DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jimmie Johnson gathered his team around him and pulled a folded-up fax from his pocket. In the quiet few moments they had before the start of the Daytona 500, Johnson delivered a message from their suspended leader.

"It was just telling them to do their best job ... get them fired up for the race," Johnson said. "It was something that said, `I believe in you guys, I've trained you well, do your job.'"

Everybody listened.

Crew chief Chad Knaus was forbidden by NASCAR from participating in Sunday's race after he was caught cheating during qualifying, but Johnson and his team raced on without him and scored the biggest win in their five-year existence.

"I knew deep down inside my heart that this team could still win," Johnson said.

Moments after the victory, Johnson's critics were already wondering if he deserved an asterisk next to his name. Knaus was thrown out last week after NASCAR said he illegally altered Johnson's Chevrolet before his qualifying run.

"This could still be the first opportunity for NASCAR to pull away a victory if the thing is illegal," third-place finisher Ryan Newman said. "It's disappointing. I think a lot of Jimmie Johnson and his talent, but I'm pretty sure at least three of his last four wins have had conflictions with the cars being illegal.

"You know, it's not necessarily good for the sport."

His car did pass inspection, and with a bottle of champagne on his lap, Johnson defended his team and his win.

"This is a huge statement and something that I'm very proud of," he said. "We know that there are rules, a set of rules. Chad broke the rules. He's admitted that. He's in Charlotte watching the race. He missed the event. We're serving our penalty."

There's probably more to come. Johnson has indicated that the team expects NASCAR to suspend Knaus an additional three races. The team will probably also be docked points, knocking Johnson off the leaderboard.

The team has a history of misdeeds and questionable conduct.

NASCAR accused Knaus of cheating following Johnson's win in Las Vegas last March when his car failed post-race inspection. Knaus was suspended for two races, but appealed and had the penalty reduced to probation.

Then, following a win in September at Dover, Del., the No. 48 Chevrolet again failed inspection. Only this time NASCAR said Knaus had exploited a loophole in the rule book, and the sanctioning body quickly closed it.

So with Knaus out of commission for the foreseeable future and lead engineer Darian Grubb acting as temporary head coach, the Hendrick Motorsports team will try to work its way out from the dark shadow the crew chief's actions have cast on them.

"There's been a lot of hating on the 48 team over the last year," Johnson said. "I kind of look at is jealousy and (Newman) doesn't have a crew chief in there working hard enough to get the job done."

Winning the race required Johnson to stay calm and avoid trouble, including Tony Stewart, who eliminated three contenders: Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and himself. Then, Johnson worked his way to the front, staying in line and waiting for his chance to pounce.

It came with 14 laps to go when he squeezed past teammate Brian Vickers to grab the lead just as a caution came out. Johnson was at the front of the field on the restart, the lead driver in a single-file pack of cars sprinting toward the end.

From his rearview window he could see Dale Earnhardt Jr. slicing his way through the field, making a last, desperate push to mark the five-year anniversary of his Dad's death with a win at the track where he died.

But Jamie McMurray wrecked with seven laps to go to bring out one final caution. It set up an overtime finish, but no one was able to challenge Johnson. A final accident brought out the caution on the last lap and allowed him to cross the finish line under a yellow flag.

Casey Mears was second and Newman, who was trying to give Roger Penske his first Daytona win in 33 tries, finished third.

Stewart was fifth, rookie Clint Bowyer was sixth and Vickers was seventh. Earnhardt wound up eighth after leading a race-high 32 laps. Ken Schrader and Dale Jarrett rounded out the top 10.

Johnson stayed under the radar — and away from Stewart — to pull out the victory.

Earlier this week, Stewart forced NASCAR to crack down on bump drafting and aggressive driving when he warned that someone could be killed in the 500.

Then he became the first Cup driver to be penalized under the new watchdog policy.

He began his day by hitting Gordon — a heavy favorite to win a second straight 500 — early in the race to eliminate him from contention. Then Stewart took out a second potential winner when he made a hard left turn into Kenseth.

It wasn't clear if Stewart's contact was intentional, but it severely damaged Kenseth's car and NASCAR quickly penalized Stewart by ordering him to the back of the field. The punishment dropped him from fifth to 34th.

Clearly angry, he pushed his in-car camera away so television viewers couldn't see him raging.

Just seconds later, Kenseth exacted his revenge as the two cars raced each other off pit road. Kenseth passed Stewart, ran him low to the apron and appeared to hit him. NASCAR then called Kenseth into pit road for his own penalty, but the driver was irate and slow to comply.

Kenseth, who led four times for 28 laps, ended up 15th.

"It's just really disappointing — Tony went out and said all that stuff early in the week," Kenseth said after the race. "If he's worried about people's lives and he's going to wreck somebody at 190 mph, that's tough."