| By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
October 24, 2005
12:21 PM EDT (16:21 GMT)
Pit story of the race Jeff Gordon got a tremendous break when Mark Martin's brake problems brought out the yellow with just 65 laps to go. Gordon got the lead by staying on the track on the Lap 343 caution and was about to have to pit under green for fuel, but Martin's problems enabled Gordon to pit under the caution.  |
| Inside the Chase |
| Standings after Martinsville |
| Pos. |
Driver |
Pts. |
Behind |
| 1. |
T. Stewart |
5,957 |
-- |
| 2. |
J. Johnson |
5,942 |
-15 |
| 3. |
R. Newman |
5,894 |
-63 |
| 4. |
G. Biffle |
5,874 |
-83 |
| 5. |
C. Edwards |
5,808 |
-149 |
| 6. |
R. Wallace |
5,791 |
-166 |
| 7. |
M. Martin |
5,787 |
-170 |
| 8. |
Ku. Busch |
5,785 |
-172 |
| 9. |
M. Kenseth |
5,785 |
-172 |
| 10. |
J. Mayfield |
5,741 |
-216 |
|
|
 |
At first, it seemed like the caution would allow Stewart to leave the pits with the lead, but Gordon got a great stop and beat Stewart out of the pits. It is interesting to note that crew chief Steve Letarte was able to make the bold call to stay out on Lap 343 because he knew the team had little to lose. Gordon was running fourth at the time, and staying out enabled him to leapfrog over title contenders Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Rusty Wallace, all of whom employed a more conservative strategy. "We were fortunate to get a yellow and we were fortunate enough to be in a position to make those aggressive calls," said Letarte, who was in just his fifth race as Gordon's crew chief. "Our goal coming here was to win and anything short of a win, we probably would have been a little disappointed. Gordon said his car handled differently in clean air, even on older tires. "If we hadn't got out front, I don't know if we could have ever won that race," said Gordon. "Once we did get out front, though, we took advantage of it and the thing was flying." Labonte bounces back after speeding penalties Bobby Labonte might have become the first driver to score a top-five finish after accruing two speeding penalties. Labonte, who's fourth-place finish was his first top-five since July, was nabbed early in the event and was caught again as the race wound down. Labonte took the blame for the first offense but said the second occurred because of a transmission problem. "You barely lay on the throttle and you're going faster than you should be going," said Labonte. "So, I screwed up twice. So, to come back fourth is really pretty good." Hamlin handled the pits like a veteran It couldn't have been easy for rookie Denny Hamlin to get on and off Martinsville's treacherous pit road all day, but he handled it well. The Busch Series hasn't run at Martinsville, so it's not like Hamlin had a lot of experience with pitting with 42 other cars around him. Hamlin said he gained spots every time he hit pit road, which is also impressive since his crew hasn't had a lot of opportunities to service the No. 11 Chevy with a top-10 on the line. "We got two or three cars every pit stop and finally worked our way into the top 10 again," said Hamlin, who finished eighth for the second consecutive week. Quotable "We did pit with 150 to go thinking that we may be able to go the rest of the way, but had such a long run there and just burned off all our tires and brakes and stuff more than everybody else. When they came in we just decided to follow with them." -- Kyle Busch, who finished ninth in just his second Martinsville start "I just screwed up and got back up there and then screwed up on pit road." Jeremy Mayfield, who was one of several drivers caught speeding on pit road on Sunday at Martinsville. | 
