(HAMPTON, GA) -- A bizarre series of events in the final laps Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway gave Jimmie Johnson his eighth victory of the season and moved him within nine points of leader Jeff Gordon. "Jeff and his team today had some bad and a bad car and adjusted and fixed it and got back up to the front. There're not rolling and we're not giving up and it's going to be a great fight to the end," said Johnson. Gordon finished seventh. "All we can do right now is go out and put up the numbers and performance that we possibly can, really focused and concerned about right now is try and not have a bad day," said Gordon.

Carl Edwards finished second Sunday. He is just thankful the wacky end to the race gave him a break. "I mean in a lot of ways we didn't deserve to run second today with the way we performed, so it's a great day for us," said Edwards. He did little to gain on Gordon and Johnson, moving to fourth in the points but still 261 away from first.