Kasey Kahne ended a 52-race winless streak in Sprint Cup races, taking advantage of Tony Stewart’s misfortune in the final laps to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
With his eighth career victory and first top-five finish of the season, Kahne also became the sixth driver to win both the All-Star and 600 races in the same season.
“We really stepped it up in the last 2-3 weeks, getting back to where we need to be,” said Kahne, whose Gillett Evernham teammate Elliott Sadler finished eighth. “It’s been a long first half of the season. Hopefully we’ve got it turned around now.”
Seizing the moment when Tony Stewart blew a tire while leading on Lap 397, Kahne streaked to the finish 10.203 seconds ahead of Biffle, who recovered from a loose wheel and a lost lap early in the race to claim the runner-up spot.
Disappointed two weeks in a row, Greg Biffle would have preferred a closer race at the end of the 600, but he took his second consecutive defeat to Kahne philosophically.
“Overall, I was probably more frustrated last week not getting the win, because I felt like I had the fastest car,” said Biffle, who is 11th in the Cup standings. “Tonight, I didn’t feel like I had the fastest car. I had a really good, solid car and just kept passing and got the track position where we were at the end.
“But I would have liked a chance to race Kasey. We got pretty fast there the last 50 laps of the race.”
“There was no chance of catching (Stewart). He was as fast as we were when we pitted,” Kahne said. “I was thinking maybe he’d run out of gas. I guess he had a tire problem.”
Kahne, who led just five laps all season coming into Sunday, became the sixth driver — joining Davey Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Darrell Waltrip — to win both the All-Star race and the 600 in this eight days of racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Johnson, Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch all led laps but had parts failures or tire issues that prevented them from winning.
“Dale Jr. fell out, he was awesome. Tony Stewart fell out, he was awesome,” Kahne said. “They had us beat at times tonight, and we had them beat at times tonight.”
Greg Biffle finished second to Kahne for the second straight week and Kyle Busch, the Sprint Cup Series points leader finished third despite two battery changes over the course of the race.
Jeff Gordon was fourth and was followed by Earnhardt, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler, Carl Edwards and David Reutimann.
No one was quite sure, but Earnhardt rallied to finish fifth.
“I thought we were done, and then I got motivated again,” he said. “We got lucky. Got gas and made it last.”
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