Even though a race record 21 caution flags ate up over 20% of the race’s 506 laps, Jimmy Johnson won today’s Subway 500 at the fabled Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Having held it s first NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race in 1949 (although, by no means was NASCAR’s premiere series named after a corporation back then), the .526-mile oval with 12-degree banked turns and 800-foot straights — also known as the Pretty paperclip — is the ONLY original NASCAR-sanctioned track still running Cup Series events. Heady stuff! Johnson’s win was by no mans easy, though, as a serendipitous caution flag was thrown with less than two laps to go when a crash by David Ragan forced a green-white-checkered finish. Foiling a late race charge by Penske Dodge driver Ryan Newman, Johnson claimed his third straight win at Martinsville with Newman second and Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon (who Johnson passed for the lead with 44 laps to go), third on the afternoon. It was Johnson’s seventh won of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.

“This thing’s is now over yet,” said Johnson, who took a big chunk out of the 2007 NASCAR Chase for the Nextel Cup points lead.

Added Gordon: "Jimmy was strong, we were strong, and he got the best of us.”

With only four races left in the Chase, the NASCAR Nextel Cup contingent will now head further south where they will line-up next Sunday on Atlanta’s 1.54-mile quad oval for the Pep Boys 500. With only four races remaining on the Nextel Cup schedule, Gordon leads teamster Johnson by 53 points. Clint Bowyer is third, a further 115 pints adrift. Mathematically speaking, Bowyer is the only driver left with a shot at catching the two amazingly successful and consistent Hendrick Motorsport teammates.