RELATED: Harvick edges Edwards for thrilling victory | Full results
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Carl Edwards has finished second 22 times during his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career.
None were as tantalizingly close to victory as Sunday's, however.
Edwards, driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota, and Kevin Harvick, driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet, engaged in a slam-bang battle on the final lap of the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Slam! The two make contact coming through Turn 4 with the checkered flag waving.
Bang! On the frontstretch for the final time they were door-slamming again with those in the grandstands on their feet.
Side-by-side the two flashed across the start/finish line.
And Edwards was -- second.
RELATED: Watch the final laps from Phoenix
"We made him work for it," Edwards, 36, said afterward. "That's more than we've been able to do here the last few times."
If there's any solace for Edwards, it's the fact that he pushed Harvick to the limit at a track where the SHR driver has now won eight times.
"I really wish it would have worked out a little bit differently, but it's a good race," Edwards said. "I ran into him about as hard as I thought I could without wrecking him, and it ended up being a drag race.
"It was kind of fun coming to the line because I thought, 'Man, I got him,' and then he doored me real hard and then he got a little run and then I tried to door him and slow him down, but it just didn't work."
The .010-second margin between winner and loser tied for seventh closest in Sprint Cup history since the advent of electronic timing and scoring, according to NASCAR. It was the second time this season the winning margin had been as narrow -- Denny Hamlin nipped Martin Truex Jr. in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway as well.
RELATED: Closest finishes in NASCAR history
Had it not been for a final caution for Kasey Kahne's accident in Turn 3 with only four laps remaining, Edwards might not have gotten a shot at all.
With 20 laps remaining in the scheduled 312-lap race, Harvick led Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Hendrick Motorsports), Edwards, Kyle Busch (JGR) and Denny Hamlin (JGR).
When Kahne brought out the yellow, Edwards and Busch were among those to duck onto pit road for two tires.
Harvick, Earnhardt and Austin Dillon stayed out and restarted first through third, with Edwards and Busch rounding out the top five.
Despite his older tires, Harvick shot out quickly, but by the white-flag lap Edwards was second and closing.
And then it got interesting.
"We were fast and we had tires," Edwards said. "Dave Rogers (crew chief) made a great call. I got down there and I was going to go to the top and he moved up so I went to the bottom and I thought 'I'm going to move him out of the way.' I didn't want to wreck him.
"Those guys earned their spot; I moved him and it just was a drag race and we just lost."
Too close to call and too close to forget.
"It's going to be a tough one to swallow," said Edwards, "but it was a lot of fun."