After Johnson was assessed a drive-through penalty for jumping the final restart — a sanction Johnson protested vehemently — Stewart passed Juan Pablo Montoya on Lap 398 of 400 to win Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway.

The victory was the first of the season and third at Dover for Stewart, who has notched 42 of his 48 career wins after May 31. Stewart finished .788 seconds ahead of Montoya, who matched his career-best NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finish on an oval track.

Jeff Gordon came home third, followed by Kyle Busch and reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski. Johnson finished 17th, the first car one lap down, smarting from a penalty he felt was unjustified.

But Keselowski’s Ford failed the height-stick test in post-race inspection (too low in the front), with penalties expected after NASCAR’s completion meeting during the coming week.

Stewart, whose struggles this year have been well-documented, was happy to take the win, no matter how it came his way. Coming on the heels of a seventh-place run last week at Charlotte, a 1.5-mile downforce track, Stewart was happy to point out the progress his team is making.

“It’s definitely momentum,” Stewart said. “We got two weeks of momentum under our belt now at two totally different race tracks. That is big. Momentum is huge in this sport. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. We won’t sit… I guarantee you none of these guys behind you (his crew) will tell you we are exactly where we want to be right now. It’s a good reward for how hard they have been working to get that first win of the year.

“Now it’s trying to be more consistent and stay in the top 10 more and make our program better. It’s proof that no matter how bad it’s been this year, none of these guys have quit and given up. Just really proud of the effort this weekend; I think we probably made more gains from Friday to right now than any team in the garage did. I’m really proud of that fact.”

If Stewart was elated after the race, Johnson was still fuming.

“I totally disagree with the call, but it is what it is, and we’ll just come back and try to win in the fall,” he said.

Johnson knew he had beaten Montoya to the start/finish line, not knowing whether something was wrong with Montoya’s car, and said he tried to give the position back to the Colombian driver.

“I ran half-throttle for the first half a lap, waiting for him, and then at some point you’ve got to go, and you’ve got to race, and that’s when I got back in the gas and took off,” he explained. “I was hoping they would see that I was trying to give him the spot back.”

NASCAR vice president Robin Pemberton, however, described the penalty as cut-and-dried.

“That was an easy call — a very easy call,” Pemberton said. “He beat the 42 even out of the (restart) box, from what we could see on the film, we give ‘em an opportunity to give it back.”

Until the decisive penalty, it looked for all the world as if Johnson would claim a record eighth victory at the Monster Mile.

Johnson started 24th and, in the early stages of the race, had difficulty moving forward through traffic. In fact, the No. 48 Chevrolet SS went a lap down when Kyle Busch passed him on Lap 70.

But Johnson came to pit road early, on Lap 71, and used the extra time on new tires to regain the lost lap by the time NASCAR called an opportune caution for debris in Turn 2 on Lap 80. From that point on, it was a charge to the front by the five-time champion.

Johnson had worked his way up to sixth before a caution for debris on the backstretch slowed the field on Lap 160, moments after a blown engine eliminated what was arguably the strongest car in the race, Matt Kenseth’s No. 20 Toyota.

After a restart on Lap 165, Johnson again moved forward, finally taking the lead for the first time on Lap 206, passing Kyle Busch to the inside through Turns 1 and 2.

Just as a Johnson victory was looking academic, however, Denny Hamlin’s right front tire blew in Turn 1 and sent his No. 11 Toyota hard into the outside wall, bringing out the seventh caution of the race. Montoya took two tires when the lead-lap cars came to pit road and narrowly beat Johnson to the exit.

That turned the race inside-out, as NASCAR black-flagged Johnson for beating Montoya to the start/finish line on the restart on Lap 382. Montoya held off Stewart for 16 laps but wore out his tires in the process and had to surrender the top spot.

“In one of the runs under green, we decided to make a couple of big changes on the car, and the car just took off — came to life,” Montoya said. “It came to life at the right time. It’s a shame there at the end that it was way too loose. I just couldn’t hold Tony off.”

Notes: Despite running 17th, Johnson holds a 30-point lead over second-place Carl Edwards (14th Sunday) in the series standings… Kyle Busch, who has two victories this season, moved back into ninth place after falling out of the top 10 last week at Charlotte… Hamlin’s crash put a serious crimp in his effort to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup despite missing four races with a back injury. Hamlin dropped two spots to 26th in the standings and is 74 points behind Ryan Newman in 20th, the position he needs to reach to be eligible for a Chase wild card.

Truex will drive Phoenix Racing’s No. 51 Chevy.

I will be making my SPRINT CUP debut at Richmond in the #51 for Phoenix Racing. Running multiple races in 2013 as well as Indy NNS race

— Ryan Truex (@Ryan_Truex) February 18, 2013

The plan seems to be to run Dillon in six to eight, possibly more, Cup races this season to prepare him for 2014.

Dillon will drive for Circle Sport, a satellite team of Richard Childress Racing, the team owned by his grandfather. Dillon will also drive one race for Phoenix Racing and owner James Finch.

Dillon made one start for Circle Sport in the Sprint Cup Series last season, finishing 24th in the No. 33 Chevy in the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Stephen Leicht, Tony Raines, Elliott Sadler, Hermie Sadler, and Cole Whitt also drove for Circle Sport in 2012, with Leicht winning Rookie Of The Year honors.

Childress indicated that he didn’t know how many Cup races his grandson would run, saying that it depended on sponsorship.

Austin’s younger brother Ty Dillon may also run some Cup races. In 2014, the younger Dillon will move from the Camping World Truck Series to the Nationwide Series full time.

Many speculate that the elder Dillon may drive the No. 3 Chevy, which hasn’t been run in Cup since 2001, when Dale Earnhardt Sr died in a last lap crash in the Daytona 500.

Dillon finished third in the Nationwide Series standings, winning two races last year. He will look to improve upon that in 2013.

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Hendrick joined his No. 48 team in kissing the bricks at the finish line after driver Jimmie Johnson won Sunday’s Crown Royal 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking the checkered flag 4.758 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch and tying teammate Jeff Gordon for most NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins at the Brickyard — four.

The victory was Johnson’s third of the season — all but assuring he will remain the only driver to have qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup each year since the inception of NASCAR’s playoff format in 2004. Johnson won for the 58th time, leaving him eighth on the all-time list and second to Gordon among active drivers.

“Man, you just hope to race here — to come here and win is a huge honor,” Johnson said. “And to win four — four wins! I’m at a loss for words.”

A fourth-place finish propelled Hendrick teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the lead in the series standings, after Matt Kenseth, the points leader entering the race, wrecked out in 35th place.

The last time Earnhardt led the Cup standings was October 2004 after Talladega, but he held the top spot for only two days, thanks to a 25-point NASCAR penalty for cursing during a post-race television interview. He now leads by 14 points over Kenseth.

Greg Biffle came home third, followed by Earnhardt and Gordon. Pole-sitter Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart completed the top 10.

Johnson was asked whether he was already thinking of a fifth victory at Indy — something no one has done either in NASCAR or IndyCar — but Johnson prefers to take one thing at a time. Next on his list is a sixth Cup title.

“I’d love to be a five-time winner here, but I’d also like to win a sixth championship this year,” said Johnson, who string of titles was ended at five straight by Stewart last year. “That’s the thing that’s on my mind right now.”

Each previous time Johnson has won at the Brickyard, he has gone on to win the series championship — in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

Busch had an exceptional car, but it was no match for the rocket ship of Johnson, who put Chevrolet in the Indy winner’s circle for the 10th straight year.

“If it wasn’t for the 48, we were probably in our own zip code on the rest of the field,” Busch said. “But Jimmie Johnson was in his own country today, so we couldn’t keep up with him.

“He was really, really fast, and you could see it, too, on the restarts, when he could make it through the corners and he just put his car anywhere he wanted and would just slam on the gas pedal and take off from me. His car was down and digging.”

Racing side-by-side with Trevor Bayne on Lap 132, Joey Logano spun his No. 20 Toyota, bounced off the No. 47 Camry of Bobby Labonte and wiped out the No. 17 Ford of Kenseth, who was running near the outside wall, trying to slip past the wreck.

“The farther you got back (in the field), the dumber people drove, and it got us in some bad spots,” Kenseth said.

Carl Edwards’ first race with new crew chief Chad Norris went awry nearly from the outset. Edwards started second and contested the lead with Denny Hamlin for half a lap, but lost power and slowed on Lap 12 and brought his car to pit road.

By the time the No. 99 crew had the issue straightened out — after a green-flag pit stop followed by another under yellow on Lap 42 — Edwards was four laps down and effectively out of contention — not the sort of effort he needed in a winless season with a Chase position on the line. Edwards finished 29th.

The disappointing result left Edwards 12th in the standings and 61 points behind 10th-place Clint Bowyer (15th Sunday) with six races left before the Chase field is set at Richmond.

Ingersoll will appear as primary sponsor in the May Nationwide Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The company will also serve as an associate sponsor for the full N’Wide season.

Whitt replaced Aric Almirola, who left JRM’s No. 88 to join Richard Petty Motorsports in the team’s iconic No. 43 in the Sprint Cup Series.

While racing for second position on the 14th lap of the race, Hornday and Busch got three-wide going into Turn 1. Hornaday appeared to move up to pass a slower car, making it three-wide. Hornaday got a little loose and made contact with Busch, who was on his outside, in Turns 1 and 2.

Hornaday continued wiggling, trying to regain control of his truck. The two made contact again and both bounced of the wall. Both appeared to have tire rubs and cosmetic damage, but certainly nothing that would put them out of the race.

The caution came out and Hornaday was making his way back to pit road. Busch drove into the back of Hornaday and pushed him through Turn 3 wide open. He kept on Hornaday’s bumper, eventually turning him into the outside wall head-on. Hornaday made hard contact with the wall, but walked away from the incident.

Hornaday was a championship contender going into the race, but thanks to Busch, he will not win it this year. Busch was immediately parked for the remainder of the race.

On Saturday morning, Busch was then parked for the rest of the weekend’s events.

NASCAR president Mike Helton said:

The responsibility over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came, I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed. As annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ might have been, we saw it [Friday] night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. The volume of occurrences or reactions like I’m talking about, the rarity of those times that we’d make a step like this speak to the uniqueness and the severity of the topic. We understand the ramifications or the ripple effect of us making this type of a move, but we also take our responsibility very serious as to maintaining control of the event in all the garages; so it’s a balance there that we ultimately have to make a decision.

In response to NASCAR’s decision, Joe Gibbs Racing’s (Busch’s Sprint Cup team) owner Joe Gibbs said:

What we’re going to try to do now, [as in the past, with other situations involving Busch] we’ve tried to handle those things the right way and tried to make the right decisions and certainly that’s what we’re going to try to do with this.

Denny Hamlin was named to drive Busch’s Nationwide Series Toyota and Michael McDowell will drive JGR’s No. 18 Sprint Cup car.

This is the harshest punishment to date that NASCAR has issued since they instructed the drivers to “have at it.” This should serve as a warning to other drivers that “have at it” only goes so far.

An interesting note about the penatly, though, is that JGR is also punished by Busch’s actions when he was driving for his own Kyle Busch Motorsports team.

In 2013, she will move to Cup full time, driving for SHR.

On Thursday, Kahne tweeted:

It actually just about feels better now then it has the last month so yeah I will [definitely] be driving Richmond.