The Chase Point Standings: Race #6 of 10
1 Jimmie Johnson 6,098
2 Mark Martin -118
3 Jeff Gordon -150
4 Tony Stewart -192
5 Juan Pablo Montoya -200
6 Kurt Busch -240
7 Ryan Newman -312
8 Greg Biffle -350
9 Denny Hamlin -352
10 Carl Edwards -413
11 Kasey Kahne -439
12 Brian Vickers -530

On yet another late race green-white-checkered restart, Virginia-born Denny Hamlin beat-back the desperate advances of reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson to drive his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory in the Tums Fast Relief 500 on the .526-mile “paperclip” that is Martinsville Speedway. Johnsone, meanwhile, used his finely polished second place run to increase his lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship to 90 points over second place driver Mark Martin and 115 points ahead of Jeff Gordon.

“I wish we could have won but second place, nothing wrong with that,” Johnson said in the pits after the race.

Undoubtedly helped by a lengthy green-flag run at the end of the race (not to mention an A+ race car), Hamlin pulled away after a restart with 52 laps to go, thus ending Johnson's winning streak of five trips to Victory Lane in the last six races.

Hamlin easily pulled away again on another restart with 12 laps to go, and again when a late crash by Scott Speed forced a two-lap sprint to the finish of the 501-lap event.

"The last run or two at the end, the 11 had their stuff right," Johnson said of Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing team. "I was just a little too loose to do anything with them."

Hamlin's second career victory on the tiny 0.526-mile oval kept the Virginia-born wheelman as the only driver besides Johnson to win on the paper clip-shaped track in the last seven races. Hamlin won the spring race last year, and was leading when Johnson nudged him aside with 15 laps to go earlier this year.

Juan Pablo Montoya was third, followed by Kyle Busch, who passed Jeff Gordon on the final lap. Gordon, a four-time series champion, remained third in points, 150 behind Johnson.

Hamlin, who seemingly dominates just as often as Johnson at Martinsville, but without the finishes to show for it, showed he had Johnson's number when he passed him on Lap 363.

He then pulled steadily away, deftly moving around lapped traffic and opening a lead of more than 4 seconds during a long green-flag run. With just over 70 laps to go, radio chatter indicted that the teams were fast approaching pit stops under green, a Martinsville rarity.

The victory was Hamlin's third of the season, a small consolation because after saying he felt like the man to beat in the 10-race Chase for the championship, he had faded to 11th. Next stop: The 33-degree high banks of the 2.66-miel Talladega Superspeedway.