Carl Edwards celebrates his victory in a Nationwide Series race. Edwards won Saturday in Avondale, Ariz.

Avondale, Ariz. ? Carl Edwards improved his bid to win a championship this season, rolling to a dominating victory Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway to stay in mathematical contention for the Nationwide Series title.

Edwards, the defending series champion, led a race-high 78 laps and withstood a final challenge from Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin on a late restart to win his sixth race of the season. The victory chipped into Clint Bowyer’s lead – Bowyer started the race up 91 points, but was in an early accident and finished fourth. Bowyer now goes to next week’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 56-point lead over Edwards.

“If we run like we’ve been running … we can close 56 points without Clint having trouble,” Edwards said.

But Bowyer can win the championship next week if he finishes eighth or better, regardless of what Edwards does.

“Man, I can’t handle this stuff anymore,” Bowyer said. “We’re still in it. We dodged a bullet, though. If you have a day like that and come back and finish fourth, that’s what wins championships. You have to be able to bounce back. I thought we were done.”

Edwards refused to start thinking he had an advantage after Bowyer was stacked up on the sixth restart of the race. He immediately thought back to Friday night’s Truck Series race, when championship challenger Ron Hornaday wrecked on the first lap but still managed to close his deficit when points leader Johnny Benson later wrecked.

Denny Hamlin finished second, and Kevin Harvick was third. Bowyer, who dropped all the way back to 30th after his accident, rallied to finish fourth.

Kyle Busch finished fifth and was followed by Landon Cassill, Jamie McMurray and Mike Bliss. The top 10 was completed by Mike Wallace and Joey Logano.