With the boss’ 60th birthday on Sunday, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon put on quite the show for team owner Rick Hendrick. The 50-year-old veteran dominated Saturday night’s special at the Chicagoland Speedway as he put on a clinic for the other 42 cars behind him. Talking with crew chief Alan Gustafson and Mr. Hendrick early in the race, Martin reminded his crew it was a long race and “these things are hard to win.”

Perhaps Johnson was listening in to his teammate’s conversation, because late in the race Johnson turned up the heat. Stalking Martin as he paced the field, Johnson waited for the perfect time to make his move for the top-spot. Johnson took the lead from his teammate with less than fifty laps to go, but a late race incident dropped him out of contention for the win. In stepped Gordon and the race to honor Mr. Hendrick with a win was on.

Restarting the race with less than twenty laps remaining, Johnson opted to take the outside line on the double file restart with Denny Hamlin lined up behind him. As they drove through the corner, Hamlin was tucked up underneath the No. 48 pushing him through turns one and two as Johnson struggled to hang on to his ride.

With the No. 48 struggling to regain control, the rest of the leaders looked to take advantage. Martin moved past his teammate and set his sights on the lead once again, while Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon split Johnson off Turn 4. The three-time defending series champion slipped again and drove up the race track and into the side of Busch’s No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge. Clearly upset with Johnson, Busch drove back down the track and body slammed the No. 48 before falling back with a tire rub.

As all of this action unfolded, Martin simply began to drive away once again. Gordon, who had fresher tires than the leaders, was able to move past Hamlin and into the second spot as Kasey Kahne sat in fourth and Stewart Haas Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart raced for fifth and sixth.

The seventh and final caution of the day bunched the field together once again for a double-file restart with just three laps remaining. Martin chose the outside line for the restart and smoked his teammate at the green flag. As Martin drove into the Chicago night, Gordon was forced to hold off a hard-charging Kahne for second. In the end, the Hendrick cars were able to secure the 1-2 finish for the boss just hours before his 60th birthday – and gave a Hardcore Race Fans Donna and Richard Musgrave $1 million in the process.

“I’ve been watching [Ron] Hornaday. I had some nice restarts tonight,” Martin said with a smile in Victory Lane. “We could have parked the car yesterday with an hour left in practice. The car was awesome. The best car doesn’t usually win. The double-file restarts are to mess the best car up so he doesn’t win to make it good for the fans – and it did – but luckily we were able to pull it off anyway.”

“Well we had our struggles,” Gordon admitted. The driver of the No. 24 battled a tight condition in the early going and was forced to overcome an incident with Carl Edwards midway through the event. Pitting for tires late in the race, Gordon was able to take advantage of Johnson’s slip up on the restart and move into contention for the win.

“What an incredible call that Steve Letarte made. The whole pit crew did a fantastic job getting us off pit road with four tires,” Gordon went on to say. “Then it was just a battle with maneuvering through traffic, cars slipping and sliding all over the place. That last restart Mark went a little early and I just spun the tires when I tried to get it going. Still a great finish 1-2 for Hendrick.”

Following the race Kurt Busch had some harsh words for Jimmie Johnson, while the defending series champ was focused on another driver. After getting taken out by Johnson three weeks ago in Sonoma, Busch explained he is a bit surprised that Johnson once again ruined his night.

“The 48, we had got run into at Sonoma and we got run into again, I’m starting to lose faith in his ability to be a three-time champion on the track,” Busch said. “I’m disappointed. I gave him room and we got pounded into the fence and I had a left rear tire rub. Luckily we got a yellow, got her fixed and finished seventeenth. A couple runs spoiled by the 48, so I’m not digging it.”

Johnson had to think for a minute about his incident with Busch saying, “Heck, I don’t even know. I think the 24 got inside of me and got me loose, he was on new tires, the 2 and I touched and he body slammed me after that. That was the least of my problems.”

The driver that appeared to be on his way to his first victory at the Chicagoland Speedway explained his problem was with the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin. “The bigger problem I had was when I was leading and the 11 pushed me all the way through [turns] 1 and 2 and eventually I lost control of the car and that’s what put me back there. Just hard racing.”

“I was pushing the 48 going into Turn 1,” Hamlin explained on pit road. “I let go of him once we got to the corner but I was so close to him he got loose. It was just everyone going for a win, I mean he’d be stuffed up under me and last time I checked he got into me at Martinsville, so either way everyone’s going for a win there. He’s had his fare share and I was going for a win.”

Besides all the drama in the closing laps of the race, Saturday night’s LifeLock.com 400 was the Mark Martin show. After starting from the 14th-spot, Martin led four times for a total of 195 laps. Add that to the 58 laps Johnson led and you have 253 of the 267 laps led by a Hendrick Motorsports car. Not a bad present for the boss on his birthday.

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