Brad Keselowski made a late charge from the second position, but Denny Hamlin held on for his first victory of the season.
Denny Hamlin picked up his first victory of the season at Martinsville Sunday. It was his fifth victory at the track and his 25th overall. After he and teammate Matt Kenseth were on the receiving end of bad luck last week at the Auto Club 400 in California, the two put on strong performances Sunday.
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Hamlin led 91 laps and was able to hold off last week’s winner Brad Keselowski and this week’s pole winner Joey Logano, who is off to a fast start this season.
Keselowski was right on the tail of Hamlin as the race winded down, and it appeared Keselowski might have had the move as they were making their way toward the checkered flag, but Hamlin had just enough to hold off the former Sprint Cup Champion.
Logano led the second most laps of the race overall, having spent 108 laps out in front. Kevin Harvick, who picked up another Top-1o finish, and continues to be almost untouchable on the track, led the most laps with 154.
Harvick would finish eighth overall on the day.
It was a good day of racing for David Ragan, who is driving for the injured Kyle Busch. Ragan finished fifth on the day and picked up some big points for the No. 18 car.
With Martinsville being a short track, there was a lot of bumping as drivers looked to make moves on the track.
As a result, there were wrecks that led to drivers losing front ends, tires and many parts of their car. Jimmie Johnson had the hood of his car taped up after a wreck and would finish 35th overall.
His teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. had no front end at all after a wreck, and had to drive without one the rest of the way. Earnhardt would finish right behind his teammate Johnson, and ended up finishing 36th.
It was also a day of bad luck out on the track for other drivers.
Paul Menard came in a little too hot around a turn and slammed into the back of Logano, and ended up getting turned sideways on the track, which brought out a caution and had many other drivers getting out of the way.
Jeff Gordon had his share of bad luck as well.
Gordon who appeared to have a shot at making a push at the end, sped a little fast in zone five of the pits, and was forced to come back around, which put him at the back of the pack.
Remarkably, he was able to work his way back up with 36 laps left and finished ninth overall.
While there were wrecks and cases of bad luck on the track, some drivers had strong showings on Sunday.
Danica Patrick, was as high as second on Sunday, and finished seventh overall. Even more impressively, during the wreck involving Paul Menard, she made an incredible maneuver not to slam straight into the side of Menard, and instead was able to get around him and avoid causing a bigger wreck on the track.
It was another strong day on the track for Martin Truex Jr., who led 23 laps and finished sixth.
For Hamlin, he now will take part in the chase, where he will have a chance to compete for a Sprint Cup Championship.
He has proven to be successful at Martinsville before, and now he has proven it again with another big victory on Sunday.
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