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IN-CAR: Hamlin reacts to battle with Johnson
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Two drivers who have mastered Martinsville Speedway were at it again here Sunday, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin charging hard into the tight turns of the tiny half-mile, rubbing sheet metal and trading paint.
Johnson added to his collection of grandfather clocks, winning the race and the iconic timepiece for the ninth time. But not without a fight from Hamlin, the Virginia native who has five career wins at Martinsville, himself.
Hamlin, one of four Joe Gibbs Racing teams to advance to the Round of 8 in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup, finished third after leading nearly 50 laps earlier in the day, trailing Johnson and Brad Keselowski (Team Penske) across the finish line.
Johnson will advance to Homestead-Miami, one of four drivers who will be competing for the title. Hamlin has ideas of his own, and races at Texas and Phoenix in the coming weeks to secure his own spot among the Championship 4.
On Sunday, the two were racing for the position when contact occurred just shy of the 200-lap mark in the 500-lap Goody’s Fast Relief 500.
"My side is that he really put us in a bad spot at New Hampshire on a restart for 13th or 15th or something," Hamlin said of the earlier Chase race. "About wrecked us, pretty much. So I voiced my displeasure with him after the race. …
"I raced him hard for the lead … which is a big, big difference, at Charlotte. I think that Chad (Knaus, crew chief of the 48) and those guys were frustrated with me and how I was holding those guys up for the lead. But it is the lead."
The position and timing were different this time out, Hamlin said, noting that the battle was for seventh and it was still in the first half of the race.
"He just wasn't wanting to give up the spot," Hamlin said, adding that he had "ran him down from the back of the pack basically.
"It was just costing both of us time. It was frustrating both of us. I gave those guys many, many laps to give us the position before I had to move him."
Johnson, the six-time series champion, was nonplussed by the reaction from his fellow competitor.
"Man, I'm out there to win," he said. "I got accused of racing hard? I'll take that as a compliment."
It was a day for overcoming obstacles for Hamlin, whose saw his golf cart "wiped out" Sunday morning and learned his car had fallen off a jack while undergoing pre-race prep.
Then, there was yet another speeding penalty in the early stages of the race and the battle with Johnson. Even the latter portion wasn't without a bit of concern, as Hamlin and JGR teammates Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth tried to reel in Johnson.
It was a battle that sealed their collective fate, according to Busch.
"You can't wreck each other and that's all there is to it, I guess," said Busch, who finished fifth. "We worked so good together that we gave the 48 car the win today. That's how good JGR is."
But Hamlin said none of the three was going to catch the leader, and "nobody was on my rear bumper at the end of the race.
"Someone's upset; I think it's just because we all had a top‑three car during the end of the race and we ended up three, four, five," he said. "That's never happy."