Kahne outlasts the field
CONCORD, N.C. – It took a while, but when the time came to decide a winner in the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday night things got fairly interesting.
Kasey Kahne emerged with the lead after battling furiously with three others for three laps after a restart with 33 laps to go, and it was all over but the fireworks.
In winning for the third time this season, Kahne led 158 laps, the most in a race that saw pit strategy, because of smaller fuel cells and harder tires in use for the Nextel Cup circuit’s longest race, shuffle the running order like cards in a 10-deck Las Vegas blackjack shoe.
Kahne’s Dodge was good enough to overcome an early mistake on pit road – missing lug nuts that forced him to make a second stop just before the 100-lap mark – and nimble enough to pick its way through a near disaster as Casey Mears and Kyle Busch crashed in front of him with less than 100 laps left.
When it mattered, the No. 9 Charger was powerful enough to do what no other car had been able to do for more than two years at Lowe’s Motor Speedway – beat Jimmie Johnson’s No.48 Chevrolet.
Kahne, from Enumclaw, Wash., was third on the restart, behind Carl Edwards and Johnson. He hung there as the others battled on Lap 369, with Matt Kenseth moving up to join the fray as well.
On Lap 370, Kahne went to the high side to take second and then, a lap later, he dove low in Turns 3-4 to get the lead he never gave back.
“We were able to really get going there at the end,” Kahne said. “It’s awesome to win the 600, such a long race. Today was ours.”
Johnson, who’d won the previous four Nextel Cup points races and the past three 600s at the 1.5-mile track, battled past Edwards to get second.
But by that time, Kahne was more than two seconds ahead and well on his way to adding a victory here to the ones he’d earned at Atlanta and Texas.
“It’s a huge win for us,” Kahne said.
Edwards finished third, with Mark Martin edging Roush Racing teammate Kenseth for fourth.
“We had the fastest car at times,” Johnson said. “I have to congratulate Kasey, I know how hard it is to win a 600.”
Scott Riggs led until Tony Stewart cut a tire going into Turn 1 on Lap 33 and slammed into the outside wall. Stewart’s right shoulder was sore from a crash early in Saturday’s Busch Series race, and he grimaced as emergency workers helped him out of his smashed-up car Sunday. Stewart was taken to a Charlotte hospital for X-rays as the race resumed, but he was later released.
When Ryan Newman spun off Turn 4 on Lap 48, several cars pitted for fuel only.
That began a pattern that would repeat all night, with varying strategies tumbling the running order.