Fan Favorite Kasey Kahne Comes Through With His First Sprint All-Star Victory

[DebWilliams-GFN]

By Deb Williams

CONCORD, N.C. (May 17, 2008) – If it hadn't been for the fans, Kasey Kahne wouldn't have been in Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint All-Star race, and if it hadn't been for a stop-and-go pit stop, the Washington state driver wouldn't have claimed his first victory in the special event at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

“I can't believe it! It's incredible!” said Kahne, who dedicated the caution-free, 100-lap race to his grandfather who died in January. “This is a race for the fans and for us to come out and win it with the fan vote is pretty cool.”

Kahne became only the third driver to ever transfer into the All-Star race from the Showdown and then emerge victorious in the special event. Michael Waltrip accomplished the feat with the Wood Brothers in 1996. Ryan Newman followed suit with Penske in 2002. However, Kahne was the first driver to gain entrance into the All-Star event via the fan vote and then win it.

Kahne, whose 1.327-second win over Greg Biffle was just the fifth victory margin of more than one second in the event's 24-year history, also was the first Dodge driver to win the race.

“It certainly means a lot,” team co-owner Ray Evernham, who brought Dodge back into NASCAR Cup racing, said about being the first Dodge to win the All-Star event. “Dodge has been a big part of what we have been able to do. It's great. We won some big races with Dodge this year, with Penske winning the Daytona 500, certainly now us winning here.

“I think we need to put together probably some better finishes for Dodge because Dodge, as a manufacturer, has been down on the bottom of the totem pole and we need to get them up there. Hopefully, the people from Dodge will be excited because I know they pay big bonuses for wins like this. We'll have to find out if the bonus works for the non-points races, too.”

Kahne was never a factor in the four-segment event until the final segment. Kyle Busch dominated the first 25-lap segment and appeared headed for an easy win, as he led all 25 laps. Finishing second was Biffle with Kurt Busch third.

Jeff Burton had to start the second 25-lap segment at the end of the longest line for exiting pit road too fast. Dale Jarrett, who was driving in the final race of his career and had to wipe tears from his eyes at the national anthem's conclusion in pre-race ceremonies, also had to start at the rear for a tire violation on pit road.

At the start of the second segment, Busch immediately jumped out to nearly a second lead over Ryan Newman. He battled with Carl Edwards briefly before Edwards snatched the lead on lap 39 and Busch's Toyota engine expired.

“(We) just had something break in the valve train,” Busch said. “A rocker arm first and then a couple of valves. It was a great race car, but just nothing you can do with engine woes. It was going to be our standard package for the 600 weekend. It's a new package that we've come out with in recent weeks, but for some reason, it has broken rocker arms.”

Edwards won the segment and Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing crew pushed his car behind the wall. It marked the first time in Edwards' career that the Roush Fenway Racing driver had won a segment in the All-Star race.

A 10-minute break in which the teams were allowed to work on their car followed the second segment. Edwards shut off his Ford's engine, as his crew changed only tires. Other competitors received chassis adjustments in addition to fresh rubber.

For the third-segment's double-file restart, the cars lined up in the same order that they finished the second segment. When the green flag waved, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second in the previous segment, immediately challenged Edwards for the lead. He took over the top position on lap 51 and left Edwards to battle with teammate Matt Kenseth for second. Kenseth dispensed with Edwards for second on lap 53. However, before Kenseth could challenge Earnhardt Jr., Biffle came into the picture. He slipped under Kenseth for second on lap 64, and a lap later removed Earnhardt Jr. from the lead. By lap 70, Biffle had stretched his advantage over Earnhardt to 2.524 seconds. When the third segment ended, Biffle possessed a 3.971-second advantage over Earnhardt Jr.

“We were a mediocre car,” Biffle said about his Roush Fenway machine at the race's beginning. “I was running third, fourth, right there. I just was way too tight. We took a look at what Matt was doing and Carl, and we made some pretty aggressive adjustments to our car. We wouldn't have done something like that in a normal race. We loosened it up a bunch. When the green flag dropped, I mean, man alive, I could not believe how fast my car was. It was unbelievable. I could just drive it anywhere on the map, drive to the corner, hold it to the floor.”

Everyone was required to make a pit stop at the end of the third segment, and it was the decision by Kahne's and Jimmie Johnson's crews that surprised everyone. Both elected not to give their drivers new tires, and that left Johnson leading and Kahne second on the restart. Kahne had started last in the 24-car field and had broken into the top 10 by lap 40. Now, he was second.

Earnhardt Jr. took four tires on the mandatory pit stop. Newman was poised to take four new tires, but when Kenseth received only two, crew chief Roy McCauley changed the orders for Newman at the last minute to right-side tires only.

When the race returned to green-flag conditions for the final 25 laps, it was Denny Hamlin's turn to show the strength of his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota engines. Hamlin snatched the lead from Johnson on lap 76, but then turned it over to Kahne on lap 85 when his engine expired.

“That was all we could ask for is that we had a fighting chance with 15 to go and we're leading the race,” said Hamlin, who admitted his team had some “experimental” things in the car. “I just held it real strong that first lap and tried to go around the 48 [Johnson] as soon as we could because we knew our car was tight. As soon as I moved up, our lap times really picked up and it seemed like we were going to be the car to beat. It's just one of those deals. We came out here with our guns loaded and, unfortunately, our gun went off a little bit before the end of the race. We knew this engine wasn't going to go 500 miles. It was built for just a few more laps past 100 and it just didn't make it.”

Biffle challenged Kahne once during the final segment, but his car became too tight and he had to settle for second.

“At the end, I thought it was going to be just easy,” Biffle said. “I thought it was going to be a Saturday night drive. I just went down into turn one after the restart and the tires were way, way too tight, like I was at the beginning of the race.

“Then it got good. I chased him down. I had one opportunity. He kind of closed the door on me a little bit. I figured, no sense pressing it right now. I got plenty more laps to go. Then, it just got tighter and tighter as it went. I never got a chance to get back at him again.”

Kahne, meanwhile, was hoping the caution-free race would remain that way.

“The last thing I wanted was a restart, having somebody starting beside me,” Kahne said. “I was just hoping for no cautions and we didn't have any.”

Kahne, however, didn't have much time to celebrate his All-Star victory. It was after midnight when he concluded his post-race interview in the LMS media center, and he was leaving at 6 a.m. Sunday to compete in the Camping World Showdown at Iowa Speedway.

“Yeah, I'll be a little tired, but I'll be able to wake up a lot easier now than if we hadn't won,” Kahne commented with a grin.