LONG POND, PA - JUNE 08: Kasey Kahne celebrates winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pocono 500 on June 8, 2008 at Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
JIM UTTER
The Charlotte Observer
Sunday, Jun. 08, 2008
LONG POND, Pa. - A month ago Kasey Kahne didn't think his team was capable of winning anytime soon.
Now, he can't seem to give a race win away.
Kahne's No. 9 Dodge team overcame an early race pit stop miscue, which relegated Kahne to the back of the pack, then helped their driver fight his way back while overcoming a rain delay and multiple cautions to win Sunday’s Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway in dominating fashion.
The win is Kahne's second Sprint Cup Series victory in three weeks and gives him three wins during a four-week span including his $1 million victory in the Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
A series that has lately been dominated by headlines about Kyle Busch - who up until this weekend had been dominating all three of NASCAR's top series - is suddenly awash in a sea of red, the color of Khane’s Budweiser-sponsored Dodge team. And Kahne, who was 14th in points just four weeks ago, is now ninth and charging to the front, trailing the leader, Busch, by 365.
"We had such a good car all weekend, from the time practice started to qualifying first and then winning," said Kahne, who picked up his ninth career win in 158 starts.
"There was nothing close when we were out front."
Remaining there was the key to victory.
Kahne and Jimmie Johnson appeared to have two of the fastest cars from the start, but during a round of pit stops on Lap 63, Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis, had a change of heart and wanted a two-tire stop instead of four.
There was a problem. A tire changer had already removed three lug nuts on the left side, so Kahne was forced to return to pit road to get all the lug nuts tightened. He restarted the race in 38th place.
"I was pretty down, pretty mad at myself," said Francis. "The biggest thing I was afraid of was if it was going to rain and we would not have time to get back up there.
"I was a little bit relieved that we got back up there so I could stop kicking myself."
Kahne was back in the top 10 by Lap 90 of 200 and never fell below seventh after that except when making his final green-flag pit stop for fuel with 25 laps remaining.
With 16 laps left, Kahne easily maneuvered around Brian Vickers to take the lead for the final time and coasted to a nearly four-second victory.
Although he said he was confident he had the car that could battle from the back of the field, he was concerned.
"When you're back there, you know, it's tough racing back there," he said. "It's tough racing all the way through these fields, and 20 to 30th (place), that's a tough spot to be because everybody is racing so hard.
"My car was just so good today, and the longer the race went, the hotter the track got, the slicker the race track got, the better our car got, so that just made it easier."
Although Vickers would have liked to earn his second career win, his runner-up finish was his best since joining Team Red Bull in 2007 and was part of a strong weekend for the organization, which also got a career-best 12th-place finish from A.J. Allmendinger.
"I'm pleased but not satisfied. I'm real proud of everybody," Vickers said of his team. "They did it last night and today because we were a bucket (Saturday) in practice. I felt like we had the best car on the race track at the end of the race. We just didn't have any tires."
Denny Hamlin finished third, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fourth and Jeff Burton fifth. Series points leader Kyle Busch, running his third race in three days, wrecked early and finished last. He leads Burton by 21 points.
Kahne beats early trouble, pulls away for Pocono win
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