Originally published Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 9:57 PM

Tony Stewart wins NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event | Auto racing

Tony Stewart raced to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the year, pulling away from Carl Edwards off the final restart at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

By The Associated Press

AP Sports Writer

HAMPTON, Ga. — Tony Stewart raced to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the year, pulling away from Carl Edwards off the final restart Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Stewart beat Edwards by 1.316 seconds for his first victory since Oct. 4, 2009, in Kansas, leaving Edwards winless since the 2008 season finale.

Jimmie Johnson was third, ahead of Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch in the Emory Healthcare 500.

Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw was 32nd and Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., finished 36th of 43.

Ten drivers have clinched spots in the 12-man Chase for the Sprint Cup championship going into the final race before the playoff begins, led by points leader Kevin Harvick.

Jeff Gordon, Busch, Stewart, Edwards, Burton, Johnson, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin are also heading to the 10-race playoff.

Still looking to lock up spots heading into next weekend's race at Richmond — essentially the regular-season finale — are No. 11 Biffle and No. 12 Clint Bowyer. Bowyer has a 117-point lead on No. 13 Ryan Newman.

Sentimental favorite Mark Martin, trying to win his first Cup championship at age 51, slipped a spot in the standings and is 15th — a daunting 147 points out of the playoff — heading to Richmond.

The final caution of the night came out after Newman made contact with Kahne, nearly causing a crash on the backstretch.

Stewart was out front when the green came back out with 19 laps to go, and he zoomed off the line to beat Edwards into the first corner. From there, the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet steadily pulled away, clearly the strongest car on a night in which he led eight times for a total of 176 laps — more than the rest of the field put together.

"I didn't hit a restart all night until right there at the end," Stewart said. "I've never been so happy with a win in my life."

Edwards has not driven into victory lane since winning nine times in 2008. But he led more laps (32) than he had in the last 46 races combined, giving him confidence he can contend for his first title.

"Tony just has such a fast car at the end, but we're back," Edwards said.

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