Martinsville Speedway Race Report
Richard Petty Motorsports results:
- 21st - Elliott Sadler - Best Buy Dodge - now 26th in points.
- 24th - Reed Sorenson - Monopoly at McDonalds Dodge - now 29th in points.
- 32nd - Kasey Kahne - Budweiser Dodge - now 11th in points
- 34th - AJ Allmendinger- Coleman Natural Foods Dodge - now 25th in points.
Notes:
- Denny Hamlin held off Jimmie Johnson on the green-white-checkered finish
- Hamlin recorded his third victory and 17th top-10 of 2009
- Hamlin now has two victories and eight top-10s in nine career starts at Martinsville
- Juan Pablo Montoya, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top-five
- Johnson has a 118 championship point lead over second place Mark Martin
- The race featured 21 lead changes among 12 drivers
- There were 15 cautions for 77 laps
- The race lasted just short of three hours and thirty-five minutes
- No attendance has been announced at this time
- All race fans attending Sunday's race served as Grand Marshal and honorary race starters.
- Richard Petty led all teams in a coordinated thank you to the fans.
- Next race is Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala.
NOTES AND QUOTES
ELLIOTT SADLER
- Started 40th and finished 21st
- Tight in the center, loose off and struggled with forward grip at the beginning of the race
- Tried various pit strategies to gain track position
- Raced as high as seventh on lap 178 restart
- Restarted in the third position on lap 306
- Fell at lap down to leader Denny Hamlin on lap 389
- Flat tire caused the No. 19 to make contact with the No. 34 to bring out the caution on lap 443
- Narrowly missed the lucky dog during the final caution on lap 498 (awarded to Clint Bowyer)
- Highest finishing RPM entry
SADLER: "An interesting day for sure with our Best Buy Dodge. Anytime that you start 40th at Martinsville it's going to make for some tough sledding. We fought a race car that was tight in the center all day and couldn't get our car to turn through the middle of the corner. But I'm proud of my guys because we worked our way all the way up to third and we're running with the leaders until the car just fell off a bit."
REED SORENSON
- Sorenson started ninth and finished 24th
- Suffered damage to the hood on lap 89 making it difficult for Sorenson to see
- Struggled with a "tight center" handing condition throughout the race
- Went a lap down to leader Jimmie Johnson on lap 355
- Finished one lap down
SORENSON: "My guys never gave up today. We just couldn't get the handling down. We made a ton of changes but never could get the car where we wanted it. But we stayed out of trouble and had good stops today. We did what we needed to do. "
KASEY KAHNE
- Kahne started 26th and finished 32nd.
- Involved in a racing incident to bring out the caution on lap 210
- Fell two laps down while crew worked on repairs to the right rear
- Contact with the No. 34 caused the 10th caution of the afternoon on lap 275
- Flat right front tire caused contact with the wall and bring out the 11th caution on lap 300
- Finished seven laps off the pace
KAHNE: "It definitely wasn't our day. I can't tell you what happened when our tire went down, but the car just went around on me in Turn three and I was in the wall. We had some pretty significant damage to the fuel cell area, but the team was able to fix that. Then I just got loose a few laps later and up into the wall again. This hasn't been a great track for us, so we need to work on that. It was a pretty frustrating day."
AJ ALLMENDINGER
- Started 16th and finished 34th
- Received front end damage on lap 95 restart causing the hood to bow making it difficult to see
- Struggled with a "tight center" handing condition throughout the race
- Wrecked by the No. 20 on lap 250 to bring out the ninth caution of the afternoon while in 20th
- Returned to the racetrack on lap 338 in 35th position following 87 laps making repairs
- Finished 86 laps off the pace
ALLMENDINGER: "Not much I can say. We just got taken out today. The 20 car (Logano) crashed us. Until then we were working on the car and getting it better. Our lap times were good and we were just trying to conserve our stuff and be there at the end."
RACE RESULTS
FINISH - DRIVER
1-Denny Hamlin
2-Jimmie Johnson
3-Juan Montoya
4-Kyle Busch
5-Jeff Gordon
6-Jamie McMurray
7-Ryan Newman
8-Mark Martin
9-Kevin Harvick
10-Tony Stewart
11-Brian Vickers
12-Joey Logano
13-Bobby Labonte
14-Matt Kenseth
15-Jeff Burton
16-Kurt Busch
17-David Reutimann
18-Casey Mears
19-Clint Bowyer
20-Carl Edwards
21-Elliott Sadler
22-David Ragan
23-Paul Menard
24-Reed Sorenson
25-Greg Biffle
26-John Andretti
27-Marcos Ambrose
28-Martin Truex Jr.
29-Dale Earnhardt Jr.
30-Michael Waltrip
31-Scott Speed
32-Kasey Kahne
33-David Stremme
34-A.J. Allmendinger
35-Sterling Marlin
36-Sam Hornish Jr.
37-Robby Gordon
38-Joe Nemechek
39-David Gilliland
40-Dave Blaney
41-Michael McDowell
42-Derrike Cope
43-Travis Kvapil
