‘¢ Denny Hamlin won the Sprint Cup Series Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday from the pole. It was his 15th victory in his 183rd start and his seventh of 2010, the most by any driver. It was the sixth time a Chase driver won in seven Martinsville Chase races (since 2004). Hamlin was the fifth different Chase winner in six 2010 Chase races. He earned his fourth Martinsville victory in his 11th race and has now won the past three. He has scored top-10 finishes in 10 of his 11 Martinsville races and has finished sixth or better in his past nine Martinsville races.
‘¢ Hamlin remained second in the championship standings just six points behind first-place Jimmie Johnson with four races remaining. This is the closest points battle in the Chase with four races remaining. The previous closest Chase race came in 2005 when Tony Stewart led Johnson by 15 points.
‘¢ Hamlin’s previous win came at Richmond in September. Eleven of his 15 series wins have come in the past 48 races.
‘¢ Martinsville has been won from the first-place starting position 19 times, and this was the 34th Martinsville race won from the front row. ‘¢ There have been three short-track winners in six short-track races in 2010 (Hamlin — 3, Kyle Busch — 2 and Jimmie Johnson — 1).
‘¢ Jeff Burton led the most laps (134), but the leader of the most laps has failed to win 10 of the past 14 races at Martinsville.
‘¢ Joe Gibbs Racing posted its 87th series win and 10th of 2010, more than any other owner. This was JGR’s seventh win at Martinsville, tied for fourth all-time with Holman Moody. JGR has won nine of the past 10 short-track races, including the past five.
‘¢ This was the 11th win in 2010 for Toyota. Chevrolet has seventeen, with Dodge and Ford earning two apiece. A Toyota has won four times at Martinsville, all in the past six races and all by Hamlin. The top 10 consisted of five Chevrolets, three Toyotas, one Ford and one Dodge. Ford has gone 16 races without a victory at Martinsville. Dodge has gone 13 races without winning at Martinsville.
‘¢ Mark Martin (finished second) came from a lap down to post his best short-track finish in 2010.
‘¢ Kevin Harvick (third) scored his first top-5 finish in 19 Martinsville races.
‘¢ Kyle Busch (fourth) tied his best Martinsville finish for the fourth time in 12 races.
‘¢ Johnson (fifth) is the only driver to score five top-5 finishes in the six Chase races, all in the past five.
‘¢ Carl Edwards finished eighth in his 225th NSCS career start.
‘¢ Jeff Gordon (20th) ended a streak of top-10 finishes in the past 15 Martinsville races.
‘¢ Elliott Sadler finished 28th in his 425th career NSCS start.
‘¢ Four Chase drivers have not won in 2010: Gordon, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Edwards.
‘¢ Marcos Ambrose (34th) led 40 laps, the most laps he has led in 79 career series races.
‘¢ Dale Earnhardt Jr. led 90 laps, the most he has led in 2010 and tying the most since Richmond in September 2008.(ESPN)(10-25-2010)
