Sep 29, 2008 4 min read

Edwards, who overcame a poor starting position and two pit lane incidents, to catch and pass Johnson for the lead, lost the top spot to Johnson on a pit stop with 47 laps to go. Edwards finally caught him again on the last lap, shooting past Johnson on the low side of the banked 1.5-mile oval in turn three – but just a little too fast. Edwards slid up the track and bounced off the wall as Johnson drove back past and on to his fifth victory of the season, with Edwards holding on for second.

“That was cool,” Johnson said moments after crossing the finish line. “Where’d he come from?

“Those last two laps he figured out something and got a bunch of grip. I thought he was under control and all of a sudden he was there. Great race, I saw the slide jump coming, dodged it and got a win.”

Edwards was grinning after the race.

“I was just wondering how far I cleared him by,” he said. “I planned on hitting the wall, but I didn’t plan on the wall slowing me down that much.

“In video games, you can just run into the wall and run it wide open,” he added. “That’s what I did, but it didn’t quite work out the same as the video game. I just really, really wanted to win this race. … But Jimmie’s a smart racer. I’ve done that to guys, too. When they slide jump you, you just lift, go right back by them and watch them. I didn’t know what was going to happen and just had to give it a try.”

Greg Biffle, who came into the third race of the 10-race Chase for the championship with two straight victories, followed the leaders across the finish line to stay close in the points.

Johnson, who has three wins and five top-five finishes in his last five starts, now leads Edwards by 10 points, with Biffle 35 points behind and seven races to go.

It was a very long race for Edwards, who started 34th in the 43-car field after a poor qualifying effort on Friday.

On his first pit stop, Brian Vickers veered into his pit as Edwards was coming out of his and the two made contact. On Edward’s next pit stop, he got out cleanly but was hit in the side by Dave Blaney, who had ricocheted off Jeff Burton.

That second collision forced Edwards to make another stop to have sheet metal pulled away from the tire.

Missourian Edwards, who considers this his home track, was relentless as he drove through the field and took his first lead of the day on lap 176 of 267.

But Johnson, who started from the pole and had the strongest car all day, was just as tough and twice regained the lead with quick pit stops.

“What a great race,” said Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief. “Jimmie’s just done a great job. I love racing with Carl Edwards and (crew chief) Bob Osborne. They’re gentleman racers and they wanted it really badly.”

Asked about being in the points lead, Knaus said, “Doesn’t mean anything right now. All we have to do is win races and finish in the top five, and the rest of it will take care of itself.”

Jeff Gordon, battling an unspecified illness since Friday, finished fourth, followed by Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, who got his ninth straight top-10, and Burton, all among the 12-man Chase field.

The postseason nightmare continued for regular season points leader Kyle Busch, who had an early engine problem and struggled to a 28th-place finish. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart, a two-time Cup champion, had an even worse day, finishing 40th after colliding with Brian Vickers and damaging his front splitter as he drove through the infield grass.

Heading into next week’s race at Talladega, Gibbs teammates Denny Hamlin, who finished 11th Sunday, Stewart and Busch are 10th, 11th and 12th in the points and all but eliminated from title contention.

Copyright Associated Press 2008