The Hendrick Motorsports exercised its muscles Sunday, but the equipment of Denny Hamlin made the correct decision in pits and impelled to the 11 no. Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the victory in the race of Glass Sprint of NASCAR, the Goody's Cool Orange 500 in the Martinsville Speedway.
When only combustible taking by the four rims and fuel of the winner of the position of privilege in the last shutdown in pits for both pilots in return 388, Hamlin won to Gordon when leaving pits for the resumption in return 394, as soon as the Toyota of Ken Schrader let oil in the track to cause 18ª and last yellow flag of the race.
Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards and Casey Mears remained in the track during the shutdown in pits of return 388, but it beat them one by one to Hamlin. It escaped to Burton by the leadership when leaving curve 2 in return 427 it maintained and it until finishing, when the race to 500 returns was in green until the end.
As those of ahead drew for the traffic in the last returns, Gordon escaped to Burton by the second place and finalized to 0,398 seconds behind Hamlin. Burton remained in the third place, followed of Jimmie Johnson (who recovered after I spin a top in return 296, and Tony Stewart. Dale Earnhardt Jr finalized sixth and Mears seventh to give Hendrick four of the first seven positions. Jamie McMurray, the Edwards and Clint Bowyer closed the 10 first.
“You have the clock, man, you have the clock”, shouted the group leader Mike Ford when Hamlin crossed the line, with reference to the trophy of the clock standing up that occurs to the winner.
The victory was fourth of Hamlin in the series in 85 startings and first in its native state. The triumph also broke a bad gust of wind of 24 races prolonged by the bad luck, and the last one of these was two weeks ago in Bristol when the fuel pump of Hamlin failed when being to the front in the resumption in square flag green-yellow-to. Hamlin finalized sixth.
“It is the first triumph in Virginia for me, and good, finally the curse finished - I hope”, said Hamlin, that registered the second triumph in the series for Toyota. “We had something of bad luck in the last weeks. We were so close often, and one feels very well to free that”.
Like Johnson, Gordon lost the position in track by an incident. The one of Gordon happened when leaving curve 4 in return 57, when the tube of its no. 24 Chevrolet was struck during an accident of four cars. Gordon reinitiated in 32 in return 65 and orchestrated an attack by all the contingent; it recovered the leadership in return 269.
But last the two games of tires did not work well in the car of Gordon. Problems with the maneuverability and conditions of cold and humid track did that Hamlin was impossible to escape in the last returns.
“It was defined by the strategy of pits, and Denny and the others definitively made well the things”, commented Gordon, that thought then that Hamlin had changed two rims instead of no. “It could not advance with those two last games”.
“It tried to decipher the reason for which the car did not have takes hold in the last returns. Soon I left the car and I realized that we were running in rain”.
It seems that the adhesion was not a problem for Hamlin, that gained the race with old woman rims after to decide on position in the track. Hamlin also survived an error in return 215 when its car crossed the line of entrance to the track of pits in the back straight line, forced which it to enter pits from the leadership to avoid to incur a penalty.
Hamlin reinitiated in 19 in return 219 and, like Gordon, it attacked the front.
Unlike Gordon, Hamlin maintained its position.
Notes: Because the leader in the scores, Kyle Busch, finalized 38º, Burton was appropriated the first place in the positions with an advantage of 39 points on its coequipero in the Richard Childress Racing, Kevin Harvick. … Gordon (ninth) and the Johnsons (10º) were strained again to the 12 first in the scores, like Hamlin, that seven positions to be in eighth. Martin Truex Jr (13º), Matt Kenseth (15º) and Kurt Busch (16º) fell of the 12 first. … Michael McDowell finalized 26º in his debut in Glass Sprint and overcame to his coequiperos Michael Waltrip (35º) and David Reutimann (39º).

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