Denny Hamlin took his seventh win of 2010 at Martinsville, holding off Mark Martin in a Chase round that kept the title fight open.
The 2010 TUMS Fast Relief 500 was a Sprint Cup race at Martinsville on 24 October 2010, won by Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing. It was the sixth race of the Chase and the thirty-second of the season, and Hamlin's win moved him to second in the championship.
The 2010 TUMS Fast Relief 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on 24 October 2010 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Denny Hamlin won for Joe Gibbs Racing, with Mark Martin of Hendrick Motorsports second and Kevin Harvick, who started 36th, third. It was the thirty-second race of the season and the sixth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
What was the 2010 TUMS Fast Relief 500?
The race was contested over 500 laps on the short oval, which is 0.526 miles long and has four turns banked at eleven degrees. Its front stretch, where the finish line sits, and its back stretch are both flat. Martinsville is one of five short tracks that hold NASCAR races, and it can accommodate about 63,000 spectators.
Hamlin's victory was his seventh of the 2010 season and his fifteenth in his career. It also gave him a third straight win at Martinsville, and it left him second in the Drivers' Championship, six points behind Jimmie Johnson.
A 500-lap short-track race in which Hamlin's pole, patience and late pass for the lead turned a volatile Chase round into his third straight Martinsville win.
How did the points stand before the race?
Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 5,843 points, and Hamlin was second with 5,802. Kevin Harvick was third on 5,766 points, while Jeff Gordon was fourth, seventy-nine points behind Harvick. Kyle Busch was fifth, and Tony Stewart sixth with 5,666 points.
Matt Kenseth was eleventh and Clint Bowyer twelfth, both within reach of a strong result at Martinsville. Hamlin was also the defending race winner, having won the 2009 running.
In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet led with 230 points. Ford, with 145 points, was twenty-three ahead of Dodge in the fight for third, and the Toyota brand sat forty-five points behind Chevrolet.
How did practice go at Martinsville?
Three practice sessions were held before the Saturday race. Stewart was quickest in the first session, ahead of Hamlin and Juan Pablo Montoya. In the second session Brad Keselowski was fastest, with Bowyer and Harvick close behind.
Biffle was the quickest in the final session with a time of 19.799 seconds, and Burton and Bowyer followed with 19.866 and 19.867 seconds. Those times showed how tight the field was, since most of the leading drivers were within a few tenths of one another. The session times were close enough that little separated the top group.
How did qualifying set the grid?
Forty-eight cars entered qualifying, but NASCAR's procedure allowed only forty-three to race. Hamlin took his ninth pole of his career with a time of 19.518 seconds, and Marcos Ambrose joined him on the front row.
Biffle qualified third, Ryan Newman fourth and Montoya fifth. Johnson, one of the Chase contenders, had to settle for nineteenth, while Harvick started 36th. Johnson's championship lead was on the line, so his climb through the field mattered as much as any result that afternoon. Michael McDowell, Johnny Sauter, Robby Gordon and Terry Cook failed to qualify, and Dennis Setzer withdrew from qualifying.
Hamlin explained afterwards that he had worked all day to win the pole, because the first pit stall could set the tone for the race. He said he planned to lead the most laps and win, like every other driver on the grid.
How did the race begin?
The race started at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and was televised live on ESPN. Before the pace laps, Robby Gordon replaced Kevin Conway in the No. 7 car, and Eddie Barton of Raceway Ministries gave the invocation while the Winston-Salem State University band played the anthem. The weather was sunny and the air was around 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius). The temperature was forecast to peak at 76 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) during the afternoon.
Hamlin got away quickly and moved ahead of Ambrose down the front straight, which made the pole sitter's start a strong one. Montoya, who had started fifth, was seventh by lap 5 and fell further as the first laps went on. Ambrose took the lead on lap 11 by passing Hamlin, and by lap 21 he had a 0.9 second lead over the second car.
Harvick, who had started 36th, was up to twenty-seventh by lap 23. Hamlin dropped back to eleventh within thirteen laps, and Landon Cassill went to the garage with brake trouble on lap 28.
David Gilliland also went to the garage on lap 46. The first caution came soon after, when Travis Kvapil's tire blew and he hit the wall. Raines won the free pass under caution, and the leaders pitted.
Who led during the early cautions?
Casey Mears stayed out during that caution and assumed the lead. He pitted on the next lap and handed the lead to Newman, who won the race off pit road. Newman led the field to the green on the lap 53 restart.
Harvick was eighth by lap 60, and Dave Blaney took his car to the garage on lap 77 with brake problems. Burton then moved through the field, passing Biffle for fourth and then Ambrose for third.
Burton soon passed Newman for the lead, and he was out in front when the restarts came. The front of the field changed hands several times in the first half of the race, and no single car pulled clear for long. Hamlin also moved forward, passing Stewart for tenth and then Harvick for fifth on lap 104. Six laps later he passed Ambrose for fourth.
How did the middle cautions change the order?
A second caution came after Elliott Sadler spun in turn two. He was held for two laps for intentionally causing it, and Robby Gordon won the free pass under that caution. Most cars pitted for tires and fuel.
At the lap 116 restart Burton stayed in front, but Johnson passed Ambrose for ninth. Ambrose then blew a tire after contact with Johnson, bringing out the third caution. Burton led the restart on lap 126 and then the lap 137 restart, while Ken Schrader was spun by a tap from Mears.
Harvick moved past Reutimann for third and then past Newman for second. Gordon went past Biffle for eighth, and Bowyer took tenth from Biffle on lap 151.
The fifth caution came out on lap 170 when Truex stopped at the entrance to pit road. Raines won the free pass under that caution, and Burton led the field back to green on the lap 176 restart.
What happened at the lap 200 restart?
Burton led the restart on lap 200, but Hamlin moved past Harvick for second on the next lap. The lap 200 restart showed how quickly the leaders could be overtaken, as Hamlin and Harvick traded second place twice in a few laps. Earnhardt Jr. then passed Newman for sixth, and Harvick re-passed Hamlin for second on lap 205.
A caution for Paul Menard followed, and the field restarted on lap 214 with Burton and Harvick battling. Harvick took the lead briefly, and Burton retook it seven laps later as the race moved toward the halfway point.
On lap 224 Stewart passed Kurt Busch for tenth. Another caution followed when Mark Martin crashed on the front stretch after a bump from Allmendinger, and Jeff Gordon led the field to the green on lap 232.
How did the late restarts shape the race?
Reutimann spun after contact with Keselowski on the next lap, bringing out the tenth caution. Gordon led the restart on lap 246, and Martin made a pit stop for a flat tire and went two laps down.
Newman lost his rear gear on lap 250 and took his car to the garage. Stewart passed Montoya for fourth six laps later, and Earnhardt passed Kyle Busch for fourth on lap 258.
Earnhardt took the lead on lap 285 by passing Gordon. An eleventh caution came out two laps later for Yeley, who had a brake problem on the backstretch, and Earnhardt led the restart on lap 293.
Ambrose got loose on lap 305, spun and hit Sam Hornish Jr., and both cars went into the outside wall. Both returned to pit road, so no caution came out. By lap 312 Burton was up to third, and he later passed Gordon for second.
What changed in the closing stages?
On lap 331 Hamlin passed Johnson for eighth. A twelfth caution came out on lap 348 when Biffle spun with a flat tire, and Earnhardt led the restart on lap 356.
Hamlin passed Carl Edwards for seventh on lap 373. By lap 382 Earnhardt had fallen to fourth after passes by Burton and Johnson, and Gordon and Kurt Busch clashed in a caution that followed.
From lap 422 Martin began a long climb through the field. He passed Kurt Busch for twelfth on that lap, then Montoya for eleventh, and by lap 437 he was ninth. He passed Edwards for eighth, and on lap 456 Hamlin re-passed Burton for second.
Later on, Martin passed Earnhardt for seventh. On lap 472 Hamlin took the lead by passing Harvick, and by lap 481 Martin had moved up to fourth after passing Kyle Busch. Five laps later he passed Burton for third.
How did Hamlin take the win?
Hamlin had fallen to eleventh early in the race, but he worked his way back to the front. He took the lead on lap 472, then built a gap that he held through the rest of the race.
On lap 492 Ambrose had a flat tire but made it to pit road safely. The victory margin was two seconds, a gap that Hamlin built after taking the lead on lap 472. With four laps remaining Martin passed Harvick for second, and Hamlin finished with a two-second advantage over the car in second place.
It was Hamlin's third straight win at Martinsville, and it came in the Chase round where the title fight was being decided one race at a time.
| Finish | Driver | Team | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Pole sitter; seventh win of 2010 and his fifteenth career win |
| 2 | Mark Martin | Hendrick Motorsports | Second, after a charge from the middle of the field |
| 3 | Kevin Harvick | Richard Childress Racing | Started 36th and finished third |
Why did the result matter?
The win moved Hamlin up to second in the standings, a position that kept his title hopes alive heading into the last four races, and it gave him his third consecutive race win at Martinsville and his seventh of the season.
The Manufacturers' Championship moved too. Chevrolet kept its lead, forty-two points ahead of Toyota and eighty-seven points ahead of Ford, with four races left in the season.
The fifteen cautions and twenty-four lead changes among thirteen drivers made the race a volatile one. The late charge from Martin showed that a Chase round could change hands until the final laps, and the field was close enough for the championship picture to shift again.
