RIDGEWAY, Va. -- Jimmie Johnson held off Kyle Busch on the final restart with five laps to go to win Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

The win was Johnson’s seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at the half-mile track and 59th of his career, but it also moved him into the points lead with only three races remaining.  Johnson, who is looking for his sixth series championship, entered the race seven points behind Brad Keselowski for the top spot but emerged with a two-point lead heading to Texas next weekend.

While much of the attention centered around Johnson and Keselowski, who started 32nd and finished sixth, the biggest surprise was undoubtedly Aric Almirola, who battled his way to a fourth-place finish.  That equaled the best finish of his NSCS career and he did it in large part to a two-tire stop late in the race.

“Todd Parrott made a gutsy call there,” said Almirola.  “We were horrible at the beginning of this race and I mean horrible.  I don’t know how we didn’t go several laps down, but we fought hard all day.  We fought for every position.

“We made all kinds of adjustments on this Ford Fusion all day and Todd Parrott made a great call there to take two tires at the end to get us some track position and it took off,” continued Almirola.  “I was really surprised at how fast it went on two tires, so I’m proud of everybody on this Gwaltney Ford Fusion.  They worked really hard and we deserved this one.”

Greg Biffle bounced back from last week’s problem at Kansas to finish 10th while fellow Chaser Matt Kenseth ended up 14th.  Carl Edwards ran in the top 10 for most of the afternoon, but a late-race incident in which he got hit from behind by Sam Hornish sent him spinning and resulted in an 18th-place finish.

“I’m not going to worry about the end too much.  We just got wrecked, but the race was fun,” said Edwards.  “I had more fun than I’ve had here in a long time and I credit our guys because they’ve worked very hard.  We still have a long ways to go, but that was more fun than normal.”

The race, which featured 22 lead changes and nine different leaders, came down to a crucial decision with 23 laps remaining.  That’s when caution came out for the Edwards incident, which also collected Dale Earnhardt Jr.  The top five cars in the running order, led by Johnson, decided to come down pit road while Keselowski, who was sixth, opted to stay out.

That decision looked like it could be costly as a number of cars behind Keselowski came down pit road, but Keselowski managed to hold his ground over the final 16 laps.

Clint Bowyer finished fifth and moved into third-place in the standings, but trails Johnson by 26 points.  Kasey Kahne is fourth and 29 points back while Denny Hamlin likely saw his championship hopes disappear when an electrical problem forced him to the garage and eventually a 33rd-place finish.

Ford drivers Kenseth and Biffle both gained positions in the overall standings.  Kenseth moved up one spot to eighth while Biffle gained two positions and stands ninth.
    
FINISHING ORDER
1st – Jimmie Johnson
2nd – Kyle Busch
3rd – Kasey Kahne
4th – Aric Almirola
5th – Clint Bowyer
6th – Brad Keselowski
7th – Jeff Gordon
8th – Brian Vickers
9th – Bobby Labonte
10th – Greg Biffle

14th – Matt Kenseth
18th – Carl Edwards
24th – Marcos Ambrose
25th – Casey Mears
26th – David Ragan
29th – Ken Schrader
30th – David Gilliland
37th – Scott Speed
38th – Josh Wise
39th – Michael McDowell

POINT STANDINGS
1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Brad Keselowski, -2
3. Clint Bowyer, -26
4. Kasey Kahne, -29
5. Denny Hamlin, -49
6. Jeff Gordon, -54
7. Martin Truex Jr., -63
8. Matt Kenseth, -65
9. Greg Biffle, -69
10. Tony Stewart, -71
11. Kevin Harvick, -88
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr., -140
 
14. Carl Edwards, -69 from 13th place
18. Marcos Ambrose
21. Aric Almirola
27. David Ragan
28. David Gilliland
30. Casey Mears

 

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Gwaltney Ford Fusion – “That was a good run for us.  Todd Parrott made a gutsy call there.  We were horrible at the beginning of this race and I mean horrible.  I don’t know how we didn’t go several laps down, but we fought hard all day.  We fought for every position.  We made all kinds of adjustments on this Ford Fusion all day and Todd Parrott made a great call there to take two tires at the end to get us some track position and it took off.  I was really surprised at how fast it went on two tires, so I’m proud of everybody on this Gwaltney Ford Fusion.  They worked really hard and we deserved this one.”  YOU WERE EIGHTH IN THE SPRING AND NOW FOURTH TODAY AT THIS TRACK.  WHY SO SUCCESSFUL?  “I don’t know.  I grew up short track racing and I’ve raced in Late Models here, but I don’t know.  I love this place, but I didn’t feel like I belonged on the race track the first 200 laps of the race, but these guys worked their guts out.  They never give up.”  YOU WERE UP THERE  WITH ALL THE CHASE GUYS ON THE FINAL RESTART.  WHAT WERE YOU THINKING AT THAT POINT?  “You try and be respectful to them.  You want to be as respectful as possible because you know they’re racing for a  championship, but, at the same time, we’re racing to get all we can get every single weekend so it’s a great run for us and I’m really proud of all my guys.”  WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE A RUN LIKE THIS?  “This just goes to prove that we can do this.  Five weeks ago they switched crew chiefs and gave me Todd Parrott and from that point forward I’ve been having the most fun I’ve ever had at a race track.  We’ve been running so good.  Today we made chicken salad out of you know what, and that’s the kind of stuff that Todd Parrott can do and all these guys on his team.  I’ve just got a great group of guys and I’m proud to have great sponsors like Smithfield Foods and Gwaltney Hot Dogs.  We had a great day.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “It was a great day, but the second-to-last set of tires went the wrong way for us.  I just didn’t have the grip.  It would slide the front and spin the back and then we pitted again and a lot of guys stayed out or took two.  That would have been a great option for us, other than we really felt like we needed to put four on to be competitive, or we could have stayed out with Brad because we were faster than Brad and those guys.  But it was a pretty good day overall.”  YOU WERE FRUSTRATED AFTER QUALIFYING, BUT ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THIS RESULT?   “Yeah, I think we had a good qualifying car, but it just snapped out from under me and I knew coming from the back here is just terrible.  In Happy Hour I thought we had a pretty good car.  We were sixth and 13th in the two practices on the lap-tracker, so I thought we’d be OK and it turned out we were.  I think we’re gaining on it.  We’re not quite there, but I think we’re definitely gaining on it.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Geek Squad Ford Fusion – A FRUSTRATING WAY TO HAVE THE RACE END FOR YOU.   “I’m not going to worry about the end too much.  We just got wrecked, but the race was fun.  I had more fun than I’ve had here in a long time and I credit our guys because they’ve worked very hard.  We still have a long ways to go, but that was more fun than normal, and I think all the Geek Squad folks had a good time and for about 400 laps I had a really good time.”  ONCE YOU GOT TRACK POSITION YOU STAYED THERE.  “Yes, which is really nice.  I think we had the car balanced pretty well.  The track changed throughout the day and we can do a better job with that, but we’re not used to running that well here, so we can be excused for one mistake.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Where’s Waldo? Ford Fusion – “It was an up-and-down day. We stayed on the lead lap for a long time and then we got two laps down.  We had to pit under green with a loose right-front tire, so it was typical Martinsville.  Our Ford was fast.  The Front Row Motorsports guys did a great job.  Mechanically, brakes, transmission, gears, it held up under extreme environment here, but we just need a little bit of luck and I think we had a top-15 car.”