MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Jeff Gordon took the lead in the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway with 22 laps remaining Sunday and held off Jamie McMurray to claim his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the season.
Gordon won for the ninth time at Martinsville, the most of any active driver. The victory cemented Gordon’s position as one of the final four drivers who will compete for the series championship in the season finale on Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
McMurray finished second and Denny Hamlin was third after overcoming a spin and two pit road speeding penalties. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.
Team Penske dominated the 500-lap race, with Joey Logano leading 207 laps and teammate Brad Keselowski 143. Keselowski, though, was caught up in a wreck that involved Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth on a lap 435 restart.
After Kenseth went to the garage for repairs on his car, he returned to the track to retaliate against Logano for an incident two races earlier at Kansas Speedway. Kenseth is out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
After the incident between Kenseth and Logano, Logano’s father, Tom Logano, had to be restrained by three members of his son’s team to prevent him from approaching Kenseth in the track’s infield care center.
Meanwhile, NASCAR parked Kenseth for the remainder of the race and called Kenseth, crew chief Jason Ratcliff and car owner Joe Gibbs to the NASCAR trailer for a meeting regarding the incident.
The Kenseth-Logano wreck resulted in a red flag lasting more than 12 minutes.
Hamlin and A.J. Allmendinger stayed out on the track to restart on the front row after the incident between Kenseth and Logano. Allmendinger took the lead, but Gordon moved into second on a restart with just over 35 laps to go and then took the lead from Allmendinger with 22 laps remaining. McMurray followed Gordon past Allmendinger to take second.