| |  | | CIA Stock Photo | "Finally," Hamlin said. "The curse is over, I hope. We had such bad luck over these last two weeks. It finally feels good to come here and get a win in front of the hometown fans. | | | | TICK TOCK.. | Hamlin wins Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville | |
| | By Fox Sports.com MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Denny Hamlin won the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, but second-place Jeff Gordon was best of show.
Although Hendrick Motorsports teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. (146) and Jimmie Johnson (135) led more laps than Gordon (90), the ability to skillfully maneuver through traffic — once he dropped to the 33rd position following a wreck on Lap 59 and an insurance stop on Lap 72 — to take the lead again on Lap 269 was nothing short of miraculous. Gordon schooled his opponents in Patience 101.
Had it not been for the No. 11 crew's pit strategy and a set of tires that Gordon referred to as "the worse tires I've ever had on my car in my life" that were put on the No. 24 for the final 109 circuits, it might have been a different driver celebrating in Victory Lane on Sunday.
"We had such an awesome race car the first half of the race," said Gordon, who climbed from 14th to ninth in the point standings. "I promise you, if we had to do that the second half of the race, it wouldn't have gone so well. I'm real proud of that. That was a great effort.
"It came down to pit strategy and Denny and those guys definitely did the right strategy. I don't know my car just would never go on that last set, last two sets. It was a handful, Junior got by me and I was just trying to hold on and all of a sudden it started coming to me a little bit. Luckily, there was a real long run there and I was able to get by the 99 and the 31 and make a great effort out of it. I'm just real proud of this (team). They worked hard, we had a great car."
Despite winning the pole, Gordon predicted that Hamlin, who shared the front row, would be a handful on Sunday. He was right. The native Virginian exhibited his own style of heroics after he nailed the commitment line on Lap 215 while leading the race and was forced to pit. Hamlin restarted the race 19th on Lap 219 and had moved up to fifth before the final pit stop of the day.
Realizing that tires weren't a factor after running the Craftsman Truck race on Saturday, the team opted for a gas only stop on Lap 390. The No. 11 Camry rolled off pit road first, ahead of Gordon but behind Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards and Casey Mears, who all elected not to pit. In 37 laps, Hamlin picked off the four competitors, took the point on Lap 427 and with the longest green flag run of the day held the lead to the finish.
"Finally," Hamlin said. "The curse is over, I hope. We had such bad luck over these last two weeks. It finally feels good to come here and get a win in front of the hometown fans. I can't wait. This is a sign of things to come, I believe.
"It's very emotional. You don't come here that often and have opportunities to win races and I felt like we've been very close here in the past. We've run second and third and just not had the car to win at the end. We timed it perfectly. We got to the front when it counted and made the right adjustments to the car. This was definitely not a race-winning car when we started this race, but Mike Ford did a great job of adjusting on it and every on the team never gave up. Finally, back in Victory Lane."
Hamlin not only ended a 24-race winless drought, but he vaulted from 15th to eighth in the point standings. Most importantly, Hamlin has the one trophy he waited for all of his life — the Ridgeway grandfather clock.
"I don't have a place, but I'll probably put it back home in Virginia — that's where it belongs," said Hamlin, who grew up in Chesterfield outside of Richmond. "Probably in the house I grew up in.
"I remember sitting there many times wondering if I would ever get one. Now that I have one, I will be putting it there."
| | Posted March 30, 2008 , 10:37 pm EST
| | | | | | |
