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Subway 500 - Martinsville Speedway
Johnson Captures Third Straight Martinsville Victory
Jimmie Johnson might have his teammate Jeff Gordon's number at Martinsville Speedway.
He beat him again here Sunday. It was almost a repeat of this year's first race here when Johnson held Gordon off at the finish, but Ryan Newman passed Gordon a few laps from the finish to take second place.
After grousing over his team radio about Newman's pass, Gordon ended up third, barely edging one of his other Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Busch in a green-white-checkered finish that ended a record day of cautions for this tough old track.
A record 20 caution periods for accidents slowed the field for one-fourth the race distance but Johnson and Gordon were the class of the field most of the day.
Johnson and Gordon finished one-two in a fender-rubbing finish this spring at Martinsville. At several points during the race Sunday, Rick Hendrick's stable of cars ran one-two-three. Hendrick-prepared cars have won eight of the last 10 Martinsville races.
Matt Kenseth finished fifth, Denny Hamlin was sixth and Greg Biffle seventh. Juan Pablo Montoya was eighth and led the race for several laps. Clint Bowyer was ninth and Kevin Harvick 10th.
Gordon battled back from the rear of the field after having to make an extra pit stop for a loose lug nut. His third-place finish kept him atop the point standings in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. His point total of 6,055 is 53 ahead of Johnson, 115 ahead of Bowyer and 249 ahead of Tony Stewart.
Gordon took off from the pole position like he owned Martinsville and had begun lapping cars when Robbie Gordon blew a right front tire and hit the wall in Turn 1 on Lap 44.
When the race resumed after pit stops on Lap 49, Gordon was still in front. His No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet sailed around like it was glued to the half-mile oval.
Johnson passed Gordon for the lead on Lap 108. A few laps later, Aric Almirola's car started smoking and a caution flew when he stopped on the backstretch with flames erupting from the engine compartment. The fire was quickly extinguished
Gordon Stays Hot, Wins Martinsville Pole
In a case where the rich get richer, the hottest driver on the circuit, points leader Jeff Gordon won the pole position for the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Gordon captured his 63rd Bud Pole in 505 career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup starts with a qualifying lap of 19.938 seconds, at an average speed of 94.974 mph.
This is his seventh pole in the 2007 season and his sixth top start in 30 races at Martinsville Speedway.
Martin Truex Jr. posted the second-fastest qualifying time with a lap of 19.988 seconds, at an average speed of 94.737 mph.
This is Truex’s 13th top-10 start of 2007 and his first of better than 15th in four Martinsville races. He tied his
career-best start set at Chicago and the second Loudon event.
Kevin Harvick qualified third, posting his 10th top-10 start this season and his fifth top-10 start in 13 Martinsville
races. This is his first start of better than fifth here.
Jimmie Johnson, second in the Chase standings, posted his series-leading 22nd top-10 start of 2007 after qualifying fourth.
Five of the 12 Chase drivers qualified in the top 10; Gordon, Truex, Harvick, Johnson, and Kyle Busch in sixth.
John Andretti (15th) was the fastest of the drivers required to make the field on time while David Reutimann (19th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.
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