Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets first Martinsville win

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson may be the masters at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway among the Hendrick Motorsports driver stable, but another Hendrick driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., took the checkered flag in the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville on Sunday. It was Earnhardt’s first-career win at Martinsville.

“I grew up in a house with a grandfather clock from this place,” Earnhardt said, noting the grandfather clocks awarded as trophies at Martinsville. “This is very special to me. I love racing here.”

Gordon finished second to be the highest-finisher among the eight drivers still in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and give Hendrick Motorsports a one-two finish on the 10th anniversary race weekend of the plane crash that claimed the lives of 10 Hendrick friends, relatives and employees on their way to Martinsville Speedway in 2004.

“A 1-2 finish is the best way you can pay tribute to them,” Gordon said.

Tony Stewart, along with David Ragan and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., stayed out during a yellow flag that followed the second red flag of the race with about 10 laps to go.

“To me, it was a no-brainer,” Stewart said of the call to stay out. “If we were in that position a hundred times, that’s the choice I’d want to make. I’d rather be in that position a hundred times over.”

Earnhardt, after pitting, moved up to second on the restart, and after a physical battle with Stewart, took the lead.

“I just had to get real aggressive under Tony,” Earnhardt said. “I’m sure he would’ve done the same thing.”

Gordon followed Earnhardt through for second. Ryan Newman also got by to finish third. Stewart finished fourth for his first top-five since his return to racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend.

Jamie McMurray led the way early after starting on the pole. Gordon took the lead from McMurray on lap 85 and maintained his lead until a pit road speeding penalty during a caution on lap 189.

“We got behind,” Gordon said. “I made a mistake speeding on pit road.”

Gordon wasn’t the only Chaser caught speeding on pit road. Brad Keselowski and Newman also were handed pit road speeding penalties.

As Gordon raced his way back toward the front, Earnhardt ran consistently among the frontrunners and leading several laps. Gordon was back into the top-10 by a caution on lap 228 and was up front to battle Earnhardt for the lead on a restart that followed a lap 294 yellow flag.

A pit road speeding penalty wasn’t the end of Keselowski’s problems. He received secondary damage during an incident between Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers on lap 221 and then was hit harder when he fell off the pace with a rear end issue and was hit by several cars with about 64 laps to go.

A feud between Kahne and Vickers resulted in multiple cautions. Vickers spun after contact from Kahne to bring out the fourth caution of the race on lap 160. Then, on lap 221, Vickers retaliated and the yellow flag waved again. A Kahne retaliation came on lap 277, bringing out the 10th caution of the race.

In all, the race was littered by 15 cautions, two of those progressing into red flags. Chaser Kevin Harvick was among those involved in caution-causing incidents, as his car sustained heavy damage on lap 228, sending him to the garage.

Joey Logano finished fifth, Matt Kenseth sixth, Clint Bowyer seventh, Denny Hamlin eighth and A.J. Allmendinger was ninth. David Ragan rounded out the top-10 in a No. 34 carrying a paint scheme honoring 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Wendell Scott.

Follow Stock Car Spin on Twitter @SCSblog or like Stock Car Spin on Facebook. Amanda’s also on Twitter @NASCARexaminer and has a fan/like page on Facebook: NASCAR Examiner