Stewart takes commanding win
Tony Stewart took a commanding win in his Chevrolet in the DirecTV 500 at the Martinville Speedway
Stewart led 288 of the race's 500 laps on his way to victory, as he held off Jeff Gordon in the closing laps.
Gordon had an up and down day, looking strong in the early laps before a flat tyre on lap 90 dropped him to the back of the field. But with four wins in the last six Martinsville races, Gordon didn't give up and made his way back through the field to come so close to making it three wins in a row at the track.
His teammate Jimmie Johnson looked like he may have been the victor, leading 195 of the 212 laps Stewart didn't lead, and was leading with 30 laps to go. But after a side-by-side duel with Stewart for the lead, he couldn't hold on any longer and ended the race in third place.
Fourth place was taken by Dale Earnhardt Jr, a tremendous effort considering he had driven all except the first two laps with damage to the front right of his car, a multi-car crash on lap two the cause, and then spun by Ryan Newman just after half distance.
Kyle Busch rounded out an all-Chevrolet top five, as well as the third Hendrick car in the top five alongside Gordon and Johnson.
It was not a good day for all the front-runners. Going into the race with the points lead, Matt Kenseth crashed in the last ten laps while running in the top ten, Kasey Kahne another driver to strike trouble at Martinsville.
Jimmie Johnson's second place has him back in the lead of the points standing, ahead of Mark Martin and Kenseth, both 59 points behind.
Pos Driver Make Laps 1. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 500 2. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 500 3. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 500 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 500 5. Kyle Busch Chevrolet 500 6. Elliott Sadler Ford 500 7. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 500 8. Brian Vickers Chevrolet 500 9. Jamie McMurray Ford 500 10. Scott Riggs Dodge 500 11. Kurt Busch Dodge 500 12. Reed Sorenson Dodge 500 13. Mark Martin Ford 500 14. Sterling Marlin Chevrolet 500 15. Dale Jarrett Ford 500 16. Carl Edwards Ford 500 17. Dave Blaney Dodge 499 18. Ryan Newman Dodge 498 19. Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet 498 20. J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 497 21. Tony Raines Chevrolet 497 22. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 496 23. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 495 24. Matt Kenseth Ford 493 25. Jeff Green Chevrolet 491 26. Jeremy Mayfield Dodge 462 27. Casey Mears Dodge 456 28. Scott Wimmer Chevrolet 451 29. Michael Waltrip Dodge 445 30. Kyle Petty Dodge 439 31. Greg Biffle Ford 436 32. Bobby Labonte Dodge 429 33. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 426 34. Travis Kvapil Chevrolet 403 35. Kasey Kahne Dodge 374 36. Chad Chaffin Chevrolet 345 37. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 307 38. David Stremme Dodge 299 39. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 280 40. Ken Schrader Ford 164 41. Mike Garvey Chevrolet 93 42. Chad Blount Dodge 92 43. Robby Gordon Chevrolet 7
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