Clutch Kahne survives again
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
If Kasey Kahne were a cat, he’d have about seven lives left right about now.
Kahne qualified for the
Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at the 11th hour, grabbing the lead from
Matt Kenseth at Atlanta with two laps left in the 25th event of a
26-race regular season. At that
point, Kahne had to win a race to make the Chase, and he did.
In Sunday’s AAA 400,
Kahne survived elimination from the 10-race playoff by a razor-thin
margin, making an improbable comeback from four laps down.
Kahne brought his No. 5
Chevrolet to pit road on Lap 161 with a loose left rear wheel and lost
two laps thanks to the unscheduled stop. >From that point, there was a
wild ebb and flow to his fortunes.
He got one lap back on a
wave-around, only to lose it again when then-leader Kevin Harvick
passed him on the track. Kahne lost two more laps when he pitted
early—the cost of the wave-around—but
regained them when the frontrunners completed the cycle of green-flag
stops.
Another wave-around put
Kahne one lap down, in position to claim the last ticket to the Chase’s
Contender round by two points over AJ Allmendinger.
Kahne is often the
forgotten man at a Hendrick Motorsports organization that features
six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, four-time champion Jeff Gordon and
NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt
Jr.
But Kahne might be worth a bet in this year’s Chase—given his uncanny knack for survival.
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