Kahne pulls away in Coca-Cola 600 for first win
CONCORD, N.C. -- After struggling for much of the first third of the season, Kasey Kahne put an exclamation mark on the 12th of 36 races, dominating the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway to get his first win of the season.
Kahne, who joined Hendrick Motorsports at the beginning of the season, regained the lead with just under 70 laps remaining and held on the rest of the way to give a big boost to his hopes of making the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship at the end of the season.
Kahne struggled in the first part of the season, with finishes of 29th, 34th, 19th, 37th, 14th and 38th in the first six races. But in the past six, he has been one of NASCAR's most consistent drivers, finishing seventh, eighth, fifth, fourth, eighth and, finally, first on Sunday.
It was Kahne's 13th career win and the first Cup win since his triumph at Phoenix in the second-to-last race of last season. In addition, it was Kahne's 300th career Sprint Cup start.
The rest of the top five: runner-up Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and Brad Keselowski. Rounding out the top 10: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.
The longest race of the season ended in a snappy 3 hours, 51 minutes, with just nine of the 43 cars that started the event finishing on the lead lap.
With 50 laps remaining, Kahne had a nearly 2.5-second lead over Hamlin and over a 4.5-second lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, who was running in third place at the time. Johnson's hopes for a win were severely hampered when he was penalized for leaving pit road with the gas can still hanging out of his car with less than 50 laps remaining. The infraction dropped Johnson from third to 16th, one lap behind the leaders. He ultimately finished 11th.
The 100,000-plus fans in attendance came to life on Lap 326 when Earnhardt briefly took the lead before yielding the spot to Hamlin and then to Kahne.
Biffle, the Sprint Cup points leader, dominated the first half of the race, but Kahne was in the lead at the three-quarter point, 300 laps down and 100 laps remaining. As can be expected in the series' longest race, attrition was substantial, as only 10 cars remained on the lead lap when the final 100 laps began.
The race was on track to be one of the fastest in recent memory, as the first 300 laps were completed in just under three hours.
The first 100 laps were uneventful, contested under all-green conditions. In addition to no caution periods, there were only three lead changes, with Biffle leading 84 of the first 100 laps. Marcos Ambrose led 13 laps and pole-sitter Aric Almirola led just three laps before Biffle began his dominating run.
The second quarter of the race saw the first caution, on Lap 113 for debris. Ambrose took the lead on the restart, but Busch needed less than five laps to move to the point. Coming into Sunday's race, the younger Busch brother had never won a race at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch's advantage didn't last long; Biffle regained the top spot, only to be slowed by a second caution period on Lap 134, once again due to debris.
Busch again took the lead, followed by Johnson, who came into the race seeking a sweep of sorts. He won the last points race at Darlington two weeks ago, which was also Rick Hendrick's 200th win as a team owner, and Johnson won a week ago in the Sprint All-Star Race. In addition, Johnson's team won the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge.
The race slowed again on Lap 171, again for debris. However, A.J. Allmendinger's car failed to start after pitting and had to be pushed to the garage area for repairs. Then, just seven laps later, yet another caution (the fourth of the race at that point) was called for -- what else? -- debris. Biffle regained the lead and paced the field at the midway point.
All told, the first half took a mere 1 hour, 57 minutes.
In just the third Sprint Cup start of her career, Danica Patrick didn't even attempt to challenge the leaders, seemingly content to spend much of the first half primarily around 35th place, falling one lap down to the leaders. Patrick eventually finished 30th, five laps behind the leaders.
Patrick had a couple of incidents early on where she got in the way of lead-lap cars and, while trying to get out of their way, became an inadvertent obstacle. Still, she was able to carry on without incident.
