Denny Hamlin wins the 2015 STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway

Denny Hamlin survived a caution-plagued STP 500 and several issues on pit road to win Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver passed teammate Matt Kenseth for the lead with 28 laps remaining. Over the final laps, Brad Keselowski challenged Hamlin several times, but could never find a way around the No. 11 car. Keselowski put the bumper to Hamlin through the final corner, but Hamlin held on.

“I did everything I could other than wreck him,” Keselowski said.

Hamlin had consistently one of the fastest cars all afternoon, but routinely dropped several positions on pit road. He incurred a penalty when his crew was unable to maintain control of a time, and several other times lost spots due to slow pit work.

The win was Hamlin’s first of 2015 and fifth on the Virginia short track. It also snapped a lengthy winless streak for JGR and Toyota, with Hamlin’s Talladega victory 11 months ago representing the last for each.

“We just weren’t going to be denied today,” Hamlin said. “Hats off to Brad; he had an option there at the end and he took the latter. I thank him for that.”

Joey Logano finished third, followed by Kenseth, David Ragan and Martin Truex Jr.

A seventh-place effort nearly matched Danica Patrick’s personal best (sixth). The top-10 was the fifth of her career, which tied Janet Guthrie for most top-10s by a female driver in NASCAR premier series races.

Kevin Harvick’s streak of finishing first or second in eight consecutive races ended when he placed ninth Sunday.

Leading when a caution waved 41 laps from the finish, Jeff Gordon threw away a potential victory when he incurred a penalty for speeding on pit road. His charge to finish ninth offered him little consolation.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so disappointed in myself,” Gordon said. “I know I was pushing the limit. I didn’t think I had done anything different than I had all day long ... I’m very, very disappointed. I felt like we finally got the car, got ourselves in a position to win that race.”

Thirteen drivers exchanged the lead 31 times. Sixteen cautions for 112 laps slowed the race. Among those swept up into the many accidents were Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott, each of whom sustained significant damage in separate incidents.

Shortly after fixing a broken shifter that hampered him throughout, Earnhardt slammed into the nearly-stopped car of Paul Menard when several drivers spun in front of him. Elliott, who was making his Sprint Cup debut, got entangled with several cars early and had to go to the garage for repairs.

Earnhardt finished 36th, Elliott 38th.

“You’ve got to be toward the front and out of trouble -- we weren’t there we were in the back,” Earnhardt said. “And it’s high risk back there. It bit us today.”