Kahne finally bags long-coveted Bristol Motor Speedway victory

Kahne finally bags long-coveted Bristol Motor Speedway victory

Mar. 17, 2013 

By Seth Livingstone

Special to NASCAR News Service

BRISTOL, Tenn.--Kasey Kahne checked Bristol Motor Speedway off his bucket list, winning for the first time in 19 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series attempts after a heated duel with Brad Keselowski.

"This is one of those track that, as a driver, you feel like you really need to win at," said Kahne, who snagged the lead on a final restart with 40 laps left and held off both Kyle Busch and Keselowski in Sunday's Food City 500.

"We've been trying for a long time. To pull it off, I feel is a big accomplishment for our guys and myself. There are so many things that are thrown at you when you come to this place. We'd been fast here other times and not able to finish the deal."

Kahne, 14th in points after three races this season, had finished no better than fifth in any of his previous 10 Cup races at Bristol.

The final restart came after his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson blew a tire, bringing out the race's 10^th caution.

Prior to the race's final green-flag run, Kahne and Keselowski had staged a furious short-track duel that rekindled memories of the door-to-door racing that had made Bristol famous.

"I'm (thinking) how can I get by and he's (thinking) how can I hold this guy off," Kahne said. "I reeled him in, but he was driving into the corners so hard, I really couldn't do anything on the bottom, try a ‘slide-job' or anything like that. I bumped him a few times. He was sideways a few times trying to hold us back.

"I felt like we got a really good restart, got the lead and, from there, it was just momentum and trying to drive away."

Keselowski knew he was in trouble after spinning tires on the final restart and watching Kahne set sail.

"I don't think I had anything for Kasey. I don't know if anyone did," said Keselowski, the defending race champion who finished third. "He was so good through the middle, really everywhere. He was kind of in a league of his own."

Kahne credited his team, led by crew chief Kenny Francis.

"It's fun to come to pit road and break even or gain spots," he said. "The guys have just been nailing it on pit road."

Not everyone made up ground in the pits.

Busch, who had won the pole in track record time on Friday, posted the fastest laps in both of Saturday's practice sessions, then won Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series event and led the first 55 laps before a pit road speeding violation under caution shuffled him back to 32^nd. He was undaunted in his recovery, clawing his way back to 16^th in the next 40 laps and moving to second behind teammate Denny Hamlin on Lap 155 after the race's fourth caution.

"We battled back. I wish I could have kept up with the 5 (Kahne) but he took off and left us all," Busch said.

Hamlin led 117 of the first 189 laps before surrendering the lead in the pits to teammate Matt Kenseth, who suffered his own misfortune when race leader Jeff Gordon blew a right-front tire on Lap 391. Gordon climbed the track with his tire going down and Kenseth had nowhere to go, slamming into the rear of Gordon.

"Not a lot either one of us could do about that," said Kenseth, resigned to a 35^th place finish after winning a week ago in Las Vegas.

Joey Logano, who started 10^th, had been making steady progress and was challenging Gordon for the lead on Lap 348 when he tangled with Hamlin, his former JGR teammate. That led to a post-race exchange between Logano, Hamlin and team members.

"It's a little disheartening that we all can't just get along," said Busch, tongue-in-cheek.

Asked if he and Hamlin had a problem, Logano replied: "If we didn't, we do now."

Keselowski's third-place finish vaulted him to the lead in the Sprint cup point standings, nine points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished sixth after qualifying 32nd.

Johnson, who entered as the points leader, dropped to 22^nd after running in the top 10 most of the day. Kurt Busch finished fourth (his best finish for Furniture Row Racing) and Clint Bowyer was fifth.