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Jimmie Johnson was able to hold off a hard charging Brad Keselowski to snag his first victory at Martinsville since 2013. Johnson was able to battle back from adversity to grab his 9th victory at Martinsville tying Jeff Gordon on the All-Time Wins List at Martinsville.
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The Joe Gibbs trio that sandbagged last weekend in Talladega didn't this weekend with Matt Kenseth leading a majority of the race but he ended up the day in 4th. Carl Edwards was the only one out of the three who didn't finish on the lead lap. He made hard contact with the outside wall and had some major damage causing one of the final cautions. Edwards would have to take his #19 Sports Clips Toyota behind the wall, Edwards would finish 36th, 23 laps down. Denny Hamlin was able to hold onto a 3rd place finish after a very weird controversial mess that we will discuss next. Kyle Busch finished 5th, his 15th Top-5 finish of the 2016 Season.
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At lap 357, Controversy began as drivers were completing their service on pit road, Carl Edwards brought out the Caution making things very interesting for the rest of the field and left NASCAR in a state of confusion trying to decide who was a lap down and who wasn't. At the restart their were only ten cars on the lead lap. Hamlin came out as the leader but Hamlin protested the fact that cars passed him under the caution flag including Kevin Harvick to gain their lap back when they weren't supposed to which just caused a massive state of confusion everywhere. We still don't know if NASCAR got everything correct but we can only speculate on what happened and agree with the calls NASCAR made and move onto Texas to send another driver to Homestead unless someone else can play spoiler.
The Motorsports News Source Driver of The Week
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At the end of the day Jimmie Johnson is the first driver to punch his ticket to Homestead and the discussion of a 7th Championship cannot be avoided now. With is victory, Jimmie Johnson has also won The Motorsports News Source Driver of the Week Award. Jimmie was able to overcome many issues early in the race and land in the right spot at the right time amidst the controversy. Johnson at one time was out of fuel but switched over to the AUX Box to snag just enough fuel to where he didn't have to pit while Pit Road was closed like AJ Allmendinger. A stressful day paid off in the end for Johnson.
Results from Martinsville
- 48 - Jimmie Johnson
- 2 - Brad Keselowski
- 11 - Denny Hamlin
- 20 - Matt Kenseth
- 18 - Kyle Busch
- 88 - Jeff Gordon
- 78 - Martin Truex Jr.
- 1 - Jamie McMurray
- 22 - Joey Logano
- 47 - AJ Allmendinger
- 5 - Kasey Kahne
- 24 - Chase Elliott
- 16 - Greg Biffle
- 42 - Kyle Larson
- 43 - Aric Almirola
- 31 - Ryan Newman
- 3 - Austin Dillon
- 95 - Michael McDowell
- 21 - Ryan Blaney
- 4 - Kevin Harvick
- 13 - Casey Mears
- 41 - Kurt Busch
- 6 - Trevor Bayne
- 10 - Danica Patrick
- 27 - Paul Menard
- 14 - Tony Stewart
- 34 - Chris Buescher
- 15 - Clint Bowyer
- 38 - Landon Cassill
- 7 - Regan Smith
- 83 - Dylan Lupton
- 93 - Matt DiBenedetto
- 32 - Jeffrey Earnhardt
- 44 - Brian Scott
- 46 - Michael Annett
- 19 - Carl Edwards
- 23 - David Ragan
- 55 - Reed Sorenson
- 30 - Gray Gaulding
- 17 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Next Race for The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Everything is bigger in Texas and with NASCAR coming off a very hot Goody's Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville, some drivers will certainly need a Goody's Fast Relief including Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch who both had some heavy words about today's race and for his teammates. Kurt Busch just felt off the whole day while Kyle Busch hated racing against his teammates while letting Jimmie Johnson go out and win. NASCAR is also in the spotlight for the placement before the final restart and be sure to stay tuned to The Motorsports News Source for any updates or "Clearing Up" that gets released from not until Texas next weekend!
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