MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- All season long, they've been the odd men out in their own race organization.

But for a while Sunday during the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway, there was no one better than either Mark Martin or Dale Earnhardt Jr. Martin never led a lap and eventually finished second to race winner Denny Hamlin, but he was coming hard at the end, running faster laps than anyone else. Earnhardt eventually faded to seventh, but not before he energized the crowd by leading 90 laps.

“

Hey, I gave 'em something to think about. I'm old, but I'm not that old. Man, that was fun. This is what I live for.

”

-- MARK MARTIN

So in a season when they have been consistently outrun by their two teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, four-time Sprint Cup champions Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, this was finally a day when Martin and Earnhardt also took their turns at shining.

Martin was all smiles when he climbed out of his No. 5 Chevrolet afterward -- despite limping noticeably and rubbing his aching left knee, a chronic pain which he described as "no big deal." When a pit crew member from Kyle Busch's race team congratulated him, the 51-year-old Martin beamed.

"Hey, I gave 'em something to think about. I'm old, but I'm not that old," Martin said.

He didn't look old at all on the final lap, when he was the fastest competitor on the track -- making the .526-mile circuit in 21.12 seconds. Hamlin's last lap was timed at 21.20 and Kevin Harvick, who finished third, was clocked at 21.44.

So Martin was coming. He just didn't have enough time to get to the front.

"I want to thank all the fans for coming out [Sunday]. I think they saw a great race. Another 20 laps and I think they would have seen a really great race," Martin said.

Earlier, Earnhardt turned some heads of his own by taking a rare turn at the front of the field. He led more laps Sunday than he had in the first 31 races of the season combined -- during which he led in only four events for a total of 71 laps.

"We got toward the front on some pit strategy that worked out really good and then we had a good enough car at the time to pass the guys that were around us. They had a little less tire than we had," Earnhardt said. "A lot of things worked in our favor to get us the lead, then we came out on the pit stop in first and held it all the way until the next caution.

"The No. 31 [car of driver Jeff Burton] was coming but I felt like if I held my line just perfectly, I was actually a little bit better than him at that point. ... I felt good at that point."

After the next round of pit stops, however, Earnhardt said his No. 88 Chevrolet "got real tight" and he started losing spots until the car loosened up later in the run, when he could at least hold his ground again.

"I was just in the way for a while there," Earnhardt said. "It was tight on restarts -- but after 20 or 30 laps, we'd start rotating and we could either keep up or be a little bit better than the guys around us."

That enabled him to post a seventh-place finish that was his best since finishing fourth at New Hampshire six races ago. He has only two top-10 finishes in his past 13 races and hasn't won since June of 2008 at Michigan -- 89 races ago.

But he did say afterward that he believes Sunday was something he hopefully can build on.

"Well, this isn't quite good enough. We have to run way better than this. ... But I feel pretty confident. That is how I feel. I'm not saying that is reality," Earnhardt said.

Martin, meanwhile, has dealt with his own series of problems this year. But he now has finished in the top six in two of the past three races -- and, boy, did he have fun at the end Sunday. In the beginning of the race, well, maybe not so much because of a brake issue he had to battle.

"It was basically just a fast race car. It got better and better the longer we raced," Martin said. "We started having hot brakes at Lap 30, so we couldn't run that hard. The whole last 100 laps, we could only run hard until they got soft -- and then I had a pretty good feel of how to keep 'em about right there. We've got a tore-up race car and everything else, but it worked out.

"Man, that was fun. This is what I live for."

Neither Martin nor Earnhardt has won this year, but Martin said he thought that was going to change for one of them earlier in the race.

"Junior did run well. I was thinking at one time that I might be congratulating him afterward in Victory Lane," said Martin, whose own winless streak is now at 41 races.

In the end, neither of them made it there -- and neither is a factor in the Chase. Martin moved up one spot to 14th in the point standings and Earnhardt remained mired in 19th. But they had fun for a change, and that much Earnhardt could appreciate.

"I love short track racing and I love coming here," Earnhardt said. "This place has a lot of history. I have a lot of respect for it. I used to not understand how to get around here and then I have been pretty good here for a long time. I feel pretty confident that when I come here I can run good.

"I like racing here and I like this style of racing. You kind of have to get over a lot of things out there that happen, and then you have to stand your ground in a lot of cases. It's an active day and a lot of fun."

Martinsville Video:
• Post-race reactions | Press Pass: Martin