Doing everything he can to get himself back into this championship hunt, Carl Edwards led six times for a total of ninety-eight laps to take the win in Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion clearly dominated this weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Edwards was fastest is both practice sessions on Saturday, was second in laps led to teammate Matt Kenseth and even captured the Nationwide Series win in Memphis last night.

Edwards took the lead for the final time after making the move to the outside of Denny Hamlin going into turn one following a restart on Lap 309.

"Man, the second-to-last restart, Denny spun his tires and I spun mine a little bit and then he spun them again and I pushed him bumper and then he spun them again and he went to the inside. I thought inside, 'Man, here's my chance to get to the outside,' I really didn't think he was gonna spin them that second time. I thought I was gonna bump him and he was gonna keep on going and I figured I'd follow him for a while, but it just worked out great."

Earning his seventh victory of the year, Edwards jumped two spots in the series standings, but was unable to gain on points leader Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson's day took a hit when the No. 48 was caught speeding at the entrance of pit road on Lap 89. Making his second stop of the day and first under green, Johnson smoked the tires making his way on the pit lane, but did not get it slowed down enough for NASCAR's liking. Hit with a pass-through penalty, Johnson was mired a lap down in the thirtieth-spot.

Racing hard to stay amongst the leaders, Johnson caught a huge break when Kasey Kahne brought out the fourth caution of the day on Lap 130. The driver everyone is chasing in the standings was able to get the free pass and make his way back onto the lead lap.

When the caution flew on Lap 313, crew chief Chad Knaus called Johnson to pit road for four fresh tires. Restarting in eleventh with just eight laps to go, Johnson hit the afterburners as he passed cars on the high side on his way to the front. Picking off car after car, Johnson was able to make his way to the second-spot when the checkered flag fell.

"Are you kidding me?" Edwards said when he learned of Johnson's finish. "I could have done without that one. Jimmie is an awesome competitor. I mean, Chad and Rick and all those guys came down to congratulate me, but that's unbelievable. He does a great job. With Johnson's rebound, Edwards was unable to make up ground on the two-time champion. By finishing second, Johnson gained thirty-four points on the rest of the field, despite Edwards' success.

"Yeah, three more good tracks for us," Edwards added. "Man, Jimmie is magic. We've got to go win those next three and hope for the best."

"That was a long, long race for us," Johnson explained. "I made that mistake getting on pit road, I think it was getting in, might have been on and off pit road, I'm not sure where, but somewhere I was speeding. I had to do that pass through on green flag conditions and that just killed us. We fought back from that all day long and we could make up some ground but we could only get to seventh, sixth something like that. The cars in front of us were pretty equal. We just kind of hung there and couldn't go anywhere.

"Chad's call there at the end really paid off and we were able to make up a lot of ground and get a great finish today."

The first car to hit pit road under the tenth caution of the day, Johnson was running seventh at the time and unable to make up a lot of ground.

"We came because it was a single file restart with lead lap cars only. That situation worked out perfectly. We were the first car back out with on four after that. I don't think I could have got Carl - maybe a green-white-checkered would have given us a chance - but he was so far ahead I couldn't have got to him."

Now with only three races remaining in the 2008 season, Johnson has a 183 point lead over Carl Edwards. Chase drivers Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton struggled throughout the afternoon, both losing a spot in the standings. Heading to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend, it seems Johnson will have to stumble in order to give Edwards and Biffle a legitimate shot. Keep in mind though, the last three winners in the fall race in Atlanta has gone on to take the win at Texas the following week.

"Anything can happen," Edwards argued. "If there is one thing this season has shown me and all of us here, it is every time you think you've got it figured out who you're going to be racing, who's going to be the guy to beat, the thing can get turned on its head quickly. As long as we're within 130 points going into Homestead, we're still going there to win the championship."