2010 TUMS Fast Relief 500

Background

Martinsville Speedway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Richmond International Raceway, Dover International Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and Phoenix International Raceway. The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long. The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has zero degree banking. The racetrack has seats for 63,000 spectators.

Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 5,843 points, and Denny Hamlin stood in second with 5,802 points. Kevin Harvick followed in third with 5,766 points, seventy-nine ahead of Jeff Gordon and 100 ahead of Kyle Busch in fourth and fifth. Tony Stewart with 5,666 was twenty-three points ahead of Carl Edwards, as Greg Biffle with 5,618 points, was twelve ahead of Kurt Busch, and fourteen in front of Jeff Burton. Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer was eleventh and twelfth with 5,587 and 5,543 points. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 230 points, forty-five points ahead of their rival Toyota. Ford, with 145 points, was twenty-three points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third. Hamlin was the race's defending champion.

Practice and qualifying

Three practice sessions will be held before the Saturday race—one on Friday, and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, while the second session lasted 45 minutes. The third and final session lasted 60 minutes. During the first practice session, Stewart, for the Stewart Haas Racing team, was quickest ahead of Hamlin in second and Juan Pablo Montoya in the third position. Biffle was scored fourth, and David Reutimann managed fifth. Bowyer, David Ragan, A. J. Allmendinger, Gordon, and Joey Logano rounded out the top ten quickest drivers in the session.

Afterward, during qualifying, forty-eight cars were entered, but only forty-three was able because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Hamlin clinched his ninth pole position during his career, with a time of 19.518. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Marcos Ambrose. Biffle qualified third, Ryan Newman took fourth, and Montoya started fifth. Johnson, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified nineteenth, while Harvick was scored thirty-sixth. The four drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Michael McDowell, Johnny Sauter, Robby Gordon, and Terry Cook, while the other, Dennis Setzer withdrew from qualifying. Once the qualifying session completed, Hamlin commented, "We spent all day working on qualifying trying to get the pole — trying to get that first pit stall because obviously we do feel like it's very important. I think if I’m ahead of the 48 then I could possibly set the tone in whether he leads a lap or not. That's a 10-point swing. That's a little bit of it. It all starts today and that's where our strategy's at. Other than that, I plan on trying to go out there and lead the most laps and win the race — just like everyone else is."

On the next morning, Brad Keselowski was quickest in the second practice session, ahead of Bowyer and Harvick in second and third. Allmendinger was fourth quickest, and Ambrose took fifth. Burton, Jamie McMurray, Bobby Labonte, Ragan, and Johnson followed in the top-ten. Other drivers in the chase, such as Carl Edwards, was twenty-sixth, and Kyle Busch, who was twenty-seventh. During the third, and final practice session, Biffle, with a fastest time of 19.799, was quickest. Burton and Bowyer followed in second and third with times of 19.866 and 19.867 seconds. McMurray managed to be fourth fastest, ahead of Harvick and Johnson. Gordon was scored seventh, Hamlin took eighth, Aric Almirola was ninth, and Mark Martin was tenth.

Race

The race, the thirty-second out of a total of thirty-six in the season, began at 1:00 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States on ESPN. Prior to the race, weather conditions were sunny with the air temperature around 65 °F (18 °C). During the race, the temperature will be as high as 76 °F (24 °C) Eddie Barton, of Raceway Ministries, began pre-race ceremonies, by giving the invocation. Next, Winston-Salem State University's Marching Band performed the national anthem, and each pit crew of the teams in the race gave the command for drivers to start their engines. Before the pace laps, Robby Gordon replaced Kevin Conway in the 7 car.

Denny Hamlin accelerated faster than Marcos Ambrose off the line, getting ahead of him down the front straightaway. After starting fifth, Juan Pablo Montoya had fallen to seventh by the fifth lap. Montoya continued to lose positions, as Jeff Gordon took over the eighth position from Carl Edwards. On lap 11, Ambrose became the leader, after passing Hamlin. Two laps later, Hamlin had fallen to fourth, while Tony Stewart fell to eighth position. By the twenty-first lap, Ambrose had a 0.9 second lead over the second position. After starting thirty-sixth, Kevin Harvick had moved to twenty-seventh by lap 23. Hamlin continued to lose positions, dropping back to eleventh in less than thirteen laps. Landon Cassill drove to the garage because of problems with his car's brakes on lap 28. Four laps later, Jimmie Johnson took over thirteenth, after passing Scott Speed.