Hampton, GA (Best E Casino) - Jimmie Johnson got better as the day went on and took advantage of a Denny Hamlin mistake to win Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 Nextel Cup race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Jeff Gordon finished seventh and through seven races in the 10-race "Chase for the Nextel Cup," holds a slim nine-point lead over his teammate.

The No.48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line ahead of Carl Edwards as a caution flag during a green-white checker finish ended racing. The win was Johnson's eighth of the season and 31st of his Nextel Cup career.

"We has like a fifth place car all day," said Johnson. "Then Chad (Knaus) made the call and the caution worked in our favor...I have to thank everyone in the race shop for giving us great race cars. Now we are within striking distance."

Greg Biffle brought the field to the green flag after capturing his fourth career pole on Friday. But soon after the start, Kurt Busch, who started on the outside of the front row, charged past Biffle for the lead.

And of course the two Hendrick superstars always seem to be moving up and early on today it was no different. Johnson and Gordon started sixth and eighth, but after 20 laps were third and fourth, respectively.

Contrary to yesterday's Busch Series race that had a record 25 caution flags, the first yellow didn't come out to lap 33 when Juan Pablo Montoya spun after his right-front tire blew.

Martin Truex Jr.'s No.1 Chevrolet was much improved after the initial stop and he caught Busch on lap 55 and passed him the following lap. Just after the pass, Montoya blew a second right-front tire to bring out another caution flag.

David Gilliland spun down the back straight on lap 64 and collected Mark Martin to bring out another caution flag. There was enough debris all over the track that NASCAR signaled for a red flag to clean it up.

It was a short stoppage and then they got back to racing with eight "Chase" drivers in the top-10 as the field passed the 75-lap mark. It was still Busch and Truex Jr. at the top by more than two seconds over Kyle Busch, Johnson and Biffle.

On the next stop, Kurt Busch's crew had a lug nut problem and he returned to the track all the way back in 13th place. Truex Jr.'s team had no such problem and he took over the top spot. But Kurt Busch quickly passed the slower cars around him and returned to the leaders.

In the race-within-the-race, after 125 laps Gordon and Johnson were cruising in the top-10, but Clint Bowyer was struggling to get the handling right and was mired in 28th place.

By lap 144, Kurt Busch slipped past brother Kyle Busch into second place. But he was still more than four seconds behind leader Truex Jr. who had flat checked out from the field.

Then David Ragan had a tire blow and Truex Jr.'s big lead was erased in a heartbeat.

Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch were still showing the way at lap 163, the mid-point of the race. On the next caution flag stop, Bowyer's No.07 crew took a chance by taking only right-side tires and the move pushed him up 13 places in the standings to fourth. But it would remain to be seen if he could stay up there against all the cars who took four tires.

On lap 174 Kurt Busch returned to the lead for the first time since his problem on pit road, passing his younger brother on the low side. Truex Jr. followed Kurt into second place and two laps later he slid right past him for the lead.

The trio of Truex Jr. and the Busch brothers were clearly the best cars on the track, opening up a couple of seconds on Denny Hamlin, who was now in fourth. Bowyer, as expected, began to backslid right from the start of the run, falling back out of the top-10 on lap 187.

Around the 200-lap mark, Kasey Kahne showed enough speed to join the trio who had dominated the first part of the race. He pulled into second behind Truex Jr., but he wasn't catching him. The No.1 DEI Chevrolet was building his lead - to 1.674 seconds on lap 206.

With 100 laps remaining, the three title contenders sat in sixth (Johnson), 14th (Bowyer) and 20th (Gordon).

Kahne had the lead on a caution flag restart with 87 laps to go, but Kyle Busch didn't like where he was in seconds and by the time they came out of turn one the No.5 Chevy held the lead. Busch immediately broke away from Truex Jr. putting 10 lengths between the top two cars.

Seventy-five laps to go and it was still Kyle Busch, Truex Jr. and Kahne. But lurking just behind and getting better with each pit stop was Johnson in fourth. It has been the No.48 team's strategy all season to be at its best after the final stop. Meanwhile, Gordon was also climbing the charts, but at a much slower rate than his younger teammate, he was up to 12th place.

Truex Jr. passed Kahne with 72 laps to go, but he was having trouble staying with Kyle Busch. The margin was 2.910 seconds with 70 laps remaining. He also had Johnson in his rearview mirror as the No.48 Chevy got around Kahne for third place.

Ryan Newman's engine blew up with 57 laps to go and it set up possibly the final stops for all the leaders. They returned to the track with Truex Jr. leading Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Johnson. And the No.24 Hendrick Motorsports team had a good stop getting Gordon out in eighth place.

The restart was with 53 laps, possibly a few laps more than most teams could make on one tank of fuel. They would need some caution flags or very good fuel conservation to make it to the checkered flag with making another stop.

Again, Kyle Busch was quick and passed both Kurt and Truex Jr. by lap 280 - 45 to go. At lap 300 Busch's lead over Kenseth was about one second. But Kenseth was charging, apparently not worried about fuel.

Thirteen laps to go and Kenseth was right on Kyle Busch's rear bumper. Then with seven laps to go Johnny Sauter blew a tire and the fuel problems were not relevant anymore.

All the leaders pitted for tires and a splash of fuel except Denny Hamlin who stayed out. Kyle Busch had a problem on pit road when the jackman slipped up and when Chad Knaus saw it he decided that Johnson would take just two tires to grab second place on the track. Behind them were Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray and Reed Sorenson.

The green came down with four laps to go and Hamlin stalled just before the start/finish line. Truex Jr. couldn't see it happening because he was stuck to Kyle Busch's rear bumper and when Busch barely avoided Hamlin, Truex Jr. could not - slamming into the back of the No.11 Chevy to bring out the caution flag and end his day.

Meanwhile, Johnson inherited the lead with Carl Edwards and "Junior" just behind as NASCAR set up for the green-white-checker finish.

When Johnson saw the final green flag drop he took off. He was already five lengths ahead when Earnhardt Jr. lost a wheel, slammed into McMurray and brought out the checkered flag to end the race. It short circuited what should have been a great finish.

Sorenson, Kenseth and Jeff Burton completed the top-five.

"For us to come back to a seventh-place finish, it could have been a lot worse than that," said Gordon.

The series next travels to the Texas Motor Speedway on November 4th.