In a brazen last-minute nudge, Jimmie Johnson pushed Denny Hamlin out of the way to win the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 on Sunday for his sixth win at Martinsville Speedway.
The bump, which shoved Hamlin to the outside of the track with only 15 laps left, was the culmination of a heated battle between Johnson and Hamlin and caused both men to nearly lose control of their racecars.
It was also typical of the aggressive, high-contact style of racing at Martinsville, which at .526 miles is the shortest track on the Nascar Sprint Cup circuit.
“Before I knew it I was up on the curve and we made contact and were sliding sideways,” Johnson said, adding that he did not intentionally bump Hamlin’s car. “I was just trying to get there and get the win.”
Hamlin, who won at Martinsville last year, said there were no hard feelings, even as he insisted the bump was intentional.
“It’s short-track racing—that’s all the fans could ask for right there,” Hamlin said. “We tried to do our best to hold him off. You fight for every inch around this race track, and he got the better of us [Sunday]. If the roles were reversed, I’d do the same thing—and, believe me, I will if it ever comes back around.”
Tony Stewart ran third, followed by pole-sitter and series points leader Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer. Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., A.J. Allmendinger and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top 10.
On the 25th anniversary of Rick Hendrick’s first victory, Jimmie Johnson kept the winning feeling coming at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday.
“We fought for that one all day long,” Johnson said after scoring his sixth victory at Martinsville and his first win of the season. “It’s special to win for Rick on his 25th anniversary.”
“We didn’t have an easy day today,” Johnson said. “We had to stay together as a team, work through a lot of changes, a loss of track position to make the car better and fight for the front, count on pit stops, count on good driving. It took a team effort today.
“We’re in a great position this year. Last year, we had to fight all season long to catch up. Fortunately we did in time for the Chase. This year we’ve had very fast race cars and have been making mistakes. I’ve made mistakes. The team has made mistakes. The last two or three weeks we’ve really not made any big mistakes and have hit our stride and got to Victory Lane.”
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