HAMPTON, Ga. - Ten drivers have locked up spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

No one is feeling better about his chances than Tony Stewart.

The car owner raced the No. 14 Chevy to his first win of the year, pulling away from Carl Edwards off the final restart Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"Ring the bell, baby!" Stewart screamed over the radio as he took the checkered flag for his 38th career victory, and third at Atlanta.

On a night when much of the racing was fender to fender, Stewart beat Edwards by a comfortable 1.316 seconds for his first victory since Oct. 4, 2009, at Kansas, leaving Edwards winless since the 2008 season finale.

Jimmie Johnson was third, followed by Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch.

"I don't know if we have peaked yet," said Stewart, who snapped a 31-race winless streak that was the second-longest of his 12-year career. "I think we've got room to be better."

Ten drivers have now 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 Saturday's race at Richmond - essentially the regular-season finale - are No. 11 Greg Biffle and No. 12 Clint Bowyer.

Bowyer has a 117-point lead on No. 13 Ryan Newman and merely needs to finish 28th at Richmond to clinch his spot. Sentimental favorite Mark Martin, trying to win his first Cup championship at age 51, slipped a spot in the standings and is now 15th - a daunting 147 points out of the playoff.

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