Rewind | Another ending to rile up fans

Rear-view mirror

I know it sounds like a broken record but once again NASCAR showed that while it has made many advances in the area of safety, it fails to understand why its fans get peeved when it allows a race to end the way it did Sunday. For the second time this season, NASCAR allowed a spun out car to sit on the frontstretch of the last lap and waited to throw the caution until the cars were in Turn 3 and 4. If you throw a caution for a 6-inch piece of debris at one point of the race, how do you ignore a 3,400-pound stopped car at another?

I've always found it odd when drivers label each other as "aggressive" when you're trying to race around 42 other competitors on a half-mile track like Martinsville. Unless the fastest car on the track is out front and leading all 500 laps, a driver had to find a way to get around his competition if he wants to try to win. That is the point after all.

Give some credit to Dale Earnhardt Jr. His tire problems early in the race sent him two laps down. He could have packed it up and called it day. Instead he stayed in the hunt and twice got the free pass when cautions came out which eventually put him back on the lead lap. He was running back in the Top 15 when another blown tire forced him to pit under green and he finished two laps down in 29th.

Key moments

Lap 59

After starting 15th, series leader Jimmie Johnson needs just 59 laps to take the lead for the first time in the race.

Lap 183

Several of the race leaders elect to pit, but some other lead-lap cars remain on the track. Denny Hamlin stays out and inherits the lead for the first time.

Lap 260

Greg Biffle stays out under caution to take the lead and Johnson moves into second during a round of pit stops. The timing allows Hamlin to get back on the same pit schedule and he restarts third.

Lap 260

It takes Johnson less than a lap to move ahead of Biffle and back into the lead.

Lap 363

Hamlin moves around Johnson to retake the lead under green, then holds off Johnson during four subsequent restarts to take the win.

Next race

Amp Energy 500

Where: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway

When: 1 p.m. Sunday.

TV: ABC

Radio: Motor Racing Network

Last year's winner: Tony Stewart

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