Points spread tightens

Close finishes among five of the Chase competitors chopped Tony Stewart's lead. Stewart now just holds a 38 point advantage over Jimmie Johnson. Carl Edwards is coming on hot with two races to go. Earning his second consecutive win catapults him into third a mere 77 points behind Stewart.

1. Tony Stewart: Point leader, finished sixth

Stewart caused slight fender damage on the No. 20 while battling with Mark Martin for the lead late in the race. The damage caused Stewart's ride to fall off a bit.

"If you look at the pylon, the guys that we're racing in the Chase are the same guys we were racing for the win today," Stewart said. "You know, it's not even really worth worrying about the points, it's about worrying what you need to do to win the race the next couple of weeks."

2. Jimmie Johnson: -38, finished fifth

The No. 48 Chevy ran well all day. They stayed out of incidents and had a clean consistent run.

"We had a really good car all night," Johnson commented. "The problem was with the adjustments we tried to make. It took a long time to put spring rubbers in the right rear. My guys had some record stops doing those changes when other teams were not making those same changes. We just lost some track position."

3. Carl Edwards: -77, Race Winner

Coming off his win at Atlanta last weekend Edwards earns another won and gains tons of points on Stewart and Johnson.

"Four wins," said Edwards. "I can't believe it."

4. Greg Biffle: -122, finished 20th

A vibration on the No. 16 Ford forced Biffle to make a green flag pit stop while leading early in the race. He restarted a lap down in 43rd on lap 49 and was working his way back when he spun on lap 81.

The calamities continued to mount for the No. 16 continuously being unable to make back his lap and spinning again on lap 291.

When asked by crew chief Doug Richert what they should do Biffle put it in simple terms, "Anything you can (expletive) think of so that I can drive this car."

5. Mark Martin: -123, finished second

Despite making a bit of contact with Tony Stewart on the races final laps, Martin had a fairly uneventful day; led at times for a total of 41 laps.

"The best car won," commented Martin. "Carl (Edwards) was spectacular, but we just about did it. It was a great run by the entire team."

6. Matt Kenseth: -135, finished third

Recent crew changes don't seem to have affected Team 17, Kenseth recently lost his long time spotter and his car chief but this team is qualifying better than ever. Crew chief Robbie Reiser was also not at the track most of the weekend due to his father being ill but this team rallied through its difficulties.

"When the sun was on it (the track) it didn't have much grip," explained Kenseth. "But as soon as the sun went away, the top just got real fast, it seemed like. The guys who had their cars right where they could run them, like Carl, really made it work."

7. Ryan Newman: -174, finished 25th

Newman grabbed the pole on his first qualifying lap but wrecked his primary car on his second pass. The No. 12 Dodge was forced to start at the rear of the field in a back-up car.

Newman struggled all day but the worst came on lap 243 when he made contact with Casey Mears as he battled to regain status on the lead lap. The contact caused the No. 12 Dodge to spin-out which kept him a lap down in 25th.

"That qualifying deal really killed us track position wise," said Newman. "There were so many green flag runs we were never had to two-tire our way up to the front like we wanted to. We just struggled in dirty air. Once we got out front, we were the fastest car there at the end of the race. Matt (crew chief Borland) said Edwards was two hundredths of a second faster than us on the last lap. We took a good shot to the little toe today. It was unfortunate, but we were the underdogs coming in. I don't think we're mathematically out of it, but things are looking good.

"We're looking forward to Phoenix. I knew I was taking the air off the 41, but that's racing. I wanted my lap back. My car did not touch any other car from my end of it all day, so I don't think anybody has any right to be mad at me."

8. Kurt Busch: -281, finished 10th

Quiet trouble free day for the No. 97 Ford.

9. Rusty Wallace: -315, finished 22nd

Wallace stayed out during the final round of pit stops and looked good to go for a top five. The No. 2 Dodge, however, just couldn't run with the big dogs and quickly fell to the rear.

"We didn't make a pit stop there at the end," Wallace said. "We just screwed up. We should have pitted. Larry wanted to stay out, and that was it. I don't know what I wanted to do. You want sticker tires, but do you want to give up track position to get them? You just never know for sure. When I saw 'em all coming down pit road, I should have followed 'em, but hindsight is 20-20. We easily had a top-10 car today, but that's the way it's been going lately."

10. Jeremy Mayfield: -407, finished 35th

Mayfield pitted under green due to a vibration on the No. 19 Dodge sending him to 41rst - one lap down by lap 100. Mayfield's car continued to get worse eventually falling four laps down.

"We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there. We're missing something. We were in the pits and lost a lap and we just never were able to get it back," Mayfield said.

On the bubble:

11. Jamie McMurray remains the man in the million dollar 11th place bonus slot. Jeff Gordon trails by 51 points and Elliott Sadler by 52.

"We had good pit strategy at the end," said McMurray. "We put two tires on and it worked for us. You could pass today, but track position was still very important. It was the same car we had here in April and finished second with it, but we never got a handle on it today. It was good on old tires, but it just wouldn't go on new tires. Casey (teammate Mears) had a good car all day. They've run well at a lot of tracks. They just haven't been able to finish, so it was great to see him get another good finish today."