Multiple restarts can’t halt Hamlin’s domination

MARTINSVILLE, Va. | Denny Hamlin didn’t need to do anything funny to exact his revenge from Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville Speedway. He just drove right by him.

And then he drove away with ease on three restarts over the final 52 laps, ending the three-time defending series champion’s remarkable run of five trips to Victory Lane in the previous six races at the shortest circuit in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

Hamlin used an out-of-sequence pit stops after about 160 laps to move to the front, then held on up there until the entire leader board headed for pit road about 20 laps later.

“Once we got that track position, our car just kind of took off,” he said.

The finish shaped up as another possible drama involving Hamlin and Johnson, who nudged Hamlin aside with 15 laps to go at Martinsville in the spring and sailed off to an easy victory.

But with NASCAR having implemented double-file restarts since then, it was no trouble.

“The only difference was it was double-file restarts versus single file, and you actually feel a little bit better with him right beside you than behind you,” Hamlin said.

He wound up leading the final 138 laps after passing Johnson and pulled away after a restart with 52 laps to go, another with 12 laps left and then a two-lap sprint to the end.

The final restart was for debris on the track, which he thought was curious.

“It was there in turn one,” he said of the debris. “However it was there at lap 100. It was. I’m not kidding you. It was there. I don’t know if there was another piece somewhere.”

Johnson said he wished he had the car to reprise his bump-and-run pass of the spring.

“If I had a chance to pass him and to get to his bumper and work him over, I would have,” he said. “But I wasn’t going to come in with the second-place car and take a cheap shot and pass him that way. If I felt like I had a car to win the race, I would have been up there leaning on him some.”