Given a chance, Hamlin says, he might get even

Denny Hamlin is not backing off a comment he made the last time the Sprint Cup series raced at Martinsville Speedway, saying he will do to Jimmie Johnson what Johnson did to him.

Johnson and Hamlin made contact racing for the lead with 16 laps left in the March race. Hamlin drifted high and Johnson shot past on the way to his fifth win in the last six races at Martinsville. Hamlin finished second.

Johnson said after the race that he tried everything he could to avoid the contact. Hamlin didn't quite see it that way then... and still doesn't.

"If I'm in the same situation, I definitely will have that in the back of my mind and probably will do the same to him," Hamlin said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. "There's been a couple of instances at the end of races, Loudon, N.H., Chicago, where I nudged Jimmie out of the way with a few laps to go to get a position, but it's never really been for a race win.

"I'm not going to say that I owe him one or anything like that, but I'm going to race hard to try to get a win, especially in the situation that I'm at right now. I can afford to be a little bit more aggressive and just do everything I can.

"Of course, you're going to think if he's in the same situation, second behind me, he'll probably do the same thing again or maybe to someone else. Any driver to be put in the second or first position right now at Martinsville, you're going to have pretty much the same outcome, no matter what, whether you owed somebody something or not."

Hamlin fell to 11th in the points after failing to finish Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Johnson is first and halfway to a record-breaking fourth consecutive title.

Such late-race situations, which Hamlin experienced in March, show how much emotion a driver displays.

"There's too much riding on the line to show too much emotion," Hamlin said. '

OUT FOR YEAR

Tony Cardamone, jackman for Michael Waltrip's team, is out for the season after suffering a hairline fracture and torn ligaments in his ankle. He was injured when he collided with a teammate and fell during a pit stop Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Getty Cavitt will replace Cardamone.

NEW JOB

Doug Richert has been hired as Robby Gordon's crew chief for the rest of the season. Gordon is 34th in the points heading into Martinsville, with two top-20 finishes in his last 10 starts.

COMBINE

The Drive for Diversity program held its two-day combine at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, where 30 drivers fought for 10 spots in the 2010 program.

Those 10 are competing for four seats with the program's Camping World Series teams. They are: Mackena Bell (Carson City, Nev.), Jessica Brunelli (Hayward, Calif.), Michael Cherry (Valrico, Fla.), Ryan Gifford (Winchester, Tenn.), Paulie Harraka (Fair Lawn, N.J.), Rebecca Kasten (Mequon, Wis.), Sergio Pena (Catharpin, Va.), Juan Pitta (Galt, Calif.), Katie Hagar (Nobleboro, Maine) and Darrell Wallace Jr. (Mobile, Ala.).

PIT STOPS

Although he won at Martinsville in the spring, Johnson will bring a different car this weekend. Johnson has 14 consecutive top-10 finishes at Martinsville. Teammate Jeff Gordon has 13 consecutive top-10 's there.

- Dustin Long