October 27, 2013     By Joe Menzer, Special to NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. –  Who is Mr. Martinsville now? Jeff Gordon once appeared to own sole possession of that title, but he ceded it to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson several years ago. Gordon took a large step toward reclaiming it Sunday when he earned his first win of the season, and the eighth of his career at Martinsville Speedway, by capturing the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500. Gordon made what proved to be the winning pass on Matt Kenseth with 21 laps to go and then held off Kenseth…

  By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala.—Enter the interloper. In a race dominated early by Matt Kenseth and later by fellow title contenders Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray got to the front at the right time, led the last 15 laps and grabbed victory in Sunday's Camping World RV Sales 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. McMurray was out front, leading Earnhardt in the sixth Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the season, when a slight tap from Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s Ford sent Austin Dillon's Chevrolet spinning into the outside wall on the backstretch. Impact from Casey Mears'…

  By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C.—Brad Keselowski proved once again Saturday night that quality and timing trump quantity. Keselowski led 11 laps in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kasey Kahne led 138. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson led 130. But Keselowski overcame a loose wheel and a jack that spent a lap under the side of his car to win the fifth race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, as a late caution squelched Johnson’s march toward the series lead. Keselowski, the reigning series champion, won for the first time this season, the first…

  By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan.— Kevin Harvick crashed the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup party. Kyle Busch simply crashed—at a track that continues to bedevil him. And with a bizarre power failure in the last two laps, Johnson failed to cash in decisively on Matt Kenseth’s skittishness with the new tire combination Goodyear brought to Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. The fourth race in the Chase ended as it began, with Harvick out front. The driver of the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet crossed the finish line more than a football field ahead of…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del.—Jimmie Johnson's run toward a possible sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship shifted into high gear Sunday at Dover International Speedway. On two fresh tires to polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s four, Johnson held off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate during a 26-lap green-flag run to the finish of the AAA 400 and made a significant dent in the series lead of Matt Kenseth, who finished seventh. Johnson picked up his fifth victory of the season, his record eighth at the Monster Mile—breaking a tie with Richard Petty and Bobby Allison—and the 65th of his career. The driver…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   LOUDON, N.H.—Was this real or instant replay? For the second straight week, in the second race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Matt Kenseth led Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to the finish line — and for Kenseth, who has struggled at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, that added a dreamlike quality to the victory. The top seed in the Chase, Kenseth won Sunday's Sylvania 300 by .533 seconds over Busch as JGR asserted its superiority for the second consecutive week. A half hour after the race ended, the magnitude of the victory was…