#24-Jeff Gordon took the race lead at lap 360 of the crash filled Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway to win for the first time since Talladega in May, 73rd of his career, 4th of 2005, 7th at Martinsville and sweeping both races at Martinsville for the 2nd time. It is also is crew chief Steve Letarte’s first win as a crew chief. Points leader #20-Tony Stewart finished 2nd and increases his point lead to 15 over #48-Jimmie Johnson, who finished 3rd, with 4 races to go. Rounding out the top-5 were #18-Bobby Labonte [only his 3rd top-5 of the season] and #31-Jeff Burton [only his 3rd top-5 of the season]. Bad day for many of The Chase drivers with six of the 10 finishing out of the top-10 with #6-Martin having the worse day, finishing 34th, 34 laps down after brake problems late in the race. #11-Denny Hamlin, only in his 3rd race, finished 8th for his 2nd top-10 in three total races. There was a track record 19 cautions for 113 [record is 125] and 8 drivers led a lap with 17 lead changes.
For my race rundown, laps led, DNF’s, caution info, Lucky Dogs and some notes, see my Martinsville Race Info/Rundown Page.
