Speedy Delivery: Hamlin Returns to Martinsville Victory Lane

When your trophy "absolutely, positively has to be there overnight", it's nice
to have connections at Fed Ex to get it to your front door (Google Images)

The 2015 Sprint Cup season had been a decent one for Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. However, up until this weekend's race at Martinsville, Hamlin's biggest highlight of the year had been his shouting match with Danica Patrick following the Budweiser Duels at Daytona. But Martinsville Speedway has always been one of Hamlin's strongest tracks; he'd won there four times going into Sunday's STP 500. So this would be a great weekend for the Chesterfield, Va. driver to get his first win of the season.

Speaking of firsts, this weekend was also the first career Sprint Cup Series race for XFINITY Series standout Chase Elliott. Since he will assume the helm of Jeff Gordon's legendary No. 24 Chevy next season, team owner Rick Hendrick decided to run Elliott in a fifth entry for his team on a part-time basis with sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts. With both of these drivers trying to prove something and Kevin Harvick gunning for his ninth consecutive top two finish, there were plenty of reasons to watch Sunday's race.

Joey Logano, who has been stellar in qualifying all season long, started on the pole. Flanked by Ryan Newman's No. 31 car, the field took the green in the last race before a long Easter weekend.

It didn't take long for things to get hectic, as early on Elliott's baptism by fire went south quick. On a restart, Brett Moffitt rear ended Elliott's No. 25 car, which ruined both of these young guns' days before they had even begun. The contact demolished Moffitt's front end and cause some damage to the nose of Elliott's car as well. The wreck cost Elliott his power steering and forced him behind the wall to try and rectify the issue, as well as replace the radiator, around lap 75. While the No. 25 returned to the track, Elliott finished his Cup Series debut in 38th, 73 laps down. Hopefully his next race at Richmond on April 25th goes smoother.


Martinsville was not kind to Chase Elliott (Google Images)

But it wasn't just Elliott who had a bad day at Martinsville. His Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr also had uncharacteristically bad days at a track normally dominated by HMS drivers. Johnson, who has a staggering eight Ridgeway grandfather clocks, battled a loose car from the start of the race and later on, had to stop on pit road so his crew could go under the hood to correct a steering issue. After winning at Martinsville last October, Earnhardt Jr was also looking to have a great day at the Virginia paper clip. However, a loose shifter caused him a major headache through most of the race. Junior said a bad vibration caused the shifter to break off "right at the top of the transmission." It was so bad, his crew actually handed him a screwdriver so he could try and make repairs from inside the car. But the shifter would turn out to be the least of his problems. On lap 228, Junior was collected in a wreck initiated when David Ragan spun Casey Mears. This cause the field to check up behind them and the No. 88 Chevy couldn't get slowed down quick enough.

Hendrick Motorsports was not the only team to have a bad day Sunday. Roush Fenway Racing also had an especially rough day at Martinsville. However, this is not uncharacteristic for what has long been Ford Racing's flagship team. Ricky Stenhouse Jr spun his No. 17 car twice before losing a tire on lap 207 and slamming the wall in turn one. This relegated Danica's boyfriend to a 40th place finish. Trevor Bayne also had a rough go. He spun early on lap 12 after losing a tire and was collected in a few late accidents. But Bayne and his No. 6 team were able to rebound and score an impressive 18th place finish. Roush Fenway's senior driver, Greg Biffle, had a very uneventful day. He wasn't very good, but they also weren't as bad as they have been. The No. 16 came home in 19th, but clearly all three RFR teams still have a ways to go to return to a competitive state this season.

But the best team at Martinsville was clearly Joe Gibbs Racing. Ragan, who is still filling in for the injured Kyle Busch, has been a solid replacement for one of the sport's most dominant drivers. But Martinsville was his best showing yet, as he battled through the pack from a 20th place start to finish fifth on the day. Ragan was one upped by teammate Matt Kenseth. When he drove the No.17 at Roush Fenway Racing, Kenseth never ran especially well at the Virginia short track. But Sunday, the 2003 champion started eighth and came home a solid fourth. But it was Hamlin who led 91 laps and overcame a couple of pit road penalties to win the race and show he still has what it takes to win at NASCAR's shortest track. He held off Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano for the win. They finished second and third respectively.


It was a rough day for Dale Jr (88) at Martinsville too (Google Images)

Keselowski's runner up finish also meant that after leading a staggering 154 circuits, Harvick's streak of consecutive top two finishes ended at a very impressive eight. One other note on the day involved the No. 42 car of Chip Ganassi Racing. Kyle Larson fainted towards the end of an autograph session on Saturday and was taken to the hospital. He is awake and alert and doing just fine (in fact he was released late Monday night). However, he is still awaiting medical clearance to return to the drivers seat. This meant that Regan Smith reprised his role as the go-to substitute driver for Sunday's event. After spinning on lap 286, Smith was stopped in the middle of turns three and four and managed to not get hit b y a single car. This enabled the XFINITY Series regular to come home a solid 16th place in his first start since filling in for Kurt Busch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Danica Patrick also came home a very impressive seventh. This was her fifth career top ten, which ties her with former female driver Janet Guthrie for most top tens by a woman in NASCAR's top series.

This weekend is Easter Sunday, so there will be no NASCAR action till April 11th at Texas Motor Speedway and the Duck Commander 500. This race will be broadcast on regular old FOX (not FOX Sports 1) on Saturday night at 7:30 pm/et on April 11th.