Hamlin wins for 25th time, and 5th time at Martinsville
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Denny Hamlin passed teammate Matt Kenseth for the lead with 28 laps to go Sunday and went on to end Toyota's 32-race winless streak in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.
The driver for Joe Gibbs Racing held off a five-lap, bumper-to-tail challenge from Brad Keselowski for his 25th career victory and his fifth at the smallest and oldest track in the premier series.
The victory also came after a terrible blunder by four-time series champion and eight-time Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon. He took the lead for the first time with 58 laps to go and then got caught entering pit road too fast when the 16th and final caution came out with about 40 laps to go.
''Wow. I'm sorry guys,'' he said on the radio. ''That's on me. I apologize.''
Kevin Harvick's streak of top-two finishes ended at eight. He had the lead for 154 laps, but ended up finishing eighth.
Danica Patrick finished seventh, recording her fifth career top-10 result.
Here's the top 10:
- Denny Hamlin (47 points)
- Brad Keselowski (43)
- Joey Logano (42)
- Matt Kenseth (41)
- David Ragan (39)
- Martin Truex Jr. (39)
- Danica Patrick (37)
- Kevin Harvick (38)
- Jeff Gordon (36)
- Jamie McMurray (34)
- With files from theScore
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