KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Jimmie Johnson barely held off a strong challenge from Carl Edwards today at Kansas Speedway, winning the race and vaulting into first place in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Edwards, who overcame a poor starting position and two pit lane incidents, to catch and pass Johnson for the lead, lost the top spot to Johnson on a pit stop with 47 laps to go. He finally caught him again on the last lap, shooting past Johnson on the low side of the banked 1.5-mile oval in turn three — but just a little too fast.

Edwards slid up the track and bounced off the wall as Johnson drove back past and on to his fifth victory of the season, with Edwards holding on for second.

"That was cool," Johnson said moments after crossing the finish line.

Edwards was grinning after the race.

"I planned on hitting the wall, but I didn't plan on the wall slowing me down that much," Edwards said. "In video games, you can just run into the wall and run it wide open. That's what I did, but it didn't quite work out the same as the video game. I just really, really wanted to win this race."

Greg Biffle, who came into the third race of the 10-race Chase for the championship with two straight victories, followed the leaders across the finish line to stay close in the points.

Johnson, who has three wins and five top-five finishes in his last five starts, now leads Edwards by 10 points, with Biffle 35 points behind and seven races to go.

It was a very long race for Edwards, who started 34th in the 43-car field after a poor qualifying effort on Friday.

On his first pit stop, Brian Vickers veered into his pit as Edwards was coming out of his and the two made contact. On Edward's next pit stop, he got out cleanly but was hit in the side by Dave Blaney, who had ricocheted off Jeff Burton.

That second collision forced Edwards to make another stop to have sheet metal pulled away from the tire.

But Missourian Edwards, who considers this his home track, was relentless as he drove through the field and took his first lead of the day on lap 176 of 267.

But Johnson, who started from the pole and had the strongest car all day, was just as tough.