Carl Edwards wins the 2015 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Stretching his fuel to the utmost, Carl Edwards won Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

As the leaders pitted for tires and fuel under green-flag conditions with less than 40 laps remaining, Edwards’ crew chief, Darian Grubb, elected to stay out, gambling his driver could make it to finish. The roll of the dice proved successful. Edwards went 62 laps on a tank of fuel.

“It’s just so cool to get this win,” Edwards said. “We’ve had such bad luck. We were the slowest of the bunch tonight and had Darian up on the box and made the right call. He put us in a position to win and it worked.”

Charlotte was career victory No. 24 for Edwards and his first since joining Joe Gibbs Racing in the offseason. Edwards faced high expectations with his new team, and admittedly he was pressing, struggling through the opening months. But Sunday’s win virtually locks him into the Chase for the Sprint Cup and allows him and Grubb to continue to race without the pressure of worrying about their playoff chances.

“I’m just so competitive and I’m not happy with how we’ve performed and the results we’ve had,” Edwards said. “I feel like this is a gift. As much as I’ve been frustrated, this is truly a gift and I’m going to take advantage of it and enjoy it and we’ll get better.”

Greg Biffle finished second, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr.

How NASCAR’s longest event played out was especially frustrating for Truex, who led a race-high 131 laps but pitted out of the lead, needing fuel, 20 laps from the finish. He was looking to snap a 67-race winless streak dating to June 23, 2013 at Sonoma Raceway.

“I don’t know what to do about fuel mileage races,” Truex said. “One time in my whole career I have come out on the right end of them. I don’t know. I guess I don’t get good fuel mileage.”

Completing the top 10 were Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch.

Kyle Busch showed no ill effects in his first points race since breaking his right leg and left foot in a February crash at Daytona International Speedway. A teammate of Edwards, Busch ran with the leaders throughout the night and only finished 11th due to various strategy calls late in the race.

“I feel pretty good,” Busch said. “All in all, I felt like that was a great race for us. We ran really strong. We ran up front, and we showed we had some speed. You know, it certainly is frustrating to finish where we did.”

To qualify for the Chase, Busch not only needs a win but to move inside the top 30 in points. He gained 10 points Sunday on 30th-place Tony Stewart, who finished 21st, trimming the deficit to 169 points with 14 regular season races remaining.