INDIANAPOLIS --- Jimmie Johnson celebrated his second victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a burnout.

Appropriately, one of his tires exploded.

Johnson survived horrendous tire troubles that made Sunday's race a caution-filled debacle because the Goodyear product was not durable enough to withstand the lack of downforce on NASCAR's new car and the speeds and surface of Indy.

"We came with the best tire we had for the conditions, and we fell short. We'll try to get it right," said Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear.

There was nothing Goodyear could do on Sunday, when NASCAR threw six competition cautions designed to force teams to pit and change their tires.

It meant the longest green-flag run was an embarrassing 12 laps, causing teams to fear both tire failures and a possible supply shortage. Goodyear shipped in 800 tires earmarked for use next week in Pocono before the race, but they ultimately weren't needed.

It was little consolation, as drivers feared going full speed and crew chiefs were forced to gamble on tire strategy.

Ultimately, NASCAR called cautions every 10-to-12 laps.

Johnson took two tires on his final stop to emerge from pit road as the leader, then held off Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin over a final seven-lap green flag run to the finish line.

"I was worried the stop before that maybe we had to go two less to win this thing," Johnson said.

Edwards, sympathetic to NASCAR's plight, said he raced at 100 percent over the final run but couldn't catch Johnson.

"That's a long day. I know everybody's trying to do their best," Edwards said. "I just, personally, (want) to say to the fans, everybody's doing their best to make that race, at least we got to run at the end."

Hamlin, who led late but lost the lead during the frenzied final sequences of pit stops, said he never got a feel for how good his car was because of the tire issue.

"I don't think anyone could push their car as hard as they would have liked to, today," said Hamlin.

At one point, Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered a fading tire that forced him to pit under green, dropping him a lap off the pace.

Still, Earnhardt defended NASCAR.

"The truth of the deal is that was the best show we could put on today, NASCAR did everything right," he said. "It's all we could do aside from loading up and going home and not running at all. Yeah, it wasn't quite the race everybody expected, but shoot it was better than some of the races you've probably seen here."