Kasey Kahne wins for Red Bull in Phoenix NASCAR Sprint Cup race

Kahne was a contender in the late stages of the race and was the first of the frontrunners to make his last pitstop for a splash of fuel and new right-side tyres, emerging in the lead once the final stops cycled under green.

Edwards cut the gap to Kahne after completing his final stop but he ran out of laps to really challenge him for the lead. Behind them Stewart passed Jeff Burton on the penultimate lap to finish a distant third and remain in close title contention.

Kahne's win, the second for Red Bull Racing Team, comes with the team's future still uncertain and in the 31-year-old's penultimate race for Red Bull before joining Hendrick Motorsports.

"It's been a long time," said Kahne. "This whole Red Bull team has done an unbelievable job to keep working hard. Kenny Francis [crew chief] keeps on it, everybody at Red Bull, the car, the Toyota engine. It was a great run today. The guys did an awesome job.

"We fell back a little bit early and then came back and just kept getting it better. These guys haven't given up in the last three months. It's been really cool."

Edwards' second place allows him to stay in control of the Chase entering the season finale, although Stewart leading the most laps means the three-point gap that separated them entering Sunday's race remains in place for the season finale next week.

The Chase leader was up front for only 27 laps but was probably the most consistent of the frontrunners throughout the race, only getting beaten by Kahne through strategy.

"We have never gone into Homestead with the points lead," Edwards said. "You know they give a boat away if you win that thing. I saw that boat and I would like to go down there and win it.

"That would be fun to put a cap on this season. That is what our mission is."

Stewart led more than half the distance and was able to beat Edwards on the outside groove during the sixth restart, then kept his Roush Fenway rival behind until the penultimate round of pitstops.

However he lost his edge after dropping to third behind Penske's Kurt Busch and Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard, who gambled on taking two new tyres to Stewart's four at their penultimate stops.

The Stewart Hass driver was unable to remain in close contention after that, losing third to Edwards on the restart and then dropping behind Kahne as well. He was unable to recover much ground on the leaders as the race carried on under green for the last 88 laps.

"I'm just thinking of the three points," said Stewart, who would need a victory at Homestead to win his third title regardless of where Edwards finishes.

"No, we had an awesome day. We came up two spots shy. I don't know how you could have asked for a better day really. We led the most laps, we were on the same pace we were last week just to have a perfect day.

"Just fought as hard as we could all day. Got out of balance the second to last stop and just lost that little bit that we needed to stay up there and keep Carl honest."

Kurt Busch lost any chance of victory when he ran out of fuel right before his final stop, which then took longer than planned as he struggled to get his engine fired up again.

Early race leader Matt Kenseth was once again on the receiving end of a touch from Red Bull's Brian Vickers following their exchange at Martinsville two weeks ago. Vickers drove into the back of the Roush driver entering Turn 3 as Kenseth had slowed down with brake issues.

"Obviously it is retaliation for retaliation I guess," said Kenseth. "I was out of brakes and I was up on everybody and I saw him coming and I lifted at least 10 car lengths before where I would normally lift and he drove in there at 165mph and cleaned us out."

Kyle Busch made a great recovery from the back of the grid up to third but then was forced to retire with his second engine failure of the weekend, having lost a first engine at the start of the first practice session n Friday.

Outgoing champion Jimmie Johnson finished 14th and lost any mathematical chance of defending his title for the fifth consecutive time.

Kevin Harvick struggled to a 19th-place finish, never showing the speed to contend for a strong result. He leaves Phoenix third in the points but 51 behind Edwards, which means it will be a two-horse race for the 2011 Cup title at Homestead.

Results - 312 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              2h45m47.000s
 2.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                + 0.802s
 3.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet           + 4.319s
 4.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet              + 4.634s
 5.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet           + 5.865s
 6.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                       + 7.297s
 7.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota                   + 7.609s
 8.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                       + 9.198s
 9.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet             + 14.865s
10.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet             + 16.740s
11.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                    + 21.251s
12.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                    + 23.409s
13.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                 + 1 lap
14.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet                + 1 lap
15.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap
16.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet                + 1 lap
17.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap
18.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                      + 1 lap
19.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet               + 1 lap
20.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                    + 1 lap
21.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota              + 1 lap
22.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                      + 1 lap
23.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota                   + 1 lap
24.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 2 laps
25.  Cole Whitt          Red Bull Toyota                  + 2 laps
26.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota                   + 3 laps
27.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 3 laps
28.  JJ Yeley            Front Row Ford                   + 3 laps
29.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet                + 3 laps
30.  Mike Bliss          FAS Lane Ford                    + 4 laps
31.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 5 laps
32.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 6 laps
33.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford               + 14 laps

Retirements:

     Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford                238 laps
     Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                     218 laps
     Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                     188 laps
     Geoffrey Bodine     Baldwin Chevrolet                153 laps
     Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet           62 laps
     Scott Speed         Whitney Ford                      60 laps
     Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                         46 laps
     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      30 laps
     Mike Skinner        Max Q Ford                        25 laps
     Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford                    20 laps