All Right- I am going to take back all the bad things I have ever said about Denny Hamlin after watching him at Martinsville this past weekend. It wasn’t the fact that he charged through the field and passed Jeff Gordon for the lead after Gordon dominated the first portions of the race. It wasn’t Hamlin’s domination of the race after that point either (He led the most laps, 296 of them). It wasn’t his brilliant restart late in the race where he retook the lead from Jimmie Johnson who appeared from nowhere at the front of the pack. It was Hamlin’s cool demeanor after the race that I liked.

Unlike some of my previous entries here, I am going to give praise where praise is due. I’m not going to talk about Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch or Jeff Gordon which should come to the delight of so many that read this.

Much has been said lately about Denny Hamlin and the fact that he wants to win races. He reminds people that early in his career when he was in a position to win a race he did just that and that more recently he would lose races he should have won, rather than the other way around. He has apparently made it clear that he is going to close the deal and win. At Martinsville he certainly appeared to be on his way until Jimmie Johnson’s crew got him out of the pits first after a caution flag flew for a Jeremy Mayfield spin with less than 75 laps to go. Much earlier in the race, Johnson was mid pack and apparently struggling.

Hamlin got a shot back at the lead with about 44 laps left on a restart and made a spectacular move, in tandem with team mate Kyle Busch, the first car on the inside line, to get past Johnson to retake the lead. Johnson stayed right with Hamlin and it was clearly a two dog show as Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer were following but were clearly were not in the leader’s league this particular Sunday. With less than 20 to go Johnson was right on Hamlin’s bumper and with 15 to go, as they entered turn 3 Johnson dove inside Hamlin, hit the curb, got crazy sideways and shoved Hamlin way up the track. Hamlin had to stop to maintain control and Johnson was able to stand on the gas and head down the front stretch with the lead as Hamlin gathered up his car and tried to keep Stewart from taking second. It was not a ‘bump and run’, it was a shove, a wreck that did not happen, and there was no finesse involved what so ever.

After the race when the media got to talk to Hamlin I expected him to be furious and much to my chagrin, he was not. “We were fortunate to get back position on them. I got a good restart there on Jimmie (Johnson). They just got us on pit road, and we had to battle back. That’s short track racing. That’s all the fans could ask for right there. We tried to do our best to hold him off, and you fight for every inch around this race track. He got the better of us today. If the roles were reversed, I would do the same thing. And believe me, I will if it ever comes back around.”
He was then asked what he would say to Johnson, “‘Great race.’ I battled with the 24 (Jeff Gordon) the same way earlier in the day. The same way. We were bumping back and forth. I had to nudge a lot of guys to get around them at points today. It’s hard for me to fault him for that. With 20 (laps) to go, that’s part of racing. It really is. It’s short-track racing at its best.”
Johnson said, “I just patiently worked away at him and got in an area where I could try to out brake him and get into position in turn three. I got in there alongside of him and he kept coming down to go to the inside line. We made some contact. I think I went up over the curve. We were both sideways. Fortunately nobody tore anything up. You know, just a close moment. I think it’s really tough, short track racing. I think Denny was trying hard to protect his lead, winning in his home state.”
So there is my feel good story of the weekend. We had us a short track barn burner with some mid level boredom during the middle portions. What I can’t believe is that the place was not sold out and that we only race like that twice a year. Next week we’re in Texas where we race on a 1.5 mile tri-oval??? Yawn….