Jimmie Johnson Wins Martinsville
Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville on Sunday. The win locks him into the final four in The Chase for the championship.
Let's recap the Chase situation. Coming into the Martinsville race, there were four events to go for the season. Those being three races with the final eight battling for the final four spots. Then those four racing for the championship at the fourth and final race.
Johnson's win guarantees a final four for him. The other three that he will contend with at the final championship race at Homestead-Miami are yet to be determined now over the next two races.
Johnson is a six time Sprint Cup Champion. He is going for an all time most titles tie with seven time champions Richard Petty and Dale Earnhrdt, Sr.
Johnson's win came as a surprise based on happenings early in the race. A couple different contacts caused extended repair time on pit road. But he later was able to overcome it all.
The race had an usual twist when NASCAR had to sort thru a confusing scoring problem. We are talking serious sorting out, like nearly 30 laps of caution for almost a half hour. This was all triggered when Carl Edwards blew a tire during pit stops under a green flag.
Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex, Jr. dominated the race leading 176 and 147 of the 500 laps respectively. Race winner Johnson led 92 circuits on the half mile.
Brad Keselowski came in second, Denny Hamlin third, Kenseth settled for fourth and Kyle Busch fifth. Take a look at where your driver came in.
And I think the largest story of Sunday's race was the guy who came in sixth place. I'm talking about Jeff Gordon. It very well could be his final race.
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