Backstretch Motorsports

Denny Hamlin may have won the Virginia campaign with a victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, but Jimmie Johnson moved ever closer to a record fourth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship with a runner-up finish at the .526-mile short track.

In a green-white-checkered-flag finish that ended under caution with John Andretti wrecked at the finish line, Hamlin pulled away from Johnson over the final two laps of the Tums Fast Relief 500. As the cars roared off Turn 4 on Lap 501—one lap beyond the scheduled distance—NASCAR simultaneously displayed the yellow and checkered flags when Andretti was unable to drive away. [read more...]

The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings started with drivers bunched closely together points-wise. Three races into the Chase, some are thinking it’s just not going to happen for the ones that seemed so strong coming in.

Going into Sunday’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway, the man everyone is trying to catch continues to be Mark Martin (No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet), as he is 18 points ahead of second-place, Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet), the three-time defending series champion. Martin has posted a series-leading and career-high seven poles plus five victories.

But don’t be fooled, the rest of the top 12 are not letting Martin just walk away with the title. [read more...]

Juan Pablo leaps over competitors to find fourth points position

Pure Mark Martin style - that’s the only way to describe it. He is truly “living the dream” in running for a championship in a Rick Hendrick-owned Chevrolet, a championship that is about the only thing he has not won in his career.

Starting from the 14th position at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Mark Martin opened the 2009 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a victory.

Four of the top five finishers are in The Chase for The NASCAR Sprint Cup.
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The emotion of winning at Richmond International Raceway for Denny Hamlin is finally realised. With tonight’s victory by Hamlin on his hometrack , Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has now totaled 75 victories in NASCAR’s elite racing series.

He also did it in convincing style, battling door-to-door with Jeff Gordon along the way. It was Hamlin’s second win of the season. He won earlier this year at Pocono.

“This is my Daytona 500″ said the FedEx Toyota Camry driver from nearby Chesterfield, Va. “I wanted to win here before I get a 500 win. It’s a good run for our team. It’s how we have run the last few times here and just haven’t got the win. You know, today everything just came together. We had good pit stops and didn’t make any mistakes.” [read more...]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 4, 2009) — With Kyle Busch slamming the frontstretch wall after an unsuccessful attempt to block, Tony Stewart won Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

The victory was Stewart’s second of the season, his second as an owner/driver for Stewart-Haas Racing and the 35th of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. [read more...]

BROOKLYN, MICH. — There’s an old saying in NASCAR racing that goes like this, “To finish first…… first you have to finish.”

Mark Martin has heard that saying many times before and never has it meant any more.

While Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle were running out of gas with just one lap remaining, Martin cruised by to pick up his third win of the season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 27, 2009) – Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway was unpredictable in every way but one. There was a safe bet going in that the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings would shake up a bit, and that is exactly what happened.
Each new wrinkle in the standings offers a new storyline going into Richmond:
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Martinsville, VA – Three-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion Jimmie Johnson scored his first victory of the 2009 season in the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Johnson’s victory came on the 25th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports first-ever NSCS win, also at Martinsville Speedway with driver Geoff Bodine.

An aggressive pass of Denny Hamlin on Lap 485 of the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 gave Johnson the lead Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, and he pulled away to beat Hamlin by .774 seconds. The victory was Johnson’s first of the season and the 41st of his career; he now has six wins at Martinsville—five in the past six races. It was Hendrick’s 18th win at the .526-mile track.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 23, 2009) – Last Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway saw two teammates battle for the win, as Kyle Busch yet again found Victory Lane, this time ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.
It will probably happen again this Sunday.
But this time, watch for two Hendrick Motorsports teammates to toss allegiances aside in the name of victory.
Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are in a class by themselves when discussing Martinsville favorites.
The two have combined for an absurd nine of the last 12 Martinsville wins. Johnson has five during that span to Gordon’s four.

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Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Snickers Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), led five times for a race-high 378 laps en route to a winning performance in Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“This thing really came to life today,” said Busch, who scored his second Sprint Cup win of the season after winning three weeks ago at his home track of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter where you start here. You have to bide your time and take it easy when you have a car that’s good.”

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