MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson pulled away on a restart with eight laps to go and won the NASCAR Spring Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday.
It was his eighth career victory on the shortest track the series races.
Only Richard Petty with 15, and Darrell Waltrip with 11 have won more.
The five-time champion picked the inside line for the restart with Clint Bowyer on the outside, teammate Jeff Gordon behind him and Kyle Busch to his outside, and Johnson got a clean break into Turn 1.
Bowyer was second and Busch, who tried to use the outside line, instead got hung up on the outside as Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kasey Kahne, who restarted fifth, went underneath to take fourth.
