JOLIET, Ill. -- The only thing missing from the Tropicana 400 yesterday at Chicagoland Speedway was famed ring announcer Michael Buffer.

Nam Y. Huh, Associated Press Tony Stewart celebrates a Tropicana 400 win with a sparkling wine shower. Click photo for larger image.

Tony Stewart clearly had the fastest car, eventually winning his first race of the season with NASCAR Nextel Cup Series points leader Jimmie Johnson in second and Dale Jarrett finishing third.

But following a caution and pit stops on lap 126, Stewart found himself behind rookie Kasey Kahne and Sterling Marlin with Jarrett out front and trying to avoid going a lap down. As they came to the green flag to restart the race at the 1.5-mile tri-oval, Stewart drove into the back end of Kahne's Dodge, spinning out Kahne and a couple of others. It was the second time this season Stewart has taken out Kahne, and it dropped him from 11th to 14th in points.

NASCAR ruled it a racing incident, and said if there were to be any penalties against Stewart that they would have been issued right away. Stewart agreed, and not just because two weeks ago NASCAR fined him $50,000, took away 25 points and put him on probation for a post-race tussle with rookie Brian Vickers.

There were many in the Nextel Cup Series garage that believed Stewart, who has had more than his fair share of run-ins with NASCAR authorities over the past five years, should have been suspended after the incident with Vickers. So Kahne's crew chief, Tommy Baldwin, decided to take the matter into his own hands and rushed down to Stewart's pit, where a melee broke out between the two crews. It resembled a poorly staged, made-for-television wrestling event with guys rolling around the pit boxes pushing, shoving and exchanging blows.

It also set off Ray Evernham, who owns the Dodges driven by Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield.

"Tony Stewart loses his temper again and takes us out for the second time this year," Evernham said. "NASCAR refuses to do anything about it. You got a guy that does this week in and week out and nobody's doing anything about it. He gave Rusty [Wallace] the finger. I'd like to have 10 minutes with Tony Stewart to handle it myself. What happened there was unnecessary, and NASCAR needs to do something about it before somebody gets hurt. I've got a crew chief and other guys that have worked so hard on this car, everybody's ready to fight, and it's the same guy week in and week out.

"He definitely needs to be suspended. ... That's the problem with him. Nobody has ever really grabbed him and given him a good beating and if he doesn't get suspended, maybe I'll do that."

Stewart was unaware of the fracas in the pits, and continued to set the pace. During the final pit stop for the leaders, Stewart exited ahead of Johnson but trailed Mayfield and Marlin. Finally, with 26 laps to go, Stewart blasted past Mayfield under the flagstand to take the lead for good and move into fourth place in the series standings.

Johnson eventually finished second and extended his lead in the overall standings to 105 points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who struggled all weekend and was never in contention. Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon had trouble with the handling in his car, but saved a fourth-place finish that keeps him third in points.

As for the incident with Kahne, Stewart said he didn't know what happened.

"I'm waiting for someone to tell me what happened. I got a real good run on the restart, got by [Marlin] and got back in line behind him and didn't even try to pass Kasey," Stewart said. "As we came up to the wall, his car wiggled for some reason before I even got to him. I don't know if he was shifting or if he missed a shift. I already stopped my momentum and all of a sudden he backed up to us and we ran into the back end of him. It was my fault I ran into him, but I don't know what caused him to check up. It could have tore us up easier than it tore him up."

NASCAR is investigating the rumble and an official said if any penalties result, they won't be announced until later this week at the earliest. The series has next weekend off before racing again in New Hampshire.