Denny Hamlin ended a 31-race winless streak in the Sprint Cup Series after beating Brad Keselowski in a fierce battle for the lead in the closing laps of Sunday's STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin, who hails from nearby Chesterfield, Virginia, passed Matt Kenseth, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, for the lead with 28 laps to go. Keselowski, the winner of last weekend's race in Fontana, California, challenged Hamlin for the top spot during the last 20 laps of this 500-lap race.

Coming out of the final turn of the last lap, Keselowski nudged Hamlin from behind in an attempt to take the lead. Hamlin wiggled slightly but held on to it, beating Keselowski to the finish line by just 0.186 seconds for his 25th career Sprint Cup win but his first since last May at Talladega.

Hamlin, the driver of the No. 11 Toyota for JGR, led a total of 91 laps. He grabbed the top spot for the first time on lap 148, but shortly after during a round of pit stops under caution, he was penalized for a tire that got away from his pit stall. The penalty dropped him far back in the field.

Keselowski's second-place run marked his best finish at Martinsville.

It's also the fifth time Hamlin has won a Cup race at Martinsville, which is the oldest and smallest track -- 0.526 miles in length -- in NASCAR's premier series.

Kenseth ended up finishing fourth, while David Ragan, substituting for the injured Kyle Busch in JGR's No. 18 car, placed fifth. Martin Truex Jr. and Danica Patrick were sixth and seventh, respectively.

Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray completed the top-10.