It was one of the situations where you never would have expected the situation to happen.

It was on March 20, 2005 that Carl Edwards did the unthinkable and passed Jimmie Johnson on the final turn of the final lap. Edwards was able to get a power run off of turn 2 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, that pulled him up to the back bumper of Jimmie Johnson’s Lowe’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo. On that final turn, Edwards took the momentum and was able to get a high side run and beat Jimmie Johnson to the finish line by a margin of 0.028 seconds, less than half a car length.

The win that day proved that Carl Edwards was the “Real Deal.” Edwards only led only nine laps of the race, but when he crossed the line he had led the most important one of his career. For almost 3 1/2 years, the No. 99 Roush Racing team had gone without winning a race, and team members such as car chief Pierre Kuettel, who is now Edwards’ crew chief on the No. 60 Nationwide Series team, stuck by the team and was able to witness one of the most thrilling victories by a young driver ever.

Edwards, who scored his first top-five at Atlanta only months before he scored his win at the track. The victory’s special meaning came to both the driver and his team. It was crew chief Bob Osborne’s first win as well as a crew chief, after being the head engineer for Roush. And ending the winless steak meant even more.