Johnson wins Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500

MARTINSVILLE — Rick Hendrick’s afternoon began with a celebration of his 25 years in NASCAR.

It ended with another celebration, this one in Victory Lane.

The veteran car owner watched as one of his drivers, three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, powered past Denny Hamlin 16 laps from the finish and won Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Hendrick was honored in pre-race ceremonies commemorating the 25th anniversary of his first victory in NASCAR’s top series, which came at Martinsville with Geoff Bodine at the wheel.

Sunday’s win was Hendrick’s 18th on the 0.526-mile paper clip-shaped oval, the shortest track on the Sprint Cup schedule. It was also Johnson’s first win of the 2009 season and his sixth at Martinsville. He has won five of the last six Cup races at Martinsville and has finished in the top 10 in 14 of his 15 career starts here.

“We didn’t have an easy day today,” Johnson said. “We had to stay together as a team and work through a lot of changes, a loss of track position to make the car better and fight to the front, count on pit stops, count on good driving. It took a team effort today, so I’m very proud of that.

“And at the end, when I was trying to get back by Denny, it was in my mind that it would be awfully special to win for Rick here and win (on) the 25th anniversary of his first win. So it’s hard to put one above the other. I’m leaning toward the fact that it’s the 25th anniversary, though.”

All four Hendrick drivers finished in the top 10. Jeff Gordon was fourth, Mark Martin was seventh and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wound up in eighth.

Gordon, who started from the pole for the eighth time in 33 career Martinsville starts, had the dominant car early. He pulled away from Kurt Busch and led the first 43 laps and 127 of the first 140. That enabled him to move into fifth place on the all-time lap leader list at Martinsville.

But Hamlin reeled him in and took the lead for the first time on lap 156, then held the top spot for the next 187 circuits.

Johnson, meanwhile, climbed steadily through the field, moving from the 18th position on lap 125 up to eighth by the halfway point, and then into third by lap 375.

Finally, on lap 429, Johnson beat Hamlin out of the pits and moved into the lead for the first time all day.

But, on a lap 455 restart, Hamlin dove to the inside of Johnson and needed less than a lap to move back in front. Johnson remained on his bumper, waiting for an opening that finally came 16 laps from the finish. Johnson nosed his Chevrolet inside Hamlin’s Toyota in Turn 3 and regained the lead in Turn 4, then began pulling away. Just five laps later, he led by a full second. The final margin of victory was 0.774 seconds.

“I just took my time,” Johnson said. “I felt like I was a little bit better than the No. 11 (Hamlin) on the long haul, and I was able to stay with him and get closer and closer. I went into Turn 3 and got inside of him and just started racing. I think he was trying to not leave me a lot of room, which is what you do. Before I knew it, I was up on the curve and we made contact and (started) sliding sideways. It certainly wasn’t something intentional. I was just trying to get in there and get the win. I was in there and he was coming down and made some contact. Thankfully, neither one of us spun out and he was able to recover and finish second.”

In hindsight, Hamlin admitted he might have taken a more conservative approach.

“Maybe if I look back and use my head, I don’t pass him on that restart,” he said. “Maybe I just do the same thing he did, ride behind him till about 10 to go, make the move on him and make sure that we get the win. But I saw an opportunity on the restart to take the lead, and I felt like that was the best place to be. Because I thought I was going to be able to pull away from him once I did get out front. But our car didn’t come in very good on the restart and he was able to stick with me.”

Stewart, who was Hamlin’s teammate at Joe Gibbs racing before leaving at the end of the 2008 season to form his own team, was trying to become the first owner-driver to win since Ricky Rudd accomplished the feat in 1998.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” Stewart said. “Obviously, we didn’t have the caliber of Denny and Jimmie and Jeff today, but we were close. Our teammate (Ryan Newman) had a good day, finished sixth, so I’m proud of our day. We’re inching up closer, and we’re not quite exactly where we want to be yet, but six weeks into (the season) I’m really proud of where we’re at.”

Gordon now leads the Sprint Cup points standings by 89 over Clint Bowyer, who finished fifth.