By Ryan - Posted on March 31, 2010

Virginia native Denny Hamlin led a race-high 172 laps on his way to victory at his home track of Martinsville in a Cup race that was delayed one day due to weather. Although he had a 2.7 second lead with only a handful of laps left, a late caution and pit stop looked as if his victory would be in doubt.

On lap 491, the other Virginia native – Jeff Burton – blew a tire, which erased Hamlin’s large lead. He and teammate Kyle Busch decided to pit, which gave the lead to veteran Jeff Gordon. When the green flag waved on lap 497, Hamlin restarted ninth. On new tires, he was able to quickly move to the front. Two laps later, he was in fourth place, when Kyle Busch and Paul Menard got together, bringing out the final caution of the race, and causing a green-white-checkered finish.

On lap 507, while Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon were bumping each other, Hamlin passed them both, as well as Ryan Newman. He finished the race in front of them all, in spite of a cut tire. Hamlin’s teammate, Joey Logano, finished second, giving Joe Gibbs Racing a 1-2 finish. Gordon finished third, and Newman and Truex Jr. rounded out the top five.

Not only was the race running on a postponed schedule, but Denny Hamlin’s knee surgery was postponed as well. He tore the ACL in his left knee playing a pickup basketball game in January. He had planned to have surgery early Monday morning, so that he would have the longest possible time to recover, given the off week next weekend. Due to the postponed race and win, he will have to wait until Wednesday for surgery. Somehow, he didn’t seem to mind. He admitted, “This is definitely a good alternative.”

Jimmie Johnson, who had been riding a wave of success, finished a quiet 9th place at Martinsville. That was good enough to give him the series points lead, in front of Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, and Jeff Burton.