3/30/2008

Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, led the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) contingent at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway by winning Sunday’s Goody’s Cool Orange 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.  It was Hamlin’s first win of the 2008 season, his first at Martinsville and the fourth victory of his Sprint Cup career.  It was also the 60th Sprint Cup win for JGR.  

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for JGR, finished fifth to score his third top-five of the 2008 season.

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota for JGR, finished a disappointing 38th after mechanical problems forced him to the garage for repair, causing him to lose several laps.  He finished the race, but completed only 443 of the 500 laps.

Despite the result, Busch remains the lead JGR driver in the championship point race, but his 38th-place finish dropped him from first to fifth, 84 points behind new series leader Jeff Burton.  Stewart and Hamlin occupy the sixth and eighth positions, respectively, making JGR the only team to have three drivers within the top-eight in points.  Stewart is 20 markers behind Busch and 104 points out of first, while Hamlin is 157 points arrears Burton.

Finishing .398 of a second behind Hamlin was pole-sitter and seven-time Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon.  Burton crossed the stripe in third, while Jimmie Johnson and Stewart rounded out the top-five.  Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 18 caution periods for 89 laps, with four drivers failing to finish the 500-lap race.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the April 6 Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.