Race Summary:

For 450 laps it looked as though the Jimmie Johnson-Jeff Gordon would finally be forced into an intermission, as Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, and Martin Truex Jr. dominated a cool, clear afternoon at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. But a bizarre set of circumstances over the closing laps set the stage for one of the most memorable finishes of the season. A gutsy decision to take only two tires on a late pit stop put Johnson in position to steal the win, but it took a bad restart by Denny Hamlin and a loose tire on Dale Earnhardt Junior’s car to put him there for good…but only after sweating out a late charge from Atlanta master Carl Edwards and hometown hero Reed Sorenson.