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Jimmie Johnson Wins Goody's Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville

Jimmie Johnson won his first race this season at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, making for the perfect celebration of Hendrick Motorsports' 25th anniversary of their first Sprint Cup win. Although starting the race from 9th place, the 3-time Sprint champion advanced slowly up the field and eventually got the best of Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin to clinch the Goody's Pain Relief 500.

The win, Chevrolet's first in the Sprint Cup this season, seemed quite unlikely in the first part of the race, as teammate Jeff Gordon seemed to be in total control of the race. However, the current leader in the point standings failed to keep his pace throughout the entire Sunday afternoon, allowing local favorite Hamlin to take over from mid-race on.

Johnson recovered track positions lap after lap in the final section of the race, as he came to trail Hamlin for the win with 16 laps to go. It was then when Johnson decided to pull an overtaking maneuver over the Gibbs driver, passing him on the inside and never looking back. Gordon would eventually end his Martinsville trip with another Top 5 result, as he got to the chequered flag in 4th place, behind team owner/driver Tony Stewart.

“I just took my time. I felt like I was a little better than [Hamlin] on the long haul and I was able to stay with him and get closer and closer, went into turn three and then got in the side of him. It was just hard racing. I think he was trying not to give me a lot of room, which is what you do, and before I knew it I was up on the kerb and we made made contact and turned him sideways. Sure it wasn't something intentional. I was just trying to get in there and get the win,” said Johnson.

“We were fortunate to get back the position after I got a good restart there on Jimmie. But he just got us on pitroad and we had to battle back and that's short-track racing. That's all the fans can ask for right there. We tried to do our best to hold him off. You fight for every inch around this racetrack and he got the better of us today. If the roles were reversed I'd do the same thing and believe me I will if it ever comes back around,” admitted Hamlin.

This year's two-time race winner Kyle Busch had a miserable day on Sunday, which started with trying to overtake Scott Speed in the early stages of the race. He lost control of his car in the process and paid tribute to the poor balance of his Toyota ever since, finishing the race 2 laps down to Johnson in 24th place.

Gordon extended his lead in the overall classification to 89 points (to Clint Bowyer), while Johnson's win (176th of Hendrick Motorsports in the Sprint Series) lifted the Chevy driver all the way into 4th place.
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