Juan Pablo Montoya had the car to beat at Indy, as he led 116 of 160 laps. But Montoya was caught speeding on pit road and had to serve a pass-through penalty. That allowed Martin, the pole sitter, to reclaim the lead.

A caution for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s blown engine set up a double-file restart with 24 laps to go. Just after the restart, Johnson moved around Martin to take the lead for the first time. Johnson beat Martin to the finish line by four-tenths of a second for his third victory in the last four races at Indy.

"I can't say enough about this race team and all of Hendrick Motorsports and that battle with my teammate Mark Martin," Johnson said. "Damn, he was fast. For an old guy, he made me pretty worried. Those last 15 to 20 laps I had to drive it so hard to stay ahead of (Martin)."

Johnson recorded his third victory of the season and the 43rd of his Sprint Cup career. He also gave team owner Rick Hendrick his seventh victory at the Brickyard.

Martin's second-place finish gave Hendrick a second straight one-two finish. Martin won two weeks ago at Chicagoland, with Jeff Gordon coming in second.

I'm actually just grateful that I had a chance to race for the win," Martin said. "I would have liked to have won it, but got beat by Superman."

Tony Stewart finished third, followed by Greg Biffle and Brian Vickers.

Stewart increased his points to 192 over Johnson, who moved ahead of Gordon for second in the rankings.

Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne and David Reutimann finished sixth through eighth, respectively.

Gordon, a four-time Brickyard 400 winner, came in ninth, while Matt Kenseth completed the top-10.

Montoya ended up finishing 11th.

"It kind of sucks, but it is what it is," Montoya said regarding his pit road speeding penalty. "I thought I was under the speed. I was on the lights every time."

Kyle Busch took a huge hit in the points after finishing 38th. Busch blew a right-front tire and scraped the wall in the early going. He spent 44 laps in the garage for repairs before returning to the track. He fell four positions to 14th in points with six races remaining before the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship begins.

"I got stuck behind (David Gilliland) and had to push the right-front a little bit, and from that point I started to loose the right front tire," Busch said.

The top-12 drivers in points will advance to the playoffs in NASCAR's top division after the September 12 race at Richmond.

Earnhardt Jr.'s engine failure resulted in a 36th-place finish.

"I broke the valve train on the last pit stop and a couple of pieces dropped to the bottom of the motor," Earnhardt Jr. said.

The 400-mile race at Indy featured mostly clean and green racing with just three cautions compared to last year's rash of competition cautions for tire issues. Drivers praised Goodyear's tire compound for this year's race.

During the 2008 race at Indy, NASCAR planned nine competition cautions to allow teams to come down pit road and change their tires. No more than 12 consecutive green-flag laps occurred during the event.

"I really have got to give Goodyear a pat on the back," Stewart said. "Not once did any of us in the field have to worry about the tires."

Goodyear spent the last 11 months conducting tire tests at the famed 2.5-mile track.