MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Attention potential race track entrepreneurs:
If anyone is planning to build a new speedway in the near future just take a blueprint of Martinsville Speedway and copy it.
Once again the smallest track on the Sprint Cup Series schedule provided the biggest excitement of the year with Sunday's thrilling Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500.
The duel between Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin over the last 100 laps had the crowd on its feet -- and roaring with delight at the lap 484 move that got Johnson around Hamlin for the lead -- proving that in NASCAR racing size definitely does not matter.
"That's short-track racing," said Hamlin, who came up short of a second straight win at his home track after Johnson made a daring move with 16 laps to go for the win. "That's all the fans could hope for right there. He got the best of it today. I would have done the same thing if I'd been in that position, and believe me I will if it comes back around."
Spoken like a true short-track racer and Hamlin certainly fits that bill. He grew up on the short tracks of the southeast, winning regularly around his home state of Virginia before moving up to NASCAR's top level.
So it's no surprise that when the Cup Series rolls into bullrings like Bristol or Richmond or Martinsville that Hamlin usually shines.
"I don't know. I'm just better on short tracks, I think," he said. "It's just typically, you know, last year we scored the most points on short tracks. ... It's what I've got the most time on, all my career, you know, since I was a kid. I've been racing on tracks shorter than a half- a-mile. Once you figure out how to win, you know what to go back to."
The old adage of "rubbin' is racin'" came from short-track wars like the one on Sunday and Johnson, who continued his mastery of the tiny .526-mile oval Sunday with his fifth win in his last six Martinsville starts, wouldn't have it any other way.
"I don't know how Denny got inside of me on that one restart," Johnson said of a return to green-flag racing with 45 laps to go that looked like it would be the winning race move. "I had a little bit better car on the longer run. I set him up and set up him and he tried to put the squeeze on me. He ran me down there on the curb and we slid up. He did a heck of a job of saving it. I thought I was going to lose it, too.
"That was just a fun day."
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| Jimmie Johnson owns the short track at Martinsville. (AP) |
Johnson's sixth career win was car owner Rick Hendrick's 18th triumph at Martinsville, a mark even he can't explain.
"Well, first, it's nothing about me," Hendrick said. "You know, I have very little to do with it. It's the organization."
The organization has evolved into one of the premier teams in the sport's history and the Martinsville win 25 years ago with Geoff Bodine driving and legendary crew chief Harry Hyde making the calls is credited with launching the dynasty.
"Harry Hyde started it," Hendrick said. "He loved this place. I told some folks, I've been coming here since I can't even remember with my dad and Ray Hendrick, modified cars, getting Petty's autograph in turn four through the fence. You know, it's a special place. But I think over the years we've had guys that just try to figure it out. Jeff (Gordon) came up to me in Victory Lane and he said, 'I really wanted to win this for you today, but Jimmie's the man.'"
Indeed he was on Sunday with his first victory of the season and a reminder that even though the three-time champion has gotten off to a relatively slow start this season, anyone that underestimates the 48 team in 2009 is making a huge mistake.
"You know, you can't take things for granted," Johnson said. "We're very relieved to get the first one of the season. Hopefully there are many more to come. I think it's a huge confidence booster for the new guys that are on our race team.
"It's a confidence booster for [crew chief] Chad [Knaus} and I. We didn't have an easy day today. 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."
And a little good, old-fashioned, short-track racing muscle as well.
