Johnson's lead in points grows with win at Indy

~ The driver of the No. 48 car hopes to follow a trend of parlaying a Brickyard victory into a Nextel Cup championship.

INDIANAPOLIS -- If Jimmie Johnson wants to finally capture his first Nextel Cup championship, winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a step in the right direction.

Johnson pulled off a gritty win at the Brickyard on Sunday, battling back from an early tire problem to take the lead, only to see it evaporate when a late debris caution bunched up the field. It dropped him from first to eighth and forced him to slice his way to the front in the final 14 laps.

But he did it with ease and pulled away for his third major victory of the season. Johnson won the season-opening Daytona 500 -- the only event that trumps Indianapolis in prestige -- and also triumphed in NASCAR's All-Star race.

"Pucker up and get ready to kiss those bricks!" Johnson said in Victory Lane.

Now he'll have to see if he can translate his Indy win into a championship.

The winner of the Brickyard automatically becomes the favorite to win the title, and five of the past eight went on to do it.

Johnson will now give it a try in his constant pursuit of an elusive first championship.

The perpetual points leader has never been able to put together a full season, and his swoon typically begins in Indy. He wrecked here and lost his points lead last season to race winner Tony Stewart, who parlayed the victory into his second championship while Johnson faded all the way back to fifth.

Matt Kenseth, who has been sitting in second behind Johnson the past nine weeks, finished second and is 107 points out of the lead.

"The 48 came out of nowhere and blew us all and won the race," said Kenseth. "He just got through traffic better than us. He just did a better job of being in the right place getting through those cars."

Kevin Harvick was third and Clint Bowyer, his rookie teammate at Richard Childress Racing, was fourth.

Mark Martin was fifth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. stole a sixth-place finish by not pitting on the final caution to salvage a horrible day and reclaim the 10th spot in the Chase for the championship standings.

Kyle Busch was seventh, followed by Stewart, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch.

Jeff Burton, who started from the pole and led a race-high 87 laps, finished a disappointing 12th after fading late.

Jeff Gordon, looking to race his way into the record books, never got the chance. He broke the sway bar on his Chevrolet just eight laps into the race and had to stop to have the part replaced. The repair work dropped him three laps off the pace. He worked his way back onto the lead lap but wound up 16th.

The poor day prevented him from tying two distinguished marks -- joining Formula One superstar Michael Schumacher as the only five-time winners in Indy history, and the late Dale Earnhardt's mark of 76 Cup wins.

Gordon still had reason to celebrate when his teammate and protege pulled out the victory.

It was no easy feat, especially when Johnson's Chevrolet got a flat tire just 39 laps into the race. It forced him into the pits and dropped him all the way back to 38th.

But the Hendrick Motorsports team showed its strength by giving Johnson a car strong enough to slice his way to the front and into the lead with about 100 miles to go.

The win appeared to be locked up, until the yellow flag came out for debris on the track with 19 laps left. Johnson was the first car onto pit road, and crew chief Chad Knaus decided to give him four fresh tires.

Kenseth also took four and beat Johnson off pit road. But they were both trumped by Denny Hamlin and Bowyer, who took only two tires to beat them off pit road.

They all had to settle in behind four cars that didn't pit at all -- including Earnhardt, who was running around 30th most of the day and was desperate to salvage a decent finish. The race restarted with 14 to go and Kenseth and Johnson were off, quickly working their way past Hamlin and Bowyer and a handful of others.

Then Johnson knocked off Kenseth, and had only Busch and Earnhardt in front of him. Earnhardt passed Busch to take a brief lead, but Johnson took it away moments later.

He was off from there, and no one had a chance to catch him.

But he wouldn't count the win until he crossed the finish line, and even that moment was almost ruined. A three-car accident that collected Chase contenders Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle on the final lap almost sent the race into overtime.

But NASCAR didn't call the caution until after Johnson crossed the line, giving him a win at the track that had vexed him so many times before.

Johnson came to Indy as the series leader the past two years, but finished 36th in 2004 and 38th last year to cough up his points lead.

"I'm just speechless," he said. "This track has given me so many problems."