"I saw the slide job coming and dodged it and won the race," said Jimmie Johnson of beating Roush Fenway Ford driver Carl Edwards to the finish line by .280 seconds to win the Camping World RV 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday. It was the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s fifth Sprint Cup race of 2008 and allowed him to take a 10-point lead over Edwards in The Chase for the Sprint Cup. "I thought I was sitting in good shape with a nice lead with two to go, and all of sudden the 99 was all over me." Not only was it an exciting, invigorating win for Johnson and the #48 Chevrolet Impala SS team, it was yet another stunning example of just how very good the team actually is, now gaining critical mass with three wins and five top five fishes in the outfit’s last five starts.

Jimmie Johnson started the third race of the 10-race NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup from the pole position, leading the first 17 laps before Matt Kenseth and his Roush Fenway Racing Ford took control of the lead.

As the 267-lap race reached the halfway mark, Martin Truex led the way, followed by Johnson, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt. A few laps later — on lap number 140 — Johnson was back in the lead and holding steady. Meanwhile, after starting the race all the way back in 34th place, Carl Edwards was rapidly making up time on the two-time and reigning Cup champion, and on lap number 176, moved into the lead. Next came a round of pit lane visits by the lead cars, when all said and done, Johnson was back out front. However, Edwards’ Ford was on rails and on lap number 191 pulled a slingshot move around Johnson. Laps 219 and 226 brought out two more caution flags with the last restart coming on lap 230. Johnson timed the green flag perfectly, putting just the right amount of distance between his Chevrolet and Edwards’ Ford. On lap number 263, Edwards was a mere 0.873 secs behind Johnson and on lap number 265, tapping his rear bumper. On the white flag lap, Edwards dove to the inside and actually made the pass, but could get the Ford to stick and skimmed along the wall, giving the win to Johnson.

Chase Points
Pos Name             Points
1 Jimmie Johnson   5575
2 Carl Edwards      5565
3 Greg Biffle          5545
4 Jeff Burton          5454
5 Kevin Harvick      5439
6 Jeff Gordon         5432
7 Clint Bowyer        5411
8 Dale Earnhardt Jr  5385
9 Matt Kenseth        5383
10 Denny Hamlin     5332
11 Tony Stewart      5320
12 Kyle Busch         5264