Denny Hamlin claims first win of season at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Denny Hamlin claimed his first win of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season on Sunday with his victory in the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin recorded his fifth career Cup win at Martinsville, but not before holding off last week’s winner, Brad Keselowski, on the final lap.

Hamlin ran near the front throughout the race but routinely lost positions while on pit road. Hamlin also purposely gave up positions on pit road on several occasions, attempting to ensure odd restart positions in the inside line.

Team Penske teammates Keselowski and Joey Logano finished second and third, respectively. Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Matt Kenseth and David Ragan rounded out the top five.

Hamlin took the lead for the final time by passing Kenseth with just under 30 laps to go. Tony Stewart restarted with the lead after staying out during a caution with about 40 laps remaining in the 500-lap race but lost that lead to Kenseth with about 30 to go.

Hamlin followed Kenseth in passing Stewart, then took the lead shortly thereafter.

Keselowski and Logano also got by Kenseth to occupy second and third with just over 20 laps remaining.

Missing from the top-two of the finishing order was Kevin Harvick. After leading 153 laps, Harvick wound up eighth, ending his streak of consecutive top-two finishes at eight. Harvick lost the lead for the final time when he was overtaken by Hamlin on lap 398. He remained in the top five for a while but fell back in the final 60 laps.

Logano also led for much of the first half of the race, leading 108 laps before spinning after an incident with Michael Annett on lap 220. He was running fifth before the incident, but fell to the back of the lead lap after the spin. He gradually worked his way back toward the front and was within the top five by a restart with 61 laps to go.

Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth, maintaining his season-long string of consecutive top-10 finishes. Danica Patrick posted her second-best career Sprint Cup finish by placing seventh. Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray finished eighth through 10th.