Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya both came away with top-five finishes — Montoya third; Gordon fifth. But they also came away with potentially hard feelings after some bruising back-and-forth action at the 100-lap mark.

The repeated bumping left Gordon keying his radio to crew chief Steve Letarte in frustration. Although the two raced cleanly later in the Tums Fast Relief 500, afterward Gordon hoped that their fender-clanging battle was behind them.

"He's an aggressive driver," Gordon said of Montoya. "We've seen it from him before. I thought I did something to make him mad because I didn't understand why he was just driving into me for no reason. But hey, that is Martinsville. That's kind of the way he drives. And I just tried not to make him mad anymore and race him as clean as I could. … I hope it's not something that transfers over because I don't know really what I did, if I did do something."

Montoya, who said "we're OK" after talking with Gordon after the race, indicated that the angst was part of a pattern with the four-time champ that extended beyond Sunday's race.

"It's just every time we've been around him racing against him, he runs the hell out of me," Montoya said. "He moved me out of the way before, and he was starting to do the same here today. You know, I was running the outside of him and every time, he was just getting wider and wider.

"… It's OK. I never really had a big problem with him, but he's always so hard to race against," Montoya added. "But he probably says the same thing against me."

Yellow fever: Denny Hamlin's trip to victory lane didn't seem like it would be complete without some late-race drama. In terms of intensity, NASCAR's shortest track came through in the clutch.

Three caution periods in the final 16 laps only wound up slowing Hamlin's charge, but two of the late yellow flags resulted in some head-scratching — one over its validity, the other for safety reasons.

Hamlin had built a significant lead when a caution flag flew for debris in the 485th of an eventual 501 laps. The yellow erased his advantage and forced him to duel alongside Jimmie Johnson in a double-file restart.

"I did see that debris for sure. It was in Turn 1. However, it was there at lap 100," Hamlin said with a touch of deadpan humor. "It was. I'm not kidding you. It was there. However, I don't know if there was another piece of debris somewhere. There could have been. It's tough for me to say. … But I know the piece I saw them pick up had been there for 200 or 300 laps."

The race ended under caution after John Andretti spun on the frontstretch, then stalled precariously crossways at the start-finish line. NASCAR officials waited to call the caution, hoping to avoid an anticlimactic finish if Andretti could right his car. He didn't, and the caution and checkered flags flew simultaneously as the field barreled out of turn four.

"It makes me a little nervous as I'm charging into the start-finish line, there's a car sitting there," Johnson said. "I wish it would be thrown a little bit earlier for safety reasons. Might as well be on the safe side."

Said Hamlin: "I think the car was right at the start-finish line and somewhat out of danger's way, and I think he was trying to get going. But I think they're at least doing a good job of not letting it affect the top five finishing positions or anything like that. They're doing all they can."

Enlarge By John Harrelson, Getty Images Jeff Gordon clings to a slim margin ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in the early stages of Sunday's race at Martinsville.