DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kyle Busch has come close here so many times before. He had three top-five finishes and was runner-up in this summer race at Daytona International Speedway the past two years.

Last night, it took him a little more than regulation to finally taste victory in the Coke Zero 400, outsprinting Carl Edwards as a final caution came out during a green-whitecheckered restart.

"I've had some good times in the past couple years but nothing ever as lucky as this," Busch said after his sixth win and 11th top-five finish of 2008. "Hopefully we don't wear it out, but you never know when this deal can turn. There's no rabbit's foot, there's no four-leaf clover, there's none of that stuff I've got stashed in my pockets anywhere. If there was something I knew would bring luck, I'd keep it."

A caution came out on Lap 157, forcing the final two-lap shootout. Busch led the single-file restart with Jeff Gordon and Edwards directly behind him. Gordon drifted up, trying to see if he could get around Busch. In that time, Edwards closed the gap and when Gordon came back down, he clipped Edwards' right-front bumper and spun out.

Gordon slid into the interior portion of the track, removing him from the racing surface and keeping the final caution from coming out. Edwards moved to the outside, his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth moved behind Busch and Kurt Busch moved up behind Edwards.

The two mismatched pairs battled down the frontstretch with Edwards leading at the start-finish line for the final lap. He still led going into Turn 1 as cars started bumping each other in a mob behind the leaders.However, as Kyle Busch's inside line made a move and edged past Edwards, a four-car pileup behind them brought out the yellow, froze the field and ended the race.

When a victory is being determined, NASCAR uses video to see who was leading at the moment the yellow flew as opposed to going to the previous scoring loops which determine restart orders.

"Man, I'd have given anything to be able to run at least down to the end of the back straightaway," Edwards said. "It was a little nerve-wracking there before they announced the winner, but I don't know what to tell you, second place is second place. Really wanted to win."

It was a crazy finish to a race which started piling up the cautions, and the cars, as the laps wound down. There were four cautions through the first 115 laps, but seven in the final 47 laps. It took fewer than 70 minutes for the first half of the race, and nearly two hours for the second half.

Busch avoided trouble earlier in the race. About midway through, he was sandwiched between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin. The former Chesterfield resident gave Busch a good push, and Busch dipped his nose low to try to go around Earnhardt.

However, Busch said that caused the air to trap the nose of his car, getting him "all squirrelly." He dropped to the apron, fought his steering for a couple of laps until his tires cooled down, and found himself in traffic.

"I thought we were in big trouble when . . . Denny [bumped] him and then that shoved him out of line," crew chief Steve Addington said. "But he recovered from it and drove it back to the front."

Hamlin had been in position all night to make a run at the victory, but he was spun out by Martin Truex Jr. on Lap 136 coming out of Turn 4.Hamlin turned up into the outside wall, then came back across the track and collected Ryan Newman's No. 12.Following his pit stop, Hamlin was told on his radio Truex accepted full responsibility and said he was trying to slide up behind Hamlin.

Hamlin also was involved in the second-to-last caution, the one on the backstretch involving Jimmie Johnson among others. Hamlin finished 26th and remains seventh in the points standings.