NASCAR at Martinsville: Jimmie Johnson wins, takes Chase lead

A fire erupted underneath the hood of Kurt Busch’s car in Sunday’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway, creating quite the scene. The incident occurred on lap 485 of the 500 lap race.

According to Busch, it was a brake failure that ignited the blaze that engulfed the front of his Chevrolet. When the car started billowing smoke he pulled up the track and was able to escape unharmed.

When Brad Keselowski qualified 32nd for Sunday’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway, it seemed as if the vultures were suddenly circling over his championship hopes.

How could Keselowski, who entered Martinsville with a seven-point lead in the Chase, possibly hope to defeat Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin at the best track for both those drivers?

There’s a familiar face atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings: Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson.

After winning Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway, Johnson took the points lead from Brad Keselowski and is now ahead by two points with three races remaining. Keselowski will have to out-run Johnson at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead if he wants to stop Johnson from winning his sixth championship in seven years.

Denny Hamlin came into the NASCAR Martinsville weekend knowing he needed a winning result to stay in Chase contention.

Instead, the visit to his best track turned into a nightmare.

Mr. Martinsville is back.

Holding off Kyle Busch during a five-lap closing green-flag run at Martinsville Speedway, polesitter Jimmie Johnson won Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 at the .526-mile short track and grabbed the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series lead from sixth-place finisher Brad Keselowski.

Johnson’s fourth victory of the season and his seventh at Martinsville leaves Johnson in a familiar position. He holds a two-point lead over Keselowski with three races left in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Busch finished second .479 seconds behind the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, who won for the 59th time in his career.

Kasey Kahne ran third, followed by Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 21st in his return to racing after a two-week hiatus.

Johnson had the lead on Lap 491 when a chain-reaction spin involving Sam Hornish Jr., Carl Edwards and Earnhardt caused the 11th caution and set up a restart on Lap 496

Denny Hamlin’s championship hopes suffered a crushing blow when his No. 11 suffered electrical problems late in the race. After intermittent losses of power, Hamlin’s car stalled on the frontstretch on Lap 391, causing the eighth caution of the race.

By the time his crew identified and fixed the problem -- a broken post on the master cutoff switch -- Hamlin was 34 laps down and mired in 33rd place, his finishing position.

Here are the full results from today’s NASCAR race at Martinsville:

Here are some storylines, notes and drivers to watch for during today’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway:

Johnson and Hamlin looking to close in on Keselowski

It’s NASCAR race day at Martinsville Speedway, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about today’s Tums Fast Relief 500 for you below.

What time does the race start today? Today’s Martinsville race has the earliest start time of any race in the Chase. Because Martinsville has no lights, the race has to get going earlier than other NASCAR playoff events. Several military servicemen will give the command to start engines at 1:38 p.m. Eastern time, followed by the green flag at 1:43 p.m.

Martinsville Speedway appears to be nestled between a stalled cold front to the west and Hurricane Sandy to the east. What does this mean for today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race? It means we should be able to get the race in and completed with few, if any, interruptions.

Sandy will continue to move slowly northward during the day Sunday. This will bring a breezy northerly wind. Speeds will range between 10 to 20 mph with some gusts near 25 mph. Rain chances are minimal but there could be an isolated shower in the afternoon and I also expect pockets of drizzle through the morning.

All Denny Hamlin has to do is look at the Sprint Cup Series standings to realize how important this weekend’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway is to his title hopes.

With just four races left in the season, Hamlin finds himself trailing championship leader Brad Keselowski by 20 points and second-place Jimmie Johnson by 13. And while neither deficit is insurmountable, it does mean Hamlin can no longer afford to lose ground to the pair of drivers ahead of him in the standings.

The weather forecast for Martinsville Speedway and the Camping World Truck and Sprint Cup Series races is cloudy with just a small chance of an isolated shower or drizzle.

Martinsville is between two systems – a cold front stalled along the Appalachian Mountains and Hurricane Sandy moving slowly north off the coast of the Carolinas. Wind flow associated with Sandy will keep cloudy skies through the entire weekend and with the front stalled to the west of the track there could be isolated showers and pockets of drizzle.

For the last several weeks, Brad Keselowski has posted solid results despite mediocre qualifying efforts. But Sunday’s Martinsville race could be his toughest challenge yet.

Points leader Keselowski qualified 32nd on Friday while Jimmie Johnson (-7 points) won the pole position, meaning Keselowski will have a difficult task over 500 laps to make up enough ground on Johnson to retain the points lead.

If the starting lineup is any indication, Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway could dramatically impact the Chase picture.

Brad Keselowski is the points leader with four races to go, but his seven-point margin over Jimmie Johnson is in jeopardy after Keselowski qualified 32nd and Johnson won the pole position.

Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 55 car has been one of NASCAR’s fastest rides this season.

So when it came time for Brian Vickers to decide whether or not he wanted to stay in the 55’s seat on a part-time basis or seek out a full-time ride for 2013, the answer was easy.

If being in a points battle seems old hat to Jimmie Johnson, it’s because, well, it is.

Every year but one in the Chase era, the five-time Sprint Cup Series champion has been in the thick of contention. And that again is true this season, as Johnson enters this weekend’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway a scant seven points behind leader Brad Keselowski.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. met with the NASCAR media on Friday morning at Martinsville Speedway, marking his first interview since announcing he would miss races at Charlotte and Kansas while recovering from concussions.

Here are some of his selected comments from the lengthy media session:

Up and down the East Coast of the United States, the focus this weekend will be on a very large and powerful storm named Hurricane Sandy. The question every NASCAR fan has is, “Will Sandy cause problems for Martinsville Speedway this weekend?”

At this point, there is still a lot of uncertainty with what Sandy will do over the next 24 to 36 hours. My forecast right now is for cloudy skies and cooler temperatures – thanks to a cold front that moves through on Saturday – and a chance of a scattered shower.

If history holds true to form at the most historic of NASCAR tracks, Martinsville Speedway could be Brad Keselowski’s Waterloo. Conversely, the .526-mile paper-clip circuit could also be the best opportunity for Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin to loosen Keselowski’s grasp on the NASCAR Sprint Cup series lead.

So far this season, Keselowski has answered all challenges and turned back all comers with the look of a champion. But for a coronation to occur four races from now at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Keselowski will have to beat the Martinsville masters at their own game in Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), round 7 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason.

Keselowski’s sample size at the lone short track in the Chase is relatively small, having only been a full-timer in the Cup series for three years. To place it in perspective, Johnson has more victories (six) at Martinsville than Keselowski has starts (five) there. Hamlin isn’t far behind, with four wins at the Virginia short track.

Keselowski hasn’t been awful at Martinsville, but his average finish of 13.4 is a few steps behind the stellar series-best 5.8 of Johnson and the admirable 6.4 of Hamlin. But despite what the numbers say, Keselowski -- who leads Johnson by seven points and third-place Hamlin by 20 -- has frequently defied conventional wisdom in 2012. Sunday’s 500-lapper may be the next exhibit in building his case for his first Sprint Cup title.

“Martinsville is just one of those tracks where it seems like there’s numerous variables that we’ve struggled with,” said Keselowski, who notched a career-best ninth-place finish at Martinsville earlier this season. “. . . Those things happen, but we’ve had speed at Martinsville and I’m encouraged by that. And you know eventually if you have enough speed at a track over and over again that you will get the results out of it, and I’m confident of that.”

Keselowski’s confidence, however, is matched by that of his rivals. Hamlin, who famously called his shot before his New Hampshire victory via Twitter, turned to social media earlier in the week to tweet that it was “time for MAX points.” Johnson’s attitude is similarly buoyant heading to one of his most favorable tracks.

“It’s pressure time, it’s go time, it’s all that stuff with four (races) to go,” Johnson said Tuesday. “The points as tight as they are, we expect to be one of the cars racing for the win.”

Regan Smith won’t drive in this week’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway, marking the first time he’s missed a Sprint Cup Series event since 2009.

But Smith, who recently completed a two-race stint as the substitute driver for Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 88 car, said he’s not angry or upset about his current situation.

After a two-week absence, NASCAR’s most popular driver will return to the circuit.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been medically cleared to compete this weekend at Martinsville Speedway after multiple concussions sidelined him for two races.

Prior to today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway, Rick Hendrick said that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was cleared to race at Martinsville next weekend after missing two weeks because of a concussion. A few hours later, Hendrick retracted those comments.

“I gave you a little bad information out on pit road today,” said Hendrick. “I did talk to the doctor with Dale and he said everything looked good, everything was fine. However, I didn’t know until [Hendrick Motorsports manager of communication] Jesse [Essex] informed me that I had gotten ahead of myself, that there’s a closed test Monday that Dr. Petty will attend and Dale will be back in a car.”