Auto Racing | Denny Hamlin wins NASCAR event at Virginia track

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Denny Hamlin didn't need to do anything odd to exact his revenge from Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville Speedway. He simply drove right by him.

Hamlin also drove away with ease on three restarts over the final 52 laps, ending the three-time defending series champion's remarkable run of five trips to victory lane in the previous six races at the shortest circuit in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.

Hamlin used an out-of-sequence pit stop after about 160 laps to move to the front and held on until the entire leaderboard headed for pit road about 20 laps later in the Tums Fast Relief 500.

"Once we got that track position, our car just kind of took off," he said.

Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., was 25th, Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw was 32nd and Derrike Cope of Spanaway was 42nd of 43.

The finish shaped up as another possible drama involving Hamlin and Johnson, who nudged Hamlin aside with about 15 laps to go at Martinsville in the spring and sailed to victory.

But with NASCAR having implemented double-file restarts since that time, it was no trouble.

"The only difference was it was double-file restarts versus single file and you actually feel a little bit better with him right beside you than behind you," Hamlin said.

Hamlin wound up leading the final 138 laps after passing Johnson, and pulled away after a restart with 52 laps to go, another with 12 laps left and a two-lap sprint to the end.

The final restart was for debris on the track, which Hamlin thought curious.

"It was there in Turn 1," he said of the debris. "However, it was there at Lap 100. It was. I'm not kidding you. It was there. I don't know if there was another piece somewhere."

Johnson said he wished he had the car to reprise his bump-and-run move.

"If I had a chance to pass him and to get to his bumper and work him over, I would have," the runner-up said. "But I wasn't going to come in with the second-place car and take a cheap shot and pass him that way. If I felt like I had a car to win the race, I would have been up there leaning on him some."

Johnson extended his lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin from 90 to 118 points with four races left in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. Biffle is eighth in the Chase standings and Kahne is 11th.