Dover, DE (My Sportsbook) - Jimmie Johnson charged from ninth with 27 laps remaining to win Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway.

Johnson gave up the lead when he and crew chief Chad Knaus elected to take on four tires during the last round of stops. After the restart, the three-time defending Sprint Cup Series champion quickly stormed to the front. Johnson chased down leader Tony Stewart and ran right behind his bumper. He then moved around Stewart with two laps to go, and held it for his second victory of the season and the 42nd of his career.

"To have to run that hard to pass that many good cars, that's a challenge," Johnson said. "I had to really suck it up and get going. I thought I was going to pound the wall a couple of times."

Johnson, who led a career-high 298 laps, won at Dover for the fourth time.

"We had an awesome race car today," Johnson said. "We've been fast, but this was a very special car today."

During the last round of stops, Greg Biffle opted for two tires only and exited the pits first. Biffle held the lead until Stewart dove underneath and passed him with less than 10 laps to go. Johnson then moved up to second.

Stewart and Johnson engaged in a fierce battle for the lead before Johnson made the winning pass.

"It was fun racing with Jimmie like that," Stewart said. "Definitely the fastest car. They've been the fastest car all day, so there's no shame in running second to a guy that led the most laps all day."

Biffle ended up finishing third, followed by Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch.

"I saw the guys coming," Biffle said. "I was just doing all I could do. I was afraid if Tony got behind me in the corner that the car would probably spin out."

Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Casey Mears and Mark Martin completed the top-10.

Even though it was only one lap, Martin led at Dover for the 29th time, which became the most of any other driver in the track's 40-year history.

Stewart, in his first year as both driver and car owner in the series, took a 46-point lead over Jeff Gordon, who finished 26th. Stewart has never been this high in the point standings after the first 13 races of the season.

Gordon eventually fell two laps behind after a lengthy pit stop under green for adjustments on the car.

Johnson moved up to third in points (-64).

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 12th in his first race with new crew chief Lance McGrew. Earnhardt Jr. had a difficult week in the wake of his cousin, Tony Eury Jr., being moved out the crew chief role with the No.88 team and placed in another position with Hendrick Motorsports.

"We worked hard, and we had some pretty good moments there," Earnhardt Jr. said. "In the middle of the race, we got the car much better."

McGrew was scheduled to lead Earnhardt Jr.'s efforts starting next week at Pocono, but team owner Rick Hendrick made the decision Saturday night to place McGrew in the role at Dover since Brad Keselowski did not qualify for the 400- mile race there on Friday. He had served as Keselowski's crew chief on the No.25 Chevrolet for Hendrick.

After losing both the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races at Dover due to tire mishaps in the closing laps, Kyle Busch experienced a bad vibration in the late-stages of the Cup event. Busch made an unscheduled pit stop for two right-side tires, which put him one lap behind. He continued to deal with an ill-handling car. Busch soldered on for a 23rd-place finish.

Tires continued to be a problem at the one-mile, concrete-surfaced track.

Denny Hamlin was one of several drivers who blew a tire during the race. Hamlin slammed hard into the wall after he was running behind Johnson in second. He ended up finishing 36th.

"That was a pretty hard hit," Hamlin said. "I didn't have any warning at all."