Jimmie Johnson Wins Grueling 2007 Martinsville Chase Race

Hendrick Motorsports drivers have dominated at Martinsville Speedway in recent years. Today's 2007 Subway 500 was no exception as Hendrick drivers won the pole, lead the most laps and scored the win. Jimmie Johnson had his car working well for each of the race's 21 green flags and claimed the win on a bump-and-grind Martinsville afternoon.

Qualifying

Jeff Gordon is currently leading the points and has won the last two NEXTEL Cup races. He kept his hot streak alive by winning the pole for the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Fellow Chasers Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick qualified second and third. Jimmie Johnson came into the race second in points and has the best chance of catching Gordon for the Championship. Johnson won here in the spring and started today's race from the fourth position.

Non-Chaser Kasey Kahne rounded out the top five.

Drop Of The Green

The top five jumped in line on the first lap as everybody drove to the bottom of the race track. Jeff Gordon lead the first lap and extended his point lead. Gordon went on to lead the first 108 laps of the 500 lap race until his teammate Jimmie Johnson took over the top spot and lead the race for a while.

These two Hendrick Motorsports drivers along with teammate Kyle Busch were the story of the early part of the race. No one else seemed to have anything for team Hendrick during the early part of the race.

Storylines

This race never got into a flow as the 2007 Subway 500 set a new race record for cautions. There were 21 caution flags spanning 127 laps. Drivers that had their cars set up for short runs were able to stay up front. Drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. had their cars set up for long runs and were not able to make progress during the race's many restarts.

Chasing The Checkers

Different pit strategies shuffled the running order through the middle part of the race. However when we headed towards the finish the Hendrick Motorsports team was back in control again. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch were running one-two-three as teams were setting up for the finish.

The final round of pit stops came under caution with 100 laps to go. Jeff Gordon won the race off pit road and was in control of the race until Jimmie Johnson tracked him down and got a run with about 40 laps to go and took the lead.

The final restart came down to a green-white-checkers finish. Jimmie Johnson had the lead over non-Chaser Ryan Newman for the single-file restart.

Johnson had his hands full with Newman but when the caution flag flew one final time the race was over.

Top Ten

1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Ryan Newman
3. Jeff Gordon
4. Kyle Busch
5. Matt Kenseth
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Greg Biffle
8. Juan Pablo Montoya
9. Clint Bowyer
10. Kevin Harvick

The Points

There was not a lot of movement in the Chase standings this week since ten of the twelve Chase drivers finished in the top thirteen positions. Martin Truex Jr. finished 19th and Kurt Busch finished 31st to be the only Chasers to finish back in the pack.

The top twelve are now:

1. Jeff Gordon
2. Jimmie Johnson -53
3. Clint Bowyer -115
4. Tony Stewart -249
5. Carl Edwards -288
6. Kyle Busch -290
7. Kevin Harvick -369
8. Denny Hamlin -374
9. Jeff Burton -406
10. Kurt Busch -420
11. Martin Truex Jr. -447
12. Matt Kenseth -462

Next Week

Next week the Chase moves from one of the slowest NEXTEL Cup race tracks to one of the fastest. Atlanta Motor Speedway awaits NASCAR's stars next Sunday afternoon. When the series was here in March Jimmie Johnson scored the win. Can his Hendrick Motorsports team pick up another victory and further cut into Jeff Gordon's Chase lead?