Rating the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500: 5 Stars *****

Waiting until Monday did nothing to hurt the racing at Martinsville. Plenty of side-by-side racing, a duel between two Virginia natives, three-wide racing at times and a fantastic finish give the Martinsville spring race the first 5 Star Rating of the season.

What a finish. After a unique call by Denny Hamlin’s crew chief, Mike Ford, to come in and pit with only four laps left in the race put Hamlin in ninth place for the final restart in regulation, it looked like the #11 team had given the race away. However, from that point forward, Hamlin put the pedal to the metal and stormed back to the front. It takes an awfully good handling car to make those kinds of moves late in a race.

Ford’s call had a lot of things go perfectly because Hamlin could have just as easily suffered the same fate as his teammate Kyle Busch and have gotten kicked in the rear by Paul Menard. Everyone would be singing a much different tune had that happened to the #11.

Anyway, Hamlin’s charge was similar to what Jimmie Johnson does on a consistent basis. It always seems like Johnson has four tires for the last restart and often he comes away with the trophy. This time, Hamlin took that strategy to the extreme and circumstances combined with a great car helped him claw his way back to where he should have been at the end of the race: Victory Lane.

The good racing at Martinsville turned great during the green-white-checkered. Hamlin’s moves at the end of regulation were impressive, but they pale in comparison to what took place in the final two laps. Three lead changes in one lap at Martinsville? Three wide in the turns with no wrecks? All that and more took place on the penultimate lap Monday. With Hamlin sitting on the outside of row two for the restart, things looked bleak for the #11 car. But, on the restart, Hamlin bumped Ryan Newman going into Turn 1; Matt Kenseth bumped the leader, Jeff Gordon, at the same time; and Gordon came back to bump Kenseth out of the way going into Turn 3, giving Hamlin the opening he needed to complete his incredible comeback. That was a finish that could bring people to their feet.

This felt like a classic race in many respects. Monday races are always a bit more laid back than the big shows on Sundays, the weather turned out to be perfect and there were only a handful of cars left at the end of the race without any significant damage. The only thing missing was a bungee cord strapped across the hood of Hamlin’s car as he raced back to the lead. Otherwise we may have had to double check the calendar and make sure it wasn’t 1991 and Harry Gant was taking back the lead.

Jeff Burton should also get an honorable mention in all of this. He and Hamlin dominated most of the day and would have been the two fighting for the win had Burton not cut down a tire after bumping Hamlin too much. Even with a 20th-place finish, Burton still gained two spots in the points, moving up to fifth.

Monday’s race also had the second-most lead changes of any race at Martinsville, just one shy of the record of 25 set back in the fall of 1980. That is saying something, because they have been racing at Martinsville longer than any track on the circuit.

There will be no racing next week as the series takes a break for Easter, so the next time we will see the new spoilered car will be in two weeks at Phoenix International Raceway. That is another flat track that generally produces some pretty good racing. With the Hendrick cars not dominating Martinsville, there may be reason to hope for more of the same at another track where they usually have the field covered.