Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500: Winners and Losers

As expected, this race came down to the same players many expected: Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon. Where do these guys stack up on this week’s winners and losers at Martinsville Speedway?

Winners

Jimmie Johnson

Everyone was wondering, what was going on with Jimmie Johnson? Apparently all they needed was to come to Martinsville and that set them straight.  They struggled early with the handling of the car, but they used early cautions to work on the car and slowly made their way to the front.

Johnson’s bold move to take the lead from Denny Hamlin nearly took them both out, but great drivers know car control. Johnson took the lead for good, and gave Hendricks Motorsports their 18th victory at the paperclip track.

Points: Fourth

Denny Hamlin

Once again, Denny Hamlin led the most laps, but couldn’t close the deal.  He looked like the one to beat until Johnson said otherwise.

Hamlin, who has said he is tired of not winning, has been outshined by teammate Kyle Busch, but it was Hamlin who was the star of Joe Gibbs Racing this weekend.

Points: Fifth

Tony Stewart

Many questioned whether Tony Stewart could take an organization that struggled to stay in the top 35 last year, make them contenders weekly.

Boy, were we wrong. Stewart might not have led a lap, but he did stay in contention all day long. A strong third-place finish backs up that organization battle cry that they will be a contender.

Points: Seventh

Jeff Gordon

No, he didn’t win this week but once again he led laps and was up front all day long. The team fell behind on adjustments and struggled with lap traffic. Another top five finish for this team allowed them to pad the point lead.

Although it will mean nothing come September if they don’t have any wins. This team will get wins, they like Hamlin need to close the deal.

Points: First

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Well finally he is on my winners list. This team didn’t look good early on, but they came down pit road made some adjustments throughout the race made their way into the top 10.

This was probably the best race we have seen this team run in a long time. We will have to wait until Texas to see if the meeting they had this past week has changed anything.

Points: 16th

A.J. Allmendinger

A.J. Allmendinger has no sponsorship after May. He managed to qualify for the first five races this season on time. Only Tony Stewart did that, today Allmendinger ran within the top 15 for most of the day.

He stayed on the lead lap, and had good pit stops. A strong ninth place finish just might make Allmendinger the sleeper for not only a win this year but to make the Chase, if they can find sponsors.

Points: 15th

Losers

Roush Fenway Racing

They must be glad to see Texas next week. In the last two weeks they have led zero laps and only Jamie McMurray had a top 10 finish. They will definitely have to get to work on their short track program before we head to Richmond in May.

Since Matt Kenseth’s back-to-back wins early on, this organization has looked mediocre at best even with drivers in the top 12.

Points: Carl Edwards-Eighth, Jamie McMurray-22nd, David Ragan-29th, Greg Biffle-23rd, and Matt Kenseth-12th

Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch has never denied how much he struggles at Martinsville and Sunday was no different. The team could never get a handle on the car and after spinning out and taking Scott Speed with him (he did accept responsibility for the incident) he never rebounded finished two laps down.

A 24th-place finish has Busch happy to leave Virginia and head for Texas.

Points: Sixth

Aric Almirola

He started 37th and finished 37th. This team has shown no improvement. For an organization searching for sponsorship they are not giving potential sponsors a lot to hope for.

Sunday they struggled with handling and tire issues, four of them to be exact. With no top 20 finishes this year this team is stumbling out of the gates.

On top of that, he will have to qualify on speed coming to Texas. This team needs a turnaround if they hope to even qualify for races.

Points: 36th

Scott Speed

Joey Logano is not the only rookie this season. Scott Speed carries high expectations himself this season. There are talks of the US F1 team wanting Speed to move from Cup to F1 in 2010. Speed and Red Bull Racing has yet to comment.

They have bigger things to focus on in 2009, Speed is struggling at the track, a 39th on Sunday did not help, and he did lead the race but was caught up in Kyle Busch spin out and had tire issues.

Now they are sitting on the outside looking in on the standings. They need to turn this ship around or RBR needs to contemplate a driver change to get them out of the cellar.

Points: 38th

Final Lap…

There are a couple drivers who nearly made the list. Marcos Ambrose followed his strong run at Bristol with a 14th-place finish. Ryan Newman had a strong run coming home sixth; if this team can string together some good finishes they could make the chase.

On the other hand, Casey Mears looked good early on but faded to come home 21st. Kurt Busch also struggled somewhat today with a 18th-place finish.

This was the first race this season where qualifying was rained out and so were practices. We saw somewhat the effect it had on some drivers throughout the race.

In Texas, we should see the usual suspects (Edwards, Busch, and Johnson), but don’t be surprised to see Gordon, Kevin Harvick and even Kurt Busch up front.

Next, on to the Lone Star State…