JOLIET, ILL. - After another victory by Kyle Busch in the Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, the question is becoming clear: Just how good can this season be for the driver of the No. 18 Toyota?

As hard as it is to believe, it got even better Saturday night as the 23-year-old driver snatched a victory back from two-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson in a two-lap battle to end the race.

Johnson passed Busch for the lead on Lap 251 and was pulling away. But David Gilliland's blown engine on Lap 261 brought out a caution and gave Busch a chance.

He seized it, anticipating that Johnson would try to bring the field slowly to the restart. Busch basically pushed Johnson to the green with two laps to go, then jumped to the outside heading for Turn 1.

Busch cleared Johnson as they came to the white flag and held off Johnson and a charging Kevin Harvick from there.

"I gave up on myself," Busch admitted. "I just didn't think I could do that. I've watched Jimmie do that several times. I don't know how I did it. ... I pushed Jimmie to go."

Busch, who led 165 of the 267 laps, has now won seven Sprint Cup races this year. With 17 left, he could be heading toward history by challenging the modern era record of 13 victories in a season set by Richard Petty in 1975 and tied by Jeff Gordon in 1998.

Perhaps fans who love to boo Busch can hope that, with the Chase points reset coming after 26 races, Busch's championship bid is peaking too soon.

For now, however, Busch is the story in stock-car racing.

"This is a dream season, man," Busch said. "I just cannot believe this."

Busch now has 11 career victories. Only Gordon, with 15, had more before reaching his 25th birthday.

After winning Friday's Nationwide race, Busch completed a weekend sweep at this 1.5-mile track with his 14th victory this year in NASCAR's top three series.

He also beat the varsity for the third time in four races. Busch won at Infineon, and then, after his brother, Kurt, won at New Hampshire, Kyle won last week at Daytona when he was a whisker ahead of Carl Edwards as a caution came out to on a green-white-checkered finish.

This time, Busch had to rally back twice in the late going.

Edwards took the lead from Busch on Lap 203 but made an unscheduled pit stop on Lap 212 when a brace broke and the splitter on the nose of his Ford began dragging on the track. Edwards wound up a lap down in 32nd.

Johnson then took command after a restart on Lap 249, running down and passing Busch within two laps. But the last caution set up the final restart.

"He timed it just right and rolled up on me," Johnson said. "When I heard the spotter say, 'Looking!' I knew I was in trouble.

"I didn't make the best decision there on the restart. I should have given him the inside. I really wasn't thinking defense, we had such a good car. Looking back if I had to do it all over again, I would have played defense more.

"The bright side is we showed we could beat that 18 car. We were pulling away until that caution."

Harvick, who won the first two races held at this track, picked up his first top-five finish since he finished second in the season's fifth race at Bristol.