Denny Hamlin holds off Jimmie Johnson for Martinsville win

MARTINSVILLE — Denny Hamlin felt a little déjà-vu in the closing laps at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

After the caution flew on lap 485 for a small piece of debris out of the groove on the front stretch, Hamlin had his Martinsville nemesis Jimmie Johnson on his outside on the ensuing restart and memories of Johnson moving him out of the way for the win in the spring.

However, Hamlin’s car was just too good on that restart and the following one as the Chesterfield native pulled away from the field to win the TUMS Fast Relief 500.

“You know, you actually feel a little bit better with him being on the outside of you than you do right behind you on a restart,” Hamlin said, “… if I can clear him, then he’s going to have to deal with the guy running in third, and it looked like they were kind of mixing it up a little bit, so that helped me stretch it out a little bit.”

Hamlin led a race-high 206 laps, including the final 139, on his way to sweeping the fall Virginia short track races. He won at his home track of Richmond on Sept. 12. It also capped off a weekend Virginia sweep at the track after Danville’s Timothy Peters won Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200.

Juan Pablo Montoya continued his strong season with a third-place finish Sunday. Kyle Busch rebounded from a 41st-place starting position to finish fourth, and Jeff Gordon came home fifth.

The race’s longest green-flag run — 136 laps from lap 307 to 443 — set the field apart as Johnson broke away from the field until Hamlin caught him on lap 363. Hamlin not only passed Johnson, but built a healthy lead as both were battling lapped traffic and the race’s only round of green-flag pit stops.

A caution on lap 444 erased Hamlin’s near 4-second lead and gave Johnson the chance to win his third consecutive race and seventh overall at the 0.526-mile oval.

“I had one chance,” Johnson said of the opportunity to pass Hamlin. “He caught the curb with about 40 to go and lost the drive off of (Turn) 2. I thought, ‘Man, I’ve seen this movie before.’ I got inside of him and he came to block the position like he did in the spring and I thought, ‘Man, I didn’t try to hit him last time.’ I wasn’t in there far enough to stay in there like I did in the spring. So, I backed out of it and I think I actually hit the curb and screwed up my line.”

Hamlin and Johnson have been the class of the Sprint Cup Series at Martinsville, combining to win the past seven races here. Hamlin won his second race while Johnson has taken the checkered flag five times.

Despite finishing second, Johnson finished in the top five for the ninth consecutive race at Martinsville, and in the process, increased his points lead to 118 over Mark Martin with four races left in the Chase. Gordon is 150 points back in third. Hamlin jumped one spot up to ninth, but he remains 352 points behind Johnson.

Scott Speed was sent into the Turn 2 wall on lap 494, bringing out the race’s 15th and final caution. If history were to repeat itself from the spring, Johnson would need to get a good run on Hamlin, who earlier in the race struggled to get his car up to speed on the restarts.

“I was pretty excited,” said Montoya, who lined up third for the final restart. “I thought they were going to run a little bit wide and give me a little bit of room. Denny was pretty clean and it’s just we’re not fast enough to be honest.”

Ryan Newman and Mark Martin finished seventh and eighth, respectively, and both finished the season with top 10s in all six short-track races.

Hamlin’s win was the third of the season — the most in any season for him — his seventh overall and second at Martinsville.

“I told Mike (Ford, his crew chief) at the beginning of the race, I said, ‘Let’s just get back in the top five in points,’” Hamlin said. “It’s a shame for us to be 11th in points as competitive as we’ve been … we’ve been there every single week.”

w Sordelett is a staff writer for the Danville Register & Bee.