Winners and Losers: Tums Fast Relief 500

(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

This weekend the final short track race of the season was at Virgina's Martinsville Speedway; a paperclip-shaped track that has the capability to make or break many team’s chances for victory and a championship. 

With so many variables, every team knew going into the race that in an instant, you could be caught up in someone else’s problems.

Check out the winners and the losers for the Tums Fast Relief 500.

Winners

Denny Hamlin

Well Denny Hamlin has said in the past that winning at the two tracks he considers his home tracks, Richmond and Martinsville, would be bigger than winning at Daytona or Indianapolis. Well, Hamlin pulled off the fall sweep of the Virginia races.

Whenever Hamlin comes to Martinsville he runs up front. He is the only non-Hendrick Motorsports driver to challenge them when they come to the track and Sunday was no different. Hamlin had a great car and his pit crew got the job done on pit road.

Hamlin had to hold off Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya on the restarts, but he pulled away and won his third race of the season.

Last spring, the battle for the win came down to Hamlin and Johnson, with Johnson bumping Hamlin out of the win.

On Sunday Hamlin got the payback without having to bump Johnson out of the way and ultimately won the race.

Points: Ninth

David Reutimann

This week, in case you did not notice, my picks are some of the guys who don’t get the coverage very often and my second winner is David Reutimann. For the second week in a row, an ill Reutimann beat and banged his way to a solid finish.

He was still suffering from flu-like symptoms and hardly had a voice. Reutimann was running in the top 10 for most of the day but fell back when drivers with fresher tires were able to pass him late in the race.

Reutimann did take some damage battling for position and a cut tire had him hitting pit road. Reutimann had a strong run going until late contact set him back, and he ultimately finished 17th. It was not easy, nor was it pretty for this team when it all was said and done.

It is nice to see him running well every week. He is a talented driver and capable of winning races. With the equipment he is getting, I would not be surprised to see him steal a win down the stretch.

Points: 16th

Bobby Labonte

Sunday was the last race for Bobby Labonte to run the No. 96 car as the remaining races he will run in the No. 71. So what did Labonte do? He went out finished solidly in the top 15.

I was a little surprised by Labonte and his strong run on Sunday. It is not that he is not capable of his 13th-place finish. His team was able to make adjustments on the car and keep him in the top 10 for most of the race. This has been something that they have struggled with at times this season.

Labonte and his team put together some great pit stops and took advantage of the early cautions to work on his car. They had solid stops all day long and really worked traffic well.

It was surprising that he was replaced in the No. 96 in the first place, but you have to give him credit for not just riding around and battling for a strong finish on Sunday.

Points: 31st

Losers

Sam Hornish  Jr .

If you are Sam Hornish Jr., you want to leave Martinsville as soon as possible. From the beginning on Friday, Hornish was forced to a backup car after crashing during the first and only practice for this team.

On Sunday things did not get any better. He and teammate David Stremme got into each other, and Hornish suffered the most damage to his car. On lap 194, Hornish spun again, this time the damage was worse and was headed to the garage.

I keep saying it all year: He has the talent to run up front, but he cannot seem to avoid on-track issues and mechanical problems. Hornish has to be frustrated with the weekend he has had. He wrecked two cars and has nothing to show for it.

Hornish ended up finishing 36th.

It is bad enough to wreck, but when you wreck because of your teammate, it will make for an interesting conversation after the race.

Points: 27th

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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