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Bristol NASCAR: Kasey Kahne claims victory

Kasey Kahne made up for the disappointment of being denied Las Vegas victory last week with a great drive to win at Bristol Motor Speedway

In an entertaining race, the Hendrick Chevrolet driver saw off the challenge from reigning champion Brad Keselowski, polesitter Kyle Busch and the charging Kurt Busch to claim a comfortable win.

Kahne ultimately took advantage of fresher tyres to work his way by Keselowski, who moved to the front by not pitting during the penultimate caution period.

In the closing laps the Penske driver had to fend off Kyle Busch, who once again recovered from a pitlane speeding penalty to finish in the top five and Kurt Busch, who drove his best race to date for Furniture Row to recover from two laps down to take fourth.

Pre-race points leader Jimmie Johnson was a solid top-10 runner throughout, but in the closing stages a blown right-front tyre sent him into the wall.

It was one of a number of blow-outs, which accounted for most of the 11 caution periods - more than double the amount of last year's race.

Jeff Gordon had worked his way to the front with a two-tyre change when the rest of the leaders took four. Despite the old rubber, he held on to the lead, but the gamble failed when the right-front tyre blew and sent him up the track and into the wall.

Matt Kenseth was catching Gordon for the lead at the time and was caught up in the incident, wrecking his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as he slammed into the side of the crashing Hendrick Chevrolet.

It was also a disastrous race for three-time champion Tony Stewart, who was sent spinning into the wall at high speed following an early blow-out. He managed to get his damaged Chevrolet back to the pits for lengthy repairs and limped around at the tail end of the field to the finish.

Results - 500 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet           2h53m25.000s
 2.  Kyle Busch          Joe Gibbs Toyota                 + 1.700s
 3.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Ford                      + 2.314s
 4.  Kurt Busch          Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 2.439s
 5.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                   + 3.304s
 6.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 6.342s
 7.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 6.902s
 8.  Brian Vickers       Waltrip Toyota                   + 7.015s
 9.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet              + 7.619s
10.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet      + 7.986s
11.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                + 8.114s
12.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   + 8.399s
13.  AJ Allmendinger     Phoenix Chevrolet                + 8.778s
14.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet              + 9.104s
15.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                     + 9.312s
16.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr  Roush Fenway Ford                + 9.483s
17.  Joey Logano         Penske Ford                     + 16.609s
18.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                 + 1 lap
19.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                        + 1 lap
20.  David Stremme       Swan Toyota                      + 2 laps
21.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                   + 2 laps
22.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 2 laps
23.  Denny Hamlin        Joe Gibbs Toyota                 + 2 laps
24.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 4 laps
25.  Terry Labonte       FAS Lane Ford                    + 4 laps
26.  Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                   + 4 laps
27.  JJ Yeley            Baldwin Chevrolet                + 5 laps
28.  Danica Patrick      Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 5 laps
29.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                     + 9 laps
30.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet     + 13 laps
31.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet          + 36 laps
32.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet             + 42 laps
33.  Landon Cassill      Circle Sport Chevrolet          + 90 laps

Retirements:

     Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet               390 laps
     Matt Kenseth        Joe Gibbs Toyota                 390 laps
     Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                321 laps
     Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                       245 laps
     Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                        234 laps
     David Reutimann     BK Toyota                        184 laps
     Scott Speed         Leavine Ford                     184 laps
     Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             159 laps
     Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                      26 laps
     Mike Bliss          Humphrey Smith Toyota              3 laps

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