Columbia native Carl Edwards took the checkered flag 2.684 seconds ahead of Jimmie Johnson, who recovered from an early pit-road speeding penalty to snag second place, thanks to a brilliant call for tires by Chad Knaus during the 10th and final caution of the race.

Edwards took the lead from third-place finisher Denny Hamlin after a restart on Lap 310 of 325 on the 1.54-mile track. Hamlin spun his tires coming to the start/finish line allowing Edwards to pass to the outside through Turns 1 and 2 .

With the win, Edwards move to second place overall, but still lost ground to Johnson as he is 183 points behind Johnson with three races to go.  Edwards is still holding out hope that anything can happen although he admitted with the way Johnson was racing, they may not catch him.

Listen to his post race press conference.

download/listen to Carl Edwards (mp3)