NASCAR at Martinsville 2016: Winners, Losers from the Goody's Fast Relief 500

A year ago, Jeff Gordon won for the ninth time at Martinsville Speedway punching his ticket to Homestead.

A year later, Jimmie Johnson won for the ninth time at Martinsville Speedway punching his ticket to Homestead—this time racing for a special seventh championship. Johnson can no longer ignore it.

NBCSN’s Kyle Petty, whose father Richard Petty has seven titles, said:

"If you want to ignore it, just don’t win six. You can’t ignore it. Jimmie Johnson is in that rarified air since he won that sixth championship. When you look at what he’s done, he deserves to be there. He goes in week in, week out, he’s that kind of driver. This is history-in-the-making of our sport."

Johnson’s fate, for the time, is secure, but it’s tight behind him with three Joe Gibbs Racing cars eager to join him in Miami.

Read on to see who won and who lost from the Goody’s Fast Relief 500.

Loser: Stewart-Haas Racing 'Missing It'

Daniel Shirey/Getty Images

Stewart-Haas Racing had what you might call a lousy day at the office.

Each and every SHR Chevy fell laps—with an "s"—down. This is a team with two of its drivers—Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch—still in the Chase.

Harvick finished the best out of all the SHR cars in 20th and two laps down. It was a hugely disappointing day for this group.

"We missed it. I don’t know where or how or why; SHR as a group didn't perform well," Kurt Busch told NBCSN. "We just missed it."

With only two races, how will SHR rebound?

"I have no idea," Busch said. "We’ll figure something out. We've come all this way. We're not giving up."

The SHR silver lining is Harvick’s impeccable indestructible record at Phoenix. He has six wins in the past eight races there.

As for Busch, he looked impossibly confused after Martinsville, but he has a win at each of the next two tracks.

SHR will draw a line through this race and put all its chips on Texas and Phoenix.

Winner: Joe Gibbs Racing

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Joe Gibbs Racing had yet another strong day at the track. It occupied spots three, four and five, but despite those efforts, it could have been better.

These teammates are sometimes their own worst enemies. How? Let’s hear from Kyle Busch.

"You can’t wreck each other," he told NBCSN. "That’s all there is to it. We weren’t so good together. We gave the 48 the win. That’s how good we are."

That last phrase stuck it to the JGR brass. They were so good, so conservative with each other, they let Johnson get the lead and extend on the field. Busch felt one of them could have driven down the No. 48 car. Instead they cannibalized each other’s chances at a win.

"We had a better car than fifth," Busch said. "We were right there with him. It's frustrating not to be higher up."

All that said, 75 percent of JGR had a great day at the track.

Sooner rather than later, the gloves will come off for these teammates, because now it's impossible for all JGR cars to advance to Homestead.

Wins are at a premium, and they’ll all be gunning for them. For six days a week, they’ll be teammates. Come Sunday, no more Mr. Nice Guy.

Loser: A Belt Failure

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A driver enters a race at Martinsville thinking two things: It would be nice to win, and if he can’t win, he says let’s not dig too deep of a hole heading to Texas.

Carl Edwards didn’t heed that mantra, but in fairness to him, it wasn’t his fault. It was Goodyear’s.

"It was a belt failure; that’s big of them to say," Edwards told NBCSN after the race. "We had a good race going. I think we had a top-three car."

His right-front tire went down, and he hit the wall hard.

"I don't think that’s sheet-metal damage, that was heavy, heavy contact," NBCSN's Steve Letarte said during the broadcast.

Thanks to the Associated Press' Jenna Fryer, we were privy to Edwards' reaction. "I'm sorry guys."

Then someone on his team, presumably his crew chief, said, "Don't be sorry. We're going to go win Texas. Win Phoenix."

NBCSN’s Jeff Burton added, "You know they're going to have to win one of the next two races to advance."

The good news for Edwards and Co. is the five combined wins at the next two tracks. He'll have to lean on that experience because a win is his only chance at advancing to Homestead with Chase yellow-paint on the car.

Winner: The Substitute

Steve Helber/Associated Press

We think Gordon has driven in his final race, and if it's his last one, a sixth-place finish is pretty darn good.

"As far as I know [I’m done]," Gordon told NBCSN. "I didn’t anticipate running in the races I had this year."

Gordon has nine grandfather clocks, so this was a great track for him to sub in for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

But after the race, Gordon was tickled by the No. 48's performance.

"Congrats to the [No.] 48 and Jimmie," he said. "That was impressive. I think everybody had him written off. I hadn’t seen him in my mirror. They caught a break, but he had to go up there and race the No. 11. They deserve it. This team deserves a lot of credit."

As for Gordon, who won here for the ninth time in 2015, he goes out on a pretty high note in 2016.

"I couldn’t be more proud of my last run in this car," he said. "I'm glad it was Martinsville. This was fun."

Loser: The 29-Lap Caution

Don Petersen/Associated Press

That 29-lap caution was confusing and, well, boring.

The wrench in the entire scenario surrounded a caution coming out during green-flag pit stops (thanks, Carl Edwards). Johnson had run out of gas and then didn’t. Harvick sped past Hamlin when the running order was supposed to be locked.

Even when Richard Buck, a NASCAR official most responsible for the reordering, spoke with NBCSN he said, "Our focus was to get it right. We took our time and got it right."

He got one thing right: They took their time, and that's the issue.

NASCAR let all those cars coast around for nearly 30 laps while it tried to sort out the running order. NASCAR should have red-flagged the race. Like NBCSN's Dale Jarrett said, "When the NFL reviews a play, they don’t let the clock keep running."

Jeff Gordon said all those laps "inflated" his tires, and Hamlin noted how a few cars "stole a lap."

It was a mess and probably cost some contending cars a few spots on the race track.

There was no race against the weather. NASCAR should have hit the pause button, gotten it right and allow the field to proceed once the order was properly set.

Why try and set the field while juggling moving parts?

Winner: A Chance at No. 7

Steve Helber/Associated Press

Thanks to the JGR cars battling each other behind him, Johnson extended his lead, winning his 79th career race and advancing to Homestead for a chance at an historic seventh championship. That would tie him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr.

"I've been trying to ignore this conversation about seven," Johnson told NBCSN. "I can't. We’re locked in. I'm honored to be in this position. It's crazy we have a shot at seven now. I’m probably going to lie to you and not think about it at all. It's inevitable. We’re going to savor this and get our ducks in a row for Homestead."

Johnson has never had to win at Homestead to win his previous six titles, but each Sprint Cup winner of the past two years in this new format has won the race in the winner-take-all finale.

Given the new tactics, Johnson will be running top four throughout the race.

Now all he has to do is try to win at the next two tracks to try and squeeze out other cars. A win for him is a win another driver can't have.

In any case, who wants to be racing against a viable Johnson with a title on the line in three weeks?

Answer: None.