INDIANAPOLIS -- Car owner Chip Ganassi got the expected result from an unexpected source in Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as race winner Jamie McMurray joined one of Cup racing's most exclusive clubs.

Restarting second thanks to a two-tire call on a Lap 140 pit stop, McMurray powered his No. 1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet past Kevin Harvick's No. 29 Chevy on a restart with 11 laps left and pulled away to beat Harvick to the finish line by 1.391 seconds.

"I get to kiss the bricks," McMurray said after he crossed the stripe, adding another milestone to his career and Ganassi's unbelievable year.

McMurray gave Ganassi his first Daytona 500 win in February. In May, Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 in one of Ganassi's cars. On Sunday, Ganassi hit the unprecedented trifecta. No other car owner has won all three major races, much less in the same year.

At the same time, McMurray joined Dale Jarrett (1996) and Jimmie Johnson (2006) as the only drivers to win the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year.

"I'm the luckiest guy on the planet," Ganassi said. "You wouldn't dare to dream this. You wouldn't dare to dream this kind of year."

The Brickyard victory, however, had a bittersweet edge to it. McMurray's teammate, Juan Montoya, tabbed as the driver more likely to finish the triple for his owner, did nothing to dispel that notion early on. Montoya led a race-high 86 laps but lost the lead when six teams -- including those of McMurray and Harvick -- opted for two tires on the Lap 140 pit stop under caution for debris. Montoya took four tires.

Montoya floundered in dirty air, dropped four positions and ultimately lost control of his car and crashed on Lap 145. For the second consecutive year, the Brickyard 400 ended in heartbreak for Montoya, who led 116 of 160 laps last year only to be thwarted by a pit road speeding penalty.

Greg Biffle finished third in his No. 16 Ford, the only non-Chevrolet to qualify in the top 10. Clint Bowyer was fourth and Tony Stewart fifth. Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch completed the top 10.

McMurray was concerned when Harvick passed him two laps after a restart on Lap 143.

"When Kevin got by me a few laps from the end, I thought it was over," McMurray said. "It's unreal right now. How about Chip winning the [Indianapolis] 500 and both of these big races? We're just a great team right now.

"Honestly, when Juan was leading and I was in second [before the debris caution on Lap 137] -- I'm a big believer in fate -- I thought this was how it was meant to be. I won the Daytona 500, Dario won the 500, and I thought Juan was going to win this one. I'm just shocked I won the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year."

Harvick was philosophical. He could afford to be, having increased his Cup Series lead to 184 points on second-place Jeff Gordon, who finished 23rd.

"We took a gamble there at the end to take two tires," Harvick said. "On the first restart [Lap 143], it took off great. We were able to run Jamie down and pass him. Second restart [Lap 150], it didn't take off so great. Just got tight. He drove around the outside of me.

"I guess just the first cycle on those new right-side tires carried us through. We were just tight the whole second restart. But still -- a great day. Took a chance to try to win the race. All but capitalized on it and came up one short."

INDIANAPOLIS -- Juan Montoya took advantage of an early qualifying draw and a slightly conservative approach from Jimmie Johnson to win the pole for Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as Chevrolets claimed nine of the first 10 starting spots.

With a lap at 182.278 mph (49.375 seconds) Saturday morning, Montoya earned his second pole of the season and the fourth of his career. He'll start Sunday's Cup race beside Johnson (182.142 mph), whose desire to avoid mistakes during time trials may have cost the three-time Brickyard winner a shot at the pole.

"It was a good lap," said Montoya, who lost an excellent chance to win last year's race when NASCAR busted him for speeding on pit road. "I think in [Turn] 2, I got a little bit tight and had to brake a little bit coming off, but I don't think it was a major deal. ... Everywhere else was pretty good.

"We came here and [tire] tested, and when we got off the truck, it was good; put it in the truck, it was good -- brought it here, it was good. So I've just got to make sure to do everything right [Sunday] and see what happens."

Despite a late draw and a racing surface that grew hotter as the session progressed, Mark Martin qualified third at 181.803 mph. Jamie McMurray, Montoya's teammate, claimed the fourth starting spot with a lap at 181.748 mph.

A pair of later qualifiers took the third row: Ryan Newman (fifth at 181.741 mph) and Clint Bowyer (sixth at 181.517 mph). Greg Biffle, the only non-Chevy driver in the top 10, put his No. 16 Ford in the seventh starting position with a lap at 181.353 mph. Jeff Gordon, Cup points leader Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton completed the top 10.

Johnson was intent on avoiding the sorts of mistakes he had made during Friday's practice.

"I was really proud of what I did, because [Friday] I continued to make mistakes," Johnson said. "I was getting three of the four corners right and couldn't get all four right. So I made sure [Saturday] that I did my job -- and maybe left a little bit on the table, because I wanted to be very line-specific and not make a mistake."

Jacques Villeneuve earned the final starting spot among those required to qualify on speed. He, Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr. (who starts 25th) are former winners of the Indianapolis 500.

David Gilliland, Casey Mears, David Stremme and J.J. Yeley failed to qualify for the 43-car field. Yeley failed to complete his lap after spinning and smacking the outside wall.

JOLIET, Ill. -- With no asterisk and no apology, David Reutimann won the second Sprint Cup race of his career Saturday night in the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Reutimann, whose previous victory came in last year's rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, crossed the finish line .727 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards, who posted his best finish -- and only second top five -- of the season.

"There was no rain [Saturday night]," Reutimann said in Victory Lane. "We earned this one. Nobody gave it to us, and that feels really good."

Reutimann, who is in a contract year at Michael Waltrip Racing, recently reached a handshake agreement on a three-year extension with the team.

"[Saturday night] we earned it, and it's a total team effort," Reutimann said. "Everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing did a phenomenal job. I don't even know what to say. You think about these moments all your life, and you think about all the right things to say.

"I'm about to cry -- this is awesome."

And as of Saturday night, Reutimann can wave goodbye to any asterisks that were attached to his first career win because of the rain.

"I've probably not seen anyone have to walk around for a year-and-a-half and apologize about winning a race," MWR general manager Ty Norris said.

Norris said the team would announce specifics about the futures of Reutimann and crew chief Rodney Childers at Indianapolis on July 23.

"These guys proved [Saturday night] that they deserve a contract," Norris said. "They deserve to be around."

Jeff Gordon ran third after leading 47 laps late in the race. Clint Bowyer came home fourth, followed by pole-sitter Jamie McMurray. Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Paul Menard completed the top 10.

It was the 600th career start for Gordon, who joked that he's beginning to feel a little old.

"I do when I get out of that race car and everything aches," Gordon said. "It didn't used to be like that."

As Reutimann hunted Gordon down for the lead, his team came on the radio and encouraged him to wait for Gordon to make a mistake.

"Are you kidding?" Reutimann joked. "He's Jeff Gordon. When's he going to make a mistake?"

But Gordon did develop handling problems, allowing Reutimann to take the lead on Lap 213. He moved in front again after a cycle of pit stops.

After the final round of green-flag stops, Edwards was gaining on Reutimann at the end of the race but ran out of time.

"Second is bittersweet," Edwards said. "You want to win, but we're obviously very happy with the result. If we run that well every week, we'll win plenty of races. The key is that we ran so well. If we can continue that every week we will be in good shape.

"Three more laps and we would have been right there, but you never really know, I guess, because it depends on how hard he is running, too. But I feel like with three more laps, things would have gotten really interesting."

What was an excellent night for Reutimann, Edwards and Gordon was a disaster for Cup points leader Kevin Harvick and four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson.

Harvick fought trouble all race long, at one point bringing his No. 29 Chevrolet to the garage to change the fuel pump and fuel pump cable. He lost 16 laps in the process and finished 34th, 16 laps down.

Gordon, who is second in the standings, cut Harvick's advantage from 212 points to 103.

Johnson may have had the fastest car -- having led the first 92 laps -- but he hurt his own cause twice before the race was 150 laps old. On the way to a green-flag stop on Lap 93, Johnson missed the entrance to pit road, lost the lead to McMurray and spent the next 40 laps running down the driver of the No. 1 Chevy.

Less than two laps after a restart on Lap 136, Johnson spun on the backstretch while running in close quarters with the No. 56 Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. It was impossible to tell, even after multiple replays, whether Truex's car made slight contact with Johnson's Chevy or whether Truex simply took the air off Johnson's spoiler and caused him to lose control.

Whatever the case, Johnson restarted 24th on Lap 141, and matters got worse. On Lap 169 Johnson radioed, "Right-front flat -- I scrubbed the wall a little bit," and brought his car to pit road for four new tires. He came out of the pits two laps down and ultimately finished 25th, one lap down

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kevin Harvick started up front and finished up front in Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, but what happened in between was a maelstrom of frenetic racing after a series of late-race accidents.

Streaking into the lead on the first lap of a green-white-checkered-finish, Harvick held off Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the rain-delayed Cup Series race.

With more than half the field eliminated or hobbled by a series of spectacular accidents, Harvick crossed the finish line a car-length ahead of Kahne and solidified his hold on the top spot in the Cup standings.

Jeff Burton ran fifth, followed by Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Reed Sorenson, Mike Bliss and Scott Speed.

The victory was Harvick's second of the season and the 13th of his career. Gordon moved to second in the standings, 212 points behind Harvick. Earnhardt's fourth-place result put him back inside the top 12 with eight races left before the Chase field is set Sept. 11 at Richmond.

Contact from Sam Hornish Jr. sent teammate Kurt Busch into the Turn 4 wall on Lap 159 to set up the two-lap dash to the finish.

Even with his sizable points lead, Harvick wasn't ready to say he should be favored to dethrone four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson.

"I think until somebody beats him -- until we get to Homestead [the season finale] and that happens, he's still the guy to beat," Harvick said. "For us, we've got to keep working hard. We're in a fortunate position with the start to our season, and we've got to keep working on our cars and trying to make things better, and hopefully, when the stress starts with 10 weeks to go, we'll be as ready as we've ever been."

NASCAR red-flagged the race for more than 20 minutes with 12 laps remaining after a colossal 20-car chain-reaction collision in Turn 3 strewed debris all over the race track. Mark Martin's Chevrolet sustained the most spectacular damage, with the driver of the No. 5 bringing his flaming car to pit road before members of Jimmie Johnson's crew helped him escape from the car.

Among those whose winning chances were destroyed in the wreck were Johnson, Tony Stewart, Juan Montoya, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman.

TNT analyst Kyle Petty called the wreck "the official first fireworks of the Fourth of July," since the incident occurred just after midnight.

David Stremme's spin through Turn 3 on Lap 136 provided an opportunity for pit stops with 23 laps left in the race. Kurt Busch won the race off pit road, but the field couldn't complete a full lap before a crash involving Matt Kenseth and Elliott Sadler slowed the field for the fifth time.

That was just an appetizer, however, for the wild melee that followed on Lap 148.

David Ragan turned sideways in Turn 3 and triggered a Lap 117 wreck that demolished the car of Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray and damaged the vehicles of Martin Truex Jr. and Kahne, who slid in oil and hit the wall behind the collision. The wreck knocked Truex out of the race, but Kahne recovered to run in the top 10 before finishing second.

"You had to be aggressive and drive your car sideways all night long," Kahne said. "That's just the way it was. I felt like I had one of the best cars from start to finish -- even hitting the wall I still felt like we had a great car. It was just a wild race. I really enjoyed it."

After climbing to second in the Cup standings, Kyle Busch had his third consecutive star-crossed run. Contact with Montoya's Chevrolet on Lap 104 sent Busch's No. 18 Toyota -- leading the race at the time -- nose-first into the backstretch wall. Busch finished 40th.

The 18 different leaders Saturday night were a record for the event.

LOUDON, N.H. -- In what was billed as a race full of potential payback after last week's shootout at Sonoma, revenge had to wait until the final three laps of Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

That's when Jimmie Johnson gave Kurt Busch's No. 2 Dodge a race-winning retaliatory nudge as the drivers raced into Turn 3 on Lap 299.

Busch had shocked Johnson on Lap 294 of 301 at the 1.058-mile track when he shoved Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet up the track in Turn 3, moments after the final restart of the race. Busch's lead was short-lived, however, as Johnson bumped him on Lap 299 and completed the winning pass in Turn 1 on Lap 300.

Tony Stewart ran second, .753 seconds behind Johnson, after his No. 14 Chevy slid into Busch's Dodge in Turn 1 while overtaking him for the runner-up spot. Busch finished third, ahead of Jeff Gordon and Cup points leader Kevin Harvick.

Gordon, who had angered fellow drivers -- particularly Martin Truex Jr. -- with his aggression last week, left New Hampshire unscathed.

"When we got going on the restart, Kurt knocked me out of the way, and I thought, 'I don't care if I win this race or not -- I don't care if I finish this damn thing -- I am running into him and getting back by him one way or another," Johnson said after being doused with beer in Victory Lane.

"I'm not good at doing that stuff. Usually I crash myself in the process, so I tried once and moved him -- [and thought] 'Oh, yeah, I've got to hit him harder' -- and the second time I moved him out of the way and was able to get by him and was able to get going."

Johnson admitted his mind was filled with bad intentions after Busch bumped him.

"I have to say I was a little shocked, and I haven't spoken to him or really seen any video to know, if he slipped and accidentally got into me or that was his intention," Johnson said. "If it was his intention, that's the first time in nine years racing with him that I have experienced that and definitely changed the way that I race with him from that point moving on.

"My thought process was, 'Wreck his ass.' And my end result was like, 'You can't do that, you'll wreck yourself, you'll look like a fool. You still have a chance to win the race, focus on your job and do your job.'

"It made it easier for me to get off the brake a little earlier and nudge him. But I don't want people to think, 'Oh, I can knock the 48 out of the way because he's not going to wreck me.' That's the last thing I want people to think. He didn't wreck me, and at the end of the day, I guess I didn't owe him a visit to the fence, so it worked itself out."

To Busch, the move and countermove were the essence of short-track racing -- and nothing out of the ordinary.

"It wasn't because he did something that I had to do something, or since I did something, he had to do it back," Busch said. "Driving down into Turn 3, I saw my window, and it was a perfect time to go for it, because our car was good on the short run, and once four or five laps got on the tires, I knew we were going to have a hard time holding them off and he was still going to be right there.

"So just a classic get-in-the-corner-a-little-bit-deeper-than-the-other-guy. We didn't just flat out wreck them. We didn't cut his tire. We didn't drive over him. It was just a nice nudge that we are all used to seeing and appreciating on short tracks."

The win, the 52nd of Johnson's career, allowed Johnson to solidify his hold on second in the standings and trim Harvick's points lead to 105. Johnson is tied with Denny Hamlin (14th Sunday) for most victories in the series, each worth 10 points when the field for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is set Sept. 11 at Richmond.

SONOMA, Calif. -- Jimmie Johnson scratched another item off his bucket list -- but not without unintended help from Marcos Ambrose.

Johnson inherited the lead in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway when Ambrose failed to keep up with the pace car during the final caution of the 110-lap race and pulled away from Robby Gordon in the final five laps to earn the first road-course victory of his career.

Ambrose had opened a lead of more than two seconds over Johnson when Brad Keselowski spun and stalled in Turn 7 to bring out the seventh caution on Lap 103. Attempting to save fuel during the caution laps, Ambrose lost power and slowed, and his No. 47 Toyota failed to refire.

Ambrose's engine finally started, but by then, the first six cars in the running order had passed him. Consequently, Ambrose restarted seventh with five laps left and was able to recover one position before the finish.

"Boys ... finally," Johnson radioed to his crew after crossing the finish line. "Better be ready to drink some beer here in a little bit. Woohoo! About time! Booyah!"

Johnson won for the fourth time this season and the 51st time in his career, breaking a tie for 10th on the all-time list with Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett. The victory was the 15th on a road course for Hendrick Motorsports, the most for one organization.

Ambrose could only reflect on what might have been. Only three other foreign drivers -- and no Australian -- had ever won a Cup race. Nor had team owners Tad Geschickter, Jodi Geschickter and Brad Daugherty.

"I was leading the race and had trouble getting the motor cranked back up a little bit there, and NASCAR made the call," Ambrose said as he walked back to his transporter after the race. "I was trying to save fuel, and the motor shut off. It didn't recrank the way it should. I didn't stop rolling, but it is what it is.

"I don't think [NASCAR should have made that call]. But that's in my opinion, because I lost the race. There's not a lot of words to say. I'm just sorry for my guys."

Johnson crossed the finish line 3.105 seconds ahead of Gordon and moved up four spots in the standings to second, 140 points behind leader Kevin Harvick, who ran third. Harvick began the day 22 points ahead of Kyle Busch, 47 ahead of Hamlin and 118 ahead of Kurt Busch. But all three struggled. Kyle Busch finished 39th, Hamlin 34th and Kurt Busch 32nd.

Pole-sitter Kasey Kahne was fourth, and Jeff Gordon fifth, but the major topic of discussion after the race was Ambrose's gaffe.

"With Marcos, we came around through Turn 1, and normally guys shut the car off downhill, coasting to save fuel," Johnson said. "I didn't think at first that he had shut the car off, going up the hill -- that's just the last place that he would probably do it.

"I thought maybe he ran out of fuel or had an electrical problem or something major, because the car just came to a stop. At that point, I'm thinking, 'How does the procedure work?' I know when you come to a stop, you're clearly not maintaining a reasonable speed, and it would be interesting to see where they put him.

"In one respect, I felt like, if they put him back up in front of me, I'd kind of see that as OK, although I'd be raising hell on the radio and cussing like crazy and trying to fight it, because it looked like his car broke, and it shut off. The way the rule reads, you have to maintain a reasonable speed, and coming to a stop on the racetrack is no speed.

"All that being said, I feel bad for him. His team owners gave my chance in [the] Nationwide [Series] in '98. ... It was definitely a gift kind of handed to us."

LONG POND, Pa. -- On a stormy Sunday turned sunny at Pocono Raceway, Denny Hamlin was the eye of the hurricane.

Hamlin won the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 at the 2.5-mile triangular track when an eight-car pileup on the Long Pond straightaway caused a caution that froze the running order on the final lap of a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

As Hamlin drove his car to a celebration in Victory Lane, Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano stopped his Toyota beside the Chevrolet of fourth-place finisher and Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick, climbed from his car and angrily confronted Harvick for spinning him in Turn 3 on Lap 199. It was the caution that forced the race into overtime.

Hamlin's day was far calmer as he drove to his series-leading fourth victory of the year, his fourth win in nine starts at Pocono and the 12th of his career. Pole-sitter Kyle Busch finished second and trimmed Harvick's lead in the Cup standings to 19 points.

Tony Stewart was third, followed by Harvick and Jimmie Johnson. Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, Juan Montoya, Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger completed the top 10 in a race that saw a broad spectrum of pit strategies play into the finishing order.

Before the race, Hamlin wrote a note to himself on the dashboard of his No. 11 Toyota that said, "Conserve."

"I just knew I had to conserve my car the first half of the race, and we rode about third for most of the race up until the halfway point," Hamlin said. "Then we turned it up when we needed to, and it was just a great feeling.

"I hated to see that last caution [for Logano's spin] -- really got my nerves going."

"Conserve" was not the watchword, however, when Hamlin restarted 15th on Lap 172 of 204 behind 13 cars that had remained on the track under caution and behind Busch, who had beaten him out of the pits.

Hamlin made short work of the traffic in front of him. By the time NASCAR called a caution for debris in Turn 3 on Lap 174, he was eighth. Nine laps after the subsequent restart on Lap 179, Hamlin passed Sam Hornish Jr. for the lead with a strong run off Turn 3.

Busch was hoping to make his record-breaking start memorable. At 25 years, 1 month and 4 days old he became the youngest driver ever to reach the 200-start plateau. Brian Vickers was 25 years, 11 months, 3 days old when he made his 200th start.

Busch led four times for 32 laps but wasn't complaining after coming up short. He's never been a fan of the quirky eastern Pennsylvania track. That didn't change even after his best finish here.

"Denny has this place figured out," Busch said. "I did the best I could. I went from about an 'F' at knowing how to get around here [Sunday] to about an 'A,' and an 'A' didn't get it done."

After Harvick turned Logano to bring out the caution that rattled Hamlin's nerves, the race winner pulled ahead on the final restart on Lap 203 and was comfortably in front when Kasey Kahne's Ford slid into the infield grass, shot back across the track and collided with the Chevy of Mark Martin and the Ford of Greg Biffle.

Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon, Marcos Ambrose, Ryan Newman and Elliott Sadler also sustained damage in the wreck.

None of the drivers were hurt, but tempers across the garage were frayed.

Kahne blamed Richard Petty Motorsports teammate Allmendinger for forcing him off the race track.

"I don't know what A.J. was doing there," Kahne said. "I don't ever really talk to him much, but you can bet I'll be talking to him this week."

Allmendinger took responsibility for the incident.

"I'm not really sure what happened," Allmendinger said. "Kasey had such a run on me, and I went to defend. By the time I defended, he was in the grass. That's my bad. I feel bad about that -- I really do. It is what it is, though."

Stewart, while admitting he didn't have enough car to chase down Hamlin, wasn't pleased either. He called the racing off the restarts "idiotic" and left little doubt that he'll seek payback starting next week in Michigan.

"I've seen some of the worst driving I've ever seen in my life in a professional series right here [Sunday]," he said. "So for anybody that's looking for drama for the next couple races, start looking because I can promise I'm going to start making the highlight reel the next couple weeks."

Stewart trails Bowyer by one point for the final Chase spot with 12 races left before the field is set at Richmond. Bowyer supplanted Ryan Newman, who finished 14th and dropped to 14th in standings, 18 points out of the 12th position

CONCORD, N.C. -- After storming from fifth place to the lead when teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch tangled on Lap 93 of 100, Kurt Busch survived two late cautions and held off Martin Truex Jr. to win the Sprint All-Star Race for the first time.

Most of the action in the Saturday night extravaganza was packed into the final 10-lap segment, in which only green flag laps were counted toward the total.

Joey Logano ran third, followed by Hamlin and Tony Stewart. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Bobby Labonte completed the top 10 in the non-points Cup Series race that paid $1,028,309 to the winner.

But first, there was drama.

The two hottest drivers in NASCAR lined up side-by-side for a final dash toward a cool $1 million prize.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Kyle Busch tangled in their race for the lead. Busch, furious at Hamlin, was waiting back at the team hauler for his teammate after unleashing an expletive-laden tirade over his radio.

"Somebody better keep me away from Denny Hamlin," Kyle Busch shouted. "I swear to God, I am going to kill [him]. All his ... fault. I had this race won! It was won!"

Hamlin and Kyle Busch, who have combined to win five of the past seven Cup Series races for JGR, were racing each other for the lead in the final segment of the annual All-Star event when Hamlin tried to block Busch's attempt at a pass.

The defensive move pinched Busch against the wall, and the contact sent him sliding back through the field. He later hit the wall again hard and bounced into Kasey Kahne to officially end his night.

Instead of taking his car to his own team hauler, he drove it over to Hamlin's and angrily punched the air after climbing from the car. Helmet and safety devices still on, he walked directly into Hamlin's truck while team owner Gibbs followed closely.

Hamlin, after finishing fourth, was directed by his team not to go to his truck. He stopped his car at the entrance to the garage, where he was met by several team members who escorted him to the hauler. The doors were closed behind him after he entered.

It took the spotlight away from Kurt Busch, who had no trouble closing out the victory over several late restarts. He beat Martin Truex Jr., who won the preliminary Sprint Showdown to transfer into the main event, by 0.358 seconds.

Joey Logano, the third JGR driver, finished third and said he would avoid stopping by Hamlin's hauler.

"I know nothing," he laughed. "I am not going near them. All I know is they are cool with me."

DOVER, Del. -- Kyle Busch took advantage of a rare mistake by four-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson to pull away for an easy win Sunday in the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway.

Busch, 25, a champion in waiting, and Johnson, a proven one, waged quite a battle on the high-banked, 1-mile track, the lead see-sawing back and forth between the two each time the race resumed following five caution periods and assorted green-flag stops.

But when Johnson was flagged for speeding while exiting the pits during a round of green-flag stops on Lap 363 and forced to return to pit road to serve a pass-through penalty, the battle was effectively finished.

By the time Johnson returned to the track, he was one lap down. And Busch was long gone.

"We snookered him on that one," Busch told his crew as he streaked past the finish line. "He saw us coming, and he sped."

Pitting closer to the entrance to pit road, Johnson had completed his stop and was making his way back onto the track when Busch shot out of his pit box alongside him.

Johnson said he didn't speed up to beat Busch back onto the track but was penalized for speeding before reaching Busch's pit stall.

"Yeah, I guess I got busted in the segment just leaving, or after, our pit box, the very next one," Johnson said. "So what I can take from this is that I got a much better launch out of my pit box than I did on other pit stops and then was speeding in that given area.

"At the end [of pit road], I wasn't busted. I knew Kyle had me beat when I saw the jack drop for him and he was easing away from me. And I kind of gave up at that point on racing him off of pit road because I knew we needed to be single file on the apron."

Jeff Burton finished second by 7.551 seconds. Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and David Reutimann completed the top five.

There were eight race leaders, but once Kasey Kahne faltered- -- bitten by a broken gear-shifter early in the race -- the battle for the win was between Busch and Johnson.

"I think the race off pit road really won it for us," Busch said, noting that he didn't know if Johnson sped in an attempt to beat him back onto the track, "but that's what I'm going with.

"I wouldn't say that we psyched Jimmie out. I mean, he's won four championships so he's pretty much been through all the head games in this world.

"But ... it kind of turned our way [Sunday]. Unfortunately for those guys ... they got busted for speeding and we weren't able to beat them outright and race them around to the end of the race the last 30 laps.

"But I feel like our car was at least good enough where we could at least challenge them for it, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we could have beat him [Sunday], with or without the penalty. But he had a fast race car all day. It was a fun battle there racing him through the last ... 100 laps or so."

Busch led six times for 131 laps, and the win moved him to second in the point standings. He trails points leader Kevin Harvick, who finished seventh, by 69 points.

Johnson led eight times for 225 laps. His 16th-place finish, however, dropped him two spots to fourth, in the standings.

 

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Denny Hamlin became the first driver in 17 years to sweep Darlington Raceway, winning the Sprint Cup race Saturday night after late mistakes took Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton out of contention.

Winner of the Nationwide Series race Friday night, Hamlin became the first driver since Mark Martin in 1993 to sweep the Darlington weekend. It was Hamlin's first victory at NASCAR's oldest superspeedway, and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has never finished lower than 13th in his five career starts at the difficult track.

"We had a top-two car all day," Hamlin said. "Us, Jeff and the other Jeff were really strong."

Hamlin led 104 of the 367 laps, but knew he was going to have to contend with both Gordon and Burton over the closing laps. That changed during the final pit stops.

Gordon planned to pit early under green, but had to abort the effort at the last second to avoid a collision with the cars closing quickly behind him. When he finally entered pit road a lap later, a spin by David Reutimann brought out the last caution of the race and Gordon had to hustle back onto the track to avoid losing a lap.

"When we were ready to come in and pit a little early, I just didn't signal the guys behind me in time and I was going to get run over. My fault," Gordon said. "I don't like making mistakes like that."

All the leaders headed to pit road under yellow and Burton, who had traded the lead with Hamlin right before the caution, came out in third. Only NASCAR flagged him for running over his air hose, Burton had to return to the pits for a penalty, and lost a ton of track position.

Hamlin restarted in first with 20 laps to go, while Gordon was 12th and Burton 13th.

Hamlin got a terrific restart in his Toyota over teammate Kyle Busch, then sailed to his third victory of this season to tie four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson for most wins this season in the Cup Series.

"You can't put this in words," Hamlin said. "Just an unbelievable night. Pit road did a phenomenal job getting me back on the track first, and that's what led to this win. We went back and forth all night and fine-tuned it to perfection at the end. Right there at the end, it was the best it's been all night. That's all you can ask for."

Jamie McMurray started from the pole and finished second in a Chevrolet, while Kurt Busch was third in a Dodge. Gordon came back from the late-race error to finish fourth, while Juan Montoya, McMurray's teammate, rounded out the top five.

Kevin Harvick held on to his lead in the Cup standings by finishing sixth. Harvick was up by 10 points over Johnson heading into Darlington, and extended it to an impressive 110 points after Johnson's miserable night ended in a crash -- his third DNF of the season -- and a 36th-place finish.

Kyle Busch was seventh, Burton rebounded to finish eighth, and Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers rounded out the top 10.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Frustration continued to dog Jeff Gordon, but on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, it was polesitter Kyle Busch -- not four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson -- who kept Gordon out of Victory Lane.

Busch surged past Gordon after a restart with five laps left in the Crown Royal 400 and cleared Gordon's Chevrolet to the outside through Turns 3 and 4. Four laps later, Busch beat Gordon to the finish line by .755 seconds.

The victory was Busch's 17th in the Cup Series. Kevin Harvick ran third behind Gordon, followed by Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards. Juan Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman, Marcos Ambrose and Johnson completed the top 10. Harvick took over the lead in the series standings from Johnson, who trails by 10 points through 10 events.

All told, Busch led 226 of 400 laps to Gordon's 144.

"I figured I was going to get the outside [for the last restart]," said Busch, who won the spring race at Richmond for the second straight year. "All I wanted to do was just get into Turn 1 smooth and get a good launch up off Turn 2 down the backstretch -- and then make sure I got into [Turn] 3 without over-driving it. ...

"I knew if I could just get through Turn 3 OK and hammer down off Turn 4 and get him cleared that it would be pretty good -- and it worked. That's what I did. Did I have a plan? Was that exactly my plan? No. I was just going to drive it as hard as I could, and make whatever happened happen. It worked, just off the cuff."

Gordon finished second for the eighth time since his last win in the series on April 5, 2009 at Texas, 39 races ago.

"I've been doing this long enough to know they don't give out trophies for leading any lap other than the last one," said Gordon, who reached the boiling point at Talladega last week after Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, forced him onto the apron in Turn 3. Moments later, Gordon was wrecked.

"We're a team that's made huge strides, in my opinion, from last year. ... That's what I'm excited about. We're leading laps at a lot of different types of tracks, and I think our team is really on top of our game.

"Yeah, it's a little disappointing that we haven't won some races yet, but if we keep doing this, those will come. We've got to keep putting ourselves in position."

Gordon led by 2.566 seconds when Elliott Sadler slid through the frontstretch grass with four flat tires to bring out the fourth caution of the race on Lap 367. When pit road opened on Lap 373, Gordon, Burton, Harvick, Montoya and Newman stayed out on tires that were three laps old when the caution flew.

Busch, Denny Hamlin, Truex Jr. and Edwards led a group to pit road for fresh rubber in preparation for a restart on Lap 378. Gordon was leading when the sixth caution flew on Lap 389 for Sam Hornish Jr.'s wreck on the backstretch. That set up the five-lap dash to the finish.

Busch ran away with the first half of the race, leading all but eight of the first 229 laps before Burton powered past him in Turn 3 on Lap 230. Burton held the top spot for 20 laps, only to surrender it to Gordon, whose car came to life in the middle of a long green flag run.

"I have no idea how this has just happened -- but I'm liking it," Gordon radioed to crew chief Steve Letarte after the pass for the lead. Gordon extended his advantage through a cycle of green flag pit stops, and by Lap 300 he had stretched his advantage over Harvick to 2.878 seconds.