AUTO RACING: Kahne Slips Past Stewart to Post Win

By Allen Gregory
Sports Writer / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: May 25, 2008

CONCORD, N.C. — Kasey Kahne won last week’s NASCAR All-Star Race thanks to the support of his passionate fans.

Late Sunday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the driver of the Budweiser Dodge won stock car racing’s longest event the hard way.

Kahne relied on fuel mileage, endurance and stroke of good luck to win the Coca-Cola 600 for the second time.

“That win last week gave us a lot to be excited about,” Kahne said. “It looked tough for a while, but we stepped it up and put on a great show.”

As is often the case with the 400-lap event, the final segment came down to fuel mileage. In fact, there were four different leaders from lap 388 to 394.

With just three laps remaining, Tony Stewart lost the lead when his car suffered a flat tire and hit the wall. Kahne took control from that point, then held on for his first victory in 52 races.

“We had no chance of catching Tony,” Kahne said. “We were one of the best cars all night, though. Our team has really stepped it up the past few weeks and they did an awesome job tonight.”

Kahne had led a total of five laps in points races all season.

Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. rounded out the top five finishers.

“This was a hard-fought job,” Biffle said. “Man, we were hitting the trace track. The car was just a handful to drive one way or the other. We couldn’t ever hit it.”

For a while, it appeared that Busch was going to continue his mastery. Entering Sunday’s event, Busch had won nine races and led nearly 1,500 laps this season in NASCAR’s three major series this season.

Busch led three times for 61 laps in the 600, but was doomed by an alternator issue with around 100 laps go. Busch started from the pole, then opened an advantage of 22 car lengths with the first 33 laps.

“It’s unfortunate, but we’ll take it and go on,” Busch said. “The guys did an awesome job on pit road.”

Steve Addington, the crew chief to Busch, paid credit to Busch who again wowed fans with his ability to pass on the high and low side of the track.“Anytime you can race 600 miles, have alternator problems, and still finish third – that’s good points race for us,” Addington said.

While his fans were hoping for a long-awaited win, Earnhardt took his finish in stride.

“We got lucky at the end,” Earnhardt said. “We got gas and made it last.”

Even the most powerful teams, especially Hendrick Motorsports, have spent endless hours and dollars searching for the secret to success with NASCAR’s next-generation car.

As drivers search for that elusive balance and handling, most of the races on intermediate-sized tracks such as Lowe’s have digressed into follow-the-leader type shows.

That was certainly the case in last week’s All-Star event at LMS, but Sunday’s multi-faceted drama featured 37 changes among 16 drivers.

Earnhardt Jr. led five times for 76 laps. In fact, Earnhardt had a margin of 3.5 seconds on lap 243 and then delighted his fans on lap 260 when he regained the lead by zooming past Busch.

To the horror of his Junior Nation fans, Earnhardt smacked the wall on lap 298 due to a flat rear tire while leading. After getting slammed from behind by the J.J. Yeley car,
Earnhardt’s National Guard Chevrolet rode the outside wall for several seconds before coming onto pit road for repairs.

“I hate it for my guys,” Earnhardt said. “We were running really strong, but I still had a fun night.”

Kahne celebrated his breakthrough victory by stopping his car on frontstretch and collecting the checkered flag.

“Dale was tough, then Tony had us at the end,” Kahne said. “This is just a tough race to win.

“It’s been a long season up to this point, but hopefully we’re getting it turned around now.”

Kahne became just the sixth driver to sweep the All-Star Race and Coca-Cola 600.

“Atlanta used to be my favorite track, but now it’s this place,” Kahne said.

A potential victory, traditional LMS favorite Jimmie Johnson was doomed by a rare engine failure.

The most bizarre moment unfolded on lap 185 when the Brian Vickers car slammed into the outside wall. A tire flew off the Vickers car, hit the hood of the David Gilliand Ford and then bounced over an inside wall. The tire, which weighs around 75 pounds, narrowly missed a group of fans.

Vickers led for 61 laps.

NOTES: Apart from Earnhardt Jr., the loudest applause of the night came for Humpy Wheeler, who recently announced his retirement as the general manager of Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Wheeler has long been regarded as one of the most innovative promoters in motorsports ...

A challenging season got more difficult for the Haas CNC Racing team Saturday afternoon when NASCAR officials confiscated the team’s two cars. According to spokesman Kerry
Tharp, NASCAR had an “issue with the upper-rear wing mounting points of the 66 and 70 cars.”

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