Lap 500--Hamlin hangs on for his second victory at Martinsville. Johnson second, Montoya third, Kyle Busch fourth and Gordon fifth.
Lap 494--Caution again. Scott Speed hits the wall between turns 1 and 2. Not over yet. Montoya will start on the inside. Could get interesting.
Lap 489--Strong restart for Hamlin. It's his to lose.
Lap 485--The debris looked like it was a piece of rubber "about the size of a pop tart," according to one press box denizen. It was sitting on the inside groove just beyond the start-finish line. We all feel safer now that it's been removed. Here's the order when we resume: Hamlin, Johnson, Gordon, Montoya, Newman, Stewart.
Lap 483--Caution for debris on the frontstretch. Here we go.
Lap 476--The leaders will should hit lapped traffic before it's through.
Lap 472--If it stays green -- a big if -- I don't think anybody catches Hamlin here.
Lap 469--Gordon snags third from Montoya. We'll see if he's got anything for his teammate.
Lap 459--Hamlin has maintained a two-length edge on Johnson. Montoya third, Gordon fourth.
Lap 448--Hamlin, Johnson, Montoya, Vickers, Gordon will lead them to the green flag.
Lap 443--Andretti spins in turn 2 to bring out the caution.
Lap 441--Hamlin has a 2.5-second lead on Johnson. Montoya third.
Lap 436--Hamlin pits. Will update the leaders when it cycles through.
Lap 433--Here comes Johnson into the pits. He's the first of the leaders to go down under the green here. Montoya and Martin join him...Here comes Gordon, too.
Lap 413--Hamlin has put tons of space between himself and Johnson.
Lap 394--About time for one of those dubious "debris" cautions, don't you think? Maybe that fan will chuck his mayonnaise bottle on the track. Speaking of fans, I've noticed a severe drop-off in Dale Earnhardt Jr. gear being worn by people here. This placed used to be a sea of red (and later green, when he switched sponsors), but there's only a smattering now. He still gets the loudest cheers in prerace introductions, but fewer are hitching their wagons to a guy who's currently three laps down. Purely unscientific research here, of course.
Lap 379--No change in the leaders: Hamlin, Johnson, Montoya, Martin. We're getting to the point where double-file restarts that were supposed to enliven the action might really be a factor.
Lap 367--For all you Allmendinger fans out there -- and really, who isn't an Allmendinger fan? -- there's good news and bad news. The good news: He's back on the track. The bad news, he needs 87 "lucky dogs" to get back on the lead lap.
Lap 363--Hamlin gets the lead from Johnson. For a moment, Johnson looked like he was going to try to take it back immediately, but he's backed off now. Montoya and Martin are in third and fourth, respectively.
Lap 353--Lapped traffic has allowed Hamlin to catch up to Johnson. They're nose-to-tail. Still not sure if Denny has the better car, though.
Lap 338--Kahne is six laps down and running in 34th. Safe to say his championship hopes are officially over.
Lap 328--While we watch Johnson pull away by a dozen car lengths, let's tell you who's out of the race: Robby Gordon, Joe Nemechek, David Gilliland, Dave Blaney, Michael McDowell, Derrike Cope and Travis Kvapil. I propose that, after Johnson wins this thing, we allow that bunch to step into UCars and give us an interesting wreck-fest.
Lap 320--In a stunning turn of events, Reutimann was unable to hold the lead. One guess who has it. Yep, Johnson. Hamlin should be passing Reutimann for second here in a bit.
Lap 305--David Reutimann stayed out during that last caution, so he'll lead them back to the green flag. Johnson in sixth, Martin seventh and Hamlin eighth.
Lap 287--Montoya is right on Johnson's tail but can't make the pass. I'm liking that guy more and more. He reminded me of Manny Ramirez with some of his answers in the media center on Friday. Remember when Manny ticked off all those Red Sox fans when he implied that losing a playoff series wouldn't be the end of the world? That's sort of what Montoya said: He lost a bunch of points at Charlotte last week, but he doesn't care. He's going all out and leaving the rest for others to judge. He's certainly been impressive today (although Gordon might use a different word for it after their early back-and-forth).
Lap 275--We have confirmed that there is a gentleman chugging mayonnaise in the grandstands. Actually, we're speculating that it is Jell-o shots contained in a squeeze mayonnaise bottle, but whatever. You see some strange things at Martinsville. What you don't see is anybody other that Johnson win. Still time for somebody else to step up as Johnson leads the field. PROVE ME WRONG, KIDS! PROVE ME WRONG!
Lap 260--Whaddya know...Johnson leads at Martinsville. Martin is in second.
Lap 259--Allmendinger evaluated and released from infield care center.
Lap 252--A.J. Allmendinger's day looks like it's done after he's wrecked in turn 2. The wrecker is out, but he's out of the car and walking around.
Lap 241--Nearly halfway home and the leaders are all prominent names: Hamlin, Johnson, Montoya, Martin and Kyle Busch. That's not unusual here. This is a tough place for second-tier teams to break through.
Lap 217--Jeff Gordon's working hard to try to get back in the top 10. He's in 13th now. Johnson's up to third. Hamlin still leads.
Lap 210--Kasey Kahne spins in turn 2 to bring out the yellow. Been an up-and-down Chase for the 29-year-old Kahne, who has three top-10 finishes and two finishes of 34th or worse. He entered the race in ninth place, 331 points behind Johnson.
Lap 206--My dream finish would pit Montoya against Johnson side-by-side in the final laps, with Mark Martin stalking in third. The ex-Formula 1 ace wouldn't be shy, that's for sure.
Lap 202--Kyle Busch has snared the lead for the moment, with Hamlin in second. Johnson is in fifth and you can bet he'll find the front in the next 100 laps.
Lap 199--There are empty seats here, but the crowd is actually a little bit better than what I thought it would be. The reduced-price tickets helped fill in the unsightly gaps between turns 3 and 4 that we've seen here before. Those look terrible on TV.
Lap 183--Denny Hamlin has the lead after some pit shuffling. He's always strong here and is the only guy not named Jimmie Johnson to win at Martinsville in the past six races. Vegas listed his odds today at 7-to-1. Johnson was at 2.5-to-1 and Jeff Gordon was 3.5-to-1.
Lap 180--A few news items from the track today as we wait out caution No. 6 of the day: Martinsville Speedway announced that the Southern Virginia Higher Learning Center will now produce the grandfather clock trophy that goes to the winners. Also, track president Clay Campbell announced a three-year contract extension to keep Pepsi as the official soft drink of the speedway.
Lap 178--Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks like he'll be a nonfactor once again. Early problems have left him in 34th place, two laps down of the field.
Lap 164--How about Juan Pablo Montoya shakin' things up with some aggressive early driving against Jeff Gordon? And then he actually PASSED Jimmie Johnson for the lead. Are you really supposed to do that here?
Good for him. Montoya looks pretty strong about 150 laps in, and the dent in the right side of the car is proof that he's willing to do what it takes today. We'll see what happens.
-- Aaron McFarling
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