Tony Stewart snatches Martinsville NASCAR Sprint Cup race win from Jimmie Johnson

The two-time champion rebounded from fighting to remain on the lead lap early on and then from an unscheduled pitstop for a suspected puncture to be in position to contend for victory following a two-tyre pitstop during a late caution.

Restarting from third after his final stop, where most of the fastest drivers of the day went for a full new set of Goodyears, Stewart was able to move up to second but following another caution he would drop to third behind Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton.

A further restart allowed him to pass Burton again, but ahead Johnson was able to pull a decent gap that would have been hard to overcome without the 18th and final caution of the day, in a race that turned into a demolition derby for some as drivers lost patience in the tight confines of the half-mile track.

Stewart restarted from the outside of the front row when the green waved for the final time, immediately attacking Johnson for the lead. Although it is unusual to be able to pass on the outside at Martinsville, the Stewart Haas racer found grip where others had not, clearing Johnson with two laps to go to claim his third win in this year's Chase.

The victory vaults Stewart up to second in the play-off standings, only eight points off Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards.

"I don't think anybody has ever passed Jimmie Johnson on the outside so, [it was] just determination, I don't think we had the best racecar today by any means," said Stewart about his pass for victory. "Carl Edwards had better be real worried. That's all I've got to say. He's not going to sleep for the next three weeks."

Johnson was disappointed to lose at arguably his best track, the final caution probably costing him the win. He was critical of Brian Vickers for repeatedly causing incidents, the final one being costly for him as the Red Bull driver spun to bring out the caution that allowed Stewart a final go at him.

During one of the late cautions where most of the leaders pitted for tyres, Johnson stayed out in the lead and although his crew chief Chad Knaus thought he had thrown away his chances of winning, Johnson believes they still were in position to score another Martinsville victory.

"Chad made a great call," said Johnson, who moved up one place in the Chase but is still 43 points back. "I thought it was going to bite us, staying out like we did; and with all the cautions that gave us an opportunity to win the race.

"And Tony hung on tough on the outside there and I just couldn't bring myself to leaning on him and moving him out of the way with where he is in the points. I just kind of raced him clean and then he got around on the outside and got in front of us."

Johnson's team-mate Jeff Gordon led for 114 laps after recovering from being involved in the first incident of the day, ignited by contact between an unusually aggressive Dale Earnhardt Jr and Penske's Kurt Busch. Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick finished a solid fourth, which moved him up two spots in the Chase, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, one of 12 different race leaders.

Edwards had a tough day in which he simply struggled for balance and speed for most of the running, twice recovering from being a lap down thanks to the free-pass rule. However he managed to stay out of trouble in a day when it proved hard to do so and eventually finished ninth, the highest he ran all day after dropping in the order from pole early on.

"It's unreal," said Edwards. "We were so bad. With about 200 laps to go I had become okay with the fact that we were probably going to finish 20th or 25th. I was thinking already about Texas and how we were going to have to go there and everything we were going to do, but my guys stuck with it and we got very, very fortunate. I'm just glad we can move on."

The Roush driver avoided a black-flag penalty for seemingly gaining positions on a restart before crossing the start-finish line. However officials rescinded the penalty as Edwards was apparently recovering his correct spot for the restart at the last minute.

His team-mate Matt Kenseth got into an exchange with Vickers but then with 36 laps to go he got into Kyle Busch, igniting a multi-car crash where both were badly damaged, sending Kenseth to the garage for lengthy repairs.

The Penske duo of Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch were also involved in incidents, the former spinning in the closing laps due to contact while running in the top 10.

Results - 500 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       3h49m52.000s
 2.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 0.170s
 3.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 0.444s
 4.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet              + 1.014s
 5.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                     + 2.080s
 6.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet              + 2.214s
 7.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 3.079s
 8.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   + 3.300s
 9.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                + 3.599s
10.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet           + 3.733s
11.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                       + 4.299s
12.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota                   + 4.647s
13.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 4.975s
14.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                     + 5.096s
15.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                + 5.846s
16.  Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford                   + 7.810s
17.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                    + 14.932s
18.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                    + 17.204s
19.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet             + 23.120s
20.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota                  + 23.126s
21.  Ken Schrader        FAS Lane Ford                     + 1 lap
22.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet      + 3 laps
23.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 3 laps
24.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet              + 3 laps
25.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota                  + 5 laps
26.  Hermie Sadler       TRG Ford                         + 7 laps
27.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                     + 7 laps
28.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 9 laps
29.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                      + 12 laps
30.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota                 + 16 laps
31.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford               + 23 laps
32.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota            + 36 laps
33.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford               + 56 laps

Retirements:

     David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   357 laps
     Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet       85 laps
     Reed Sorenson       Gordon Dodge                      77 laps
     Scott Speed         Whitney Ford                      74 laps
     David Stremme       Inception Chevrolet               52 laps
     Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                         45 laps
     JJ Yeley            Front Row Ford                    40 laps
     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      33 laps
     Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet                 27 laps
     Mike Skinner        Max Q Ford                         7 laps