Hamlin said. “When you get so close to winning so many races and something bad happens or some things don’t work out in your favor at the end and you end up losing a win, it’s tough to maintain confidence. Your self-esteem starts going down. It takes its toll on you.
“We had a chance to probably win three in a row here (this season), but just the (previous) two races, we had a lot of problems.”
Hamlin failed to win in his first nine tries on Virginia tracks. His previous best finish at Martinsville was second on Oct. 22, 2006. He is 0-for-4 at Richmond International Raceway, with his best finish coming on May 6, 2006 (second).
He has high regard for Martinsville, a .53-mile paperclip-shaped oval. He raced there five times in Late Model Stock all-star events from 2000-04. He started on the pole for the 2003 Bailey’s 300 and finished third in the race in ’04.
“That was our Super Bowl race was to come here to Martinsville (when I was driving Late Models), so this has always been a big race track to me,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin survived a pit stop blunder on Lap 214 and gained track position when Ford made the final call to not change any of his tires during a Lap 388 stop.
Hamlin was leading on Lap 214 when he decided to go against his crew chief’s wishes and come in. He thought the other leaders would follow him onto pit road, but he was wrong.
“They were telling me the whole time, ‘Stay out. Stay out,’ and I’m the one who steered into the pit,” Hamlin said. “It was just a bad decision on my part. At the end of this one, if that was what cost us the race, it was going to be on my shoulders. Frankly, I didn’t want to have to answer those questions at the end of the race, so I just went out and won it.”
He restarted 19th after the stop but moved his way up to eighth when Ford made the Lap-388 call.
He was fifth on the restart.
“We knew going in that track position was going to be important, and our car was the best it had been right before that last caution that put everybody inside their fuel window. … We had 20 laps on our tires, and I was planning on getting two tires, and Denny felt comfortable without getting any, so we went ahead and opted for just fuel only,” Ford said. “It was kind of a collaboration.”
Hamlin passed Carl Edwards for third on Lap 418, overtook Brian Vickers for second on Lap 420 and took the lead from Jeff Burton on Lap 427. He led the rest of the way, all green flag laps, for his fourth career Sprint Cup victory.
“As long as we keep this good luck on our side right now,” Hamlin said, “then we’re going to be where we belong, and that’s up top.”