Stewart loosens the lead and Kahne takes home the win!

[DebWilliams-GFN]

Stewart loosens the lead and Kahne takes home the win!

By Deb Williams

CONCORD, N.C. (May 25, 2008) – Kasey Kahne snapped a 52-race winless streak Sunday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, becoming only the sixth driver to claim the All-Star race and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same season with a victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' longest race.

Kahne joined Darrell Waltrip, Davey Allison, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in the elite group with his third victory at the 1.5-mile track and the eighth of his Cup career.

“To have my name with those names is probably one of the neatest things I have ever done in racing, and it's all because of my team and all because of these guys that I work with,” said Kahne, who led six times for 66 laps. “It's really, really a special race, special weekend. We were there all night. The pit stops were great. We were better on four tires than we were on two or no tires, but we were still pretty good on those.”

Kahne's victory lane visit was his first since Oct. 14, 2006 at LMS, and moved him into 12th in the point standings.

“Obviously, we want to win races, but the main goal is to be in the top 12 with 10 races to go,” Kahne said. “That's what every team out here wants to do. We just have to keep working hard on finishing and making sure we get points every single week.”

With the 400-lap race beginning in the late afternoon and ending at night, the constantly changing track produced a show that possessed as many different acts, twists and turns as a Broadway play.

-- Kyle Busch, who started on the pole and led three times for 61 laps, experienced battery problems in his Toyota throughout the race before finishing third.

-- Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the race's top lap leader, setting the pace on five occasions for 76 laps before scrapping the wall and getting hit in the rear by J.J. Yeley on lap 297. He fought back to a fifth-place finish.

-- Kurt Busch led twice for 64 laps before hitting the wall on lap 162. Earlier in the race, his team had a brief fire in its pit due to fuel spillage as he sped out of his pit box. Busch salvaged a 16th-place finish.

-- Brian Vickers' Toyota set sail early in the race, leading four times for 61 laps before his car lost a left-rear wheel. The tire flew onto the top of the SAFER barrier. After hitting it, it sailed back across the track, jumped the inside wall and bounced over the first turn infield fence between two campers. No one was injured and NASCAR confiscated the wheel to examine it.

-- Defending series champion Johnson, who won four straight races at LMS and five of six from 2003-05, appeared headed for another victory when his Chevrolet lost an engine with 50 laps remaining. At the time, he'd led five times for 35 laps.

In the end, it came down to placing oneself in position in order to capitalize on opportunity. With the laps winding down, the majority of the lead-lap cars were forced to pit for a splash of fuel.

Tony Stewart assumed the lead on lap 384 when Kahne stopped for 4 seconds worth of fuel. Four laps later Stewart stopped briefly for fuel, turning the lead over to Jeff Burton. Over the next five laps, the scenario was repeated. Burton pitted, giving the lead to Matt Kenseth, who turned it over to Denny Hamlin, who gave it to Dave Blaney, who returned it to Stewart. When Stewart regained the lead, he possessed a 5.328-second advantage over Kahne. At this point, the Washington state native was thinking a second-place finish. Suddenly, with three laps remaining, everything changed when Stewart's Toyota scrapped the wall.

“He [Stewart] went out of my sight into turn one; he was up high,” said Kahne, who averaged 135.772 mph in the race that was slowed by 11 caution flags for 50 laps and had 37 lead changes among 16 drivers. “When I came off of [turn] two, he was low and slow. I thought he had run out of gas. I knew he took a lot less than us. At that point, I couldn't believe it. From there, I just tried to hit my marks and make sure I brought it home.”

Greg Zipadelli, Stewart's crew chief, said it was a right-front flat tire that sent Stewart's Toyota into the wall.

“Another tire that wouldn't hold air,” Zipadelli said. “It's hard to believe. We were so loose that entire run because we knew we needed to be there at the end. It's just stupid. We must have run over something or had a small leak or something. I don't even know what to say. I'm so frustrated.”

Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis, said “Goodyear did a great job” with the tire it built for the event.

“I think everyone has had nothing but praise all weekend for these tires,” Francis continued. “This is probably the most load track we have as far as loads on the tires, amount of force on the tires. It's one of the highest cornering speed tracks we have. At the very beginning of the race, first long run we had, we came in, we looked at the tires, you could see a little bit of shade of cords under the rubber. So we knew we better not do too much more than this.”

Kahne said his Dodge was a first- or second-place car at the end of the race.

“You know, Tony was a first- or second-place car and he had a problem,” Kahne noted. “When luck's on your side, it's great. Luck is a big part of everyday life.”

The Sprint Cup Series now travels to Pocono Raceway for a two-day test before heading to Dover, Del., for next weekend's race.

[thenose]

I respect your writing; but for you to not mention the fact that the 20 team tried to run 90+ laps on the same right-side tires is irresponsible.

Ask anyone in the garage (except, aparently, Tony and Zip); and they will tell you that doing that is just asking for trouble.

They can blame GY all they want---but they really need to look in the mirror for this one.

Can't blame them though---it was their only chance to win; considering that they got the lead by taking fuel-only on lap 337.