The NASCAR Sprint Cup season has been an exciting one so far and for the first time this year the winner of the race was the winner of the pole, as Jimmie Johnson took home the Martinsville checkered flag.
Johnson is in first place in the standings after the win and he led for nearly the entire race, staying in first fort 346 laps before making his way on a restart with just eight laps left to take the top spot. He moved up to third in all-time victories and was able to build a lead in the race over Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon and things came down to the end. Bowyer finished in second place ahead of Gordon, while Kasey Kahne came in fourth ahead of Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, who is now second in the standings behind Johnson. Dale Earnhardt Jr. dropped to third in the standings and Danica Patrick made a solid debut at Martinsville by finishing in 12th.
Tony Stewart finished in 17th place, while Jamie McMurray, Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle and Mark Martin rounded out the top 10. Johnson is first in the standings with 231 points, six ahead of Keselowski and 12 ahead of Junior. Patrick is back in 26th place, while her boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is right behind.
Kyle Busch has used his strong start to be in fourth place, while Greg Biffle is sixth, followed by Carl Edwards, Bowyer, Paul Menard and Matt Kenseth. Based on just rookies, Patrick is behind Stenhouse, who has 158 in 15th place.
The next race will be the NRA sponsored race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Texas at Texas Motor Speedway.