Martin, the oldest driver in the Chase at age 50 and the number-one seed, capitalized on pit strategies and then held off the field in three late-race restarts for his Sprint Cup Series leading fifth victory of the season.

"This is just incredible," a jubilant Martin said. "I'm sure I am sleeping, I'm sure I am dreaming."

Martin last pitted under green with 58 laps remaining in the 300-lap race. He fell one lap behind, but the remainder of the field had to make their final stops shortly after, allowing Martin to reclaim the lead with 28 laps to go.

An incident involving A.J. Allmendinger set up a three-lap shootout to the finish. After the restart, Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya were in a fierce side-by-side battle for the lead. Martin pulled ahead of Montoya with less than two laps to go. Allmendinger spun again on the final lap, which ended the race under caution.

"It couldn't be easy to run that end with the lead there, and we had three restarts," Martin said. "It was all kinds of chances for me to mess up, and I did, but I guess not enough to lose."

Denny Hamlin, last weekend's winner at Richmond, passed Montoya before the final caution, giving Hamlin a second-place finish. Montoya came in third.

"I could have pushed [Martin] out of the way, but I respect him a lot," said Montoya, who celebrated his 34th birthday and made his 100th career Cup start. "Probably next time, I won't wreck him, but I will bump him."

Montoya started on the pole and led a race-high 105 laps

Jimmie Johnson started his campaign for a record fourth straight series title by finishing fourth, while Kyle Busch, a non-Chase driver, completed the top- five.

With the victory, Martin widened his points lead to 35 over Johnson and Hamlin, who each gained a spot in the rankings. Montoya moved from 11th to fourth in points (-55).

The other Chase drivers and their finishing positions include: Kurt Busch (sixth), Ryan Newman (seventh), Greg Biffle (ninth), Brian Vickers (11th), Tony Stewart (14th), Jeff Gordon (15th), Carl Edwards (17th) and Kasey Kahne (38th).

Kahne's first playoff race went up in smoke in the early going when he suffered engine failure. Kahne dropped to 12th in points (-161).

"I felt it kind of shake a little bit down the backstretch, and I knew it didn't feel good as far as engines go, so I looked at the oil, and everything looked fine, and then it just kept getting worse," Kahne said.

Stewart, who led the standings before the regular season ended in Richmond, also took a hit in points. Stewart held the lead before he encountered a loose axle cap on his left-rear tire. He made a lengthy pit stop to repair the cap, which put him out of contention to win.

Stewart is now 74 points behind Martin.