Denny Hamlin obtained a surprising victory last Monday in the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500, sixth race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The race was suspended on Sunday due to heavy rains.

The competition took place at Martinsville Speedway Circuit. Kevin Harvick started in the pole position and remained leader for 57 laps, but an unfortunate problem with the brakes of his car made him lost several laps until he finished in the 35th place.

Hamlin started in the 19th position of the grid. The second and the third positions were occupied by Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson respectively. Kenseth could not keep the pace and was surpassed until the 19th place, while Johnson finished in ninth place.

During the whole race there were several changes in the leading position and the fierce battle to occupy the top positions became increasingly intense.

This caused some minor accidents that affected the pace of the race. Hamlin, who remained concentrated to avoid accidents, took advantage of this to climb positions and reach the group of drivers who were leading the competition.

The high level of intensity with which the race was being developed made the drivers to run to the pit area to change tires. This altered the order of the positions once again.

Meanwhile, Hamlin chose to continue with the same tires that he started the race. This was a risky decision for Hamlin to make, since he knew that the tires of his car could fail at any time and that the other drivers could reach him more easily having the advantage of returning to the track with new tires.

Nevertheless, Hamlin made the most out of his car, which had a very good performance and did not fail at any time. The driver of the # 11 Toyota Camry imposed himself and let all his pursuers behind. Hamlin surprised everyone by leading the competition during 89 consecutive laps, until he had to leave the lead for a few moments to replace tires.

Upon returning to the track Hamlin was placed ninth, but quickly advanced to the first position again to lead for four laps. When there were less than ten laps to finish, Kyle Busch collided, causing the race to be stopped.

On the restart, Hamlin was fourth but quickly beat Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth and the leader Jeff Gordon to place himself again in the first place. At the end of the race Hamlin's teammate, Joey Logano, managed to get amongst the leaders as well.

Surprisingly and with an excellent demonstration of his driving skills, Hamlin entered alone to the finish line and obtained the victory.

The podium was completed with Logano in the second place and Jeff Gordon in the third. This was Hamlin's first triumph of the season and the ninth one as a professional driver of the NASCAR Series.

For his part, Jimmie Johnson had to settle with the ninth place. Johnson obtained 138 points and reached the first place of the overall driver's standings with 898 points, 14 more points than Greg Biffle, who finished tenth in the race.