Concord, N.C. ? Jimmie Johnson drove between two other cars, through a hole that hardly appeared big enough.

The pass only got him to fourth, but it essentially was the winning move.

The leader virtually all night, Johnson dropped to fifth during a late caution, but roared back to the lead with 16 laps left Sunday night to win the Coca-Cola 600 for the second straight season.

“That car was so good,” Johnson said. “There were times when some of the guys were better, but we just stuck to our game plan.”

He gave away a chance to win this race as a rookie in 2002 when he slid through his pits on the final pit stop. Johnson didn’t make a mistake this time during his last stop, but a slow effort by his crew allowed Kasey Kahne to beat him out of the pits.

Jamie McMurray decided not to come in and held the lead, and Michael Waltrip and Jeremy Mayfield changed only two tires to take second and third.

“We did what we had to do to try to win the race,” McMurray said.

Soon after the restart, Johnson made his bold maneuver, when he still was mired in fifth. As he drove to the outside of Kahne in Turn 3 with 25 laps to go, they came up on the slower car of Robby Gordon.

Johnson got by Kahne, then turned hard left to get under Gordon.

“I had some urgency,” Johnson said. “I knew I needed to get going.”

In the pits, crew chief Chad Knaus watched it and simply shook his head.

“That’s sick, that’s all it was,” Knaus said. “He saw a hole that was like a keyhole, and he just slide it in there. It was awesome.”

Once he got by that traffic, Johnson wasted little time chasing down McMurray. He had moved into second four laps later, and he stalked McMurray for a bit before moving to the inside on the backstretch.

He zoomed ahead in Turn 3 and survived a red flag with six laps left for his second victory of 2004 and the eighth of his 2 1/2-year career. The finish was slowed by a caution for Bobby Labonte’s wreck on the final lap, with Waltrip second.

Matt Kenseth ended up third, followed by McMurray and Elliott Sadler. When the final yellow fell, Kenseth and McMurray were side-by-side, and the original rundown listed McMurray in third.

That was subsequently changed.

“I know for sure I was third,” Kenseth said. “I was by (McMurray) by half a car, and we’re not supposed to race back to the line.”

Johnson led an incredible 334 laps — which would be the entire distance in a 500-mile race — and came up one short of the record set in 1967 by winner Jim Paschal.

“I had the first 600 here won, and then I blew it,” Johnson said. “Usually, when you have a car this good, you make a mistake. It’s very satisfying to have one that good and close the deal.”

Gordon failed in his attempt to complete a racing double when the Indianapolis 500 was stopped by rain after only 27 laps earlier in the day. With the start of the NASCAR race approaching, Gordon had to leave Indy and backup driver Jaques Lazier took the wheel.

It’s probably just as well. The car dropped out after only 88 laps with a mechanical failure, and Gordon was credited with 29th.

At Lowe’s, he finished three laps down in 20th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. rallied from a lap down and finished sixth to hold a five-point lead over Johnson in the standings.

Casey Mears was seventh, with Mayfield, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace rounding out the top 10.

The victory capped a great weekend for team owner Rick Hendrick, who won the Busch Series event Saturday with driver Kyle Busch.

“The last two days have been pretty much unbelievable,” Hendrick said. “This is home, we work a mile from here. So this one’s really, really special. Jimmie did a heck of a job.”