Kahne Scores Maiden Win

The Dodge driver had finished second six times in his first 46 starts, but finally broke his duck after pulling away from Tony Stewart at the final restart.

Kahne had started from the pole, but was battling with Stewart until the final restart with seven laps to go. Stewart then had to focus his efforts on holding off Ryan Newman for second and Kahne won by 1.67 seconds.

"My pitstops were unbelievable," Kahne said. "I can't believe I drove so hard all night. Tony leaned into my car when I came into the pits and said well done. He was happy that he was second to me on my first victory."

Stewart concurred: "It was just an honour that I'll be the guy mentioned that was fighting him for his first win. This is a great night for him."

The race was a costly one for Nextel Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson. Johnson was tipped into the inside wall by rookie Travis Kvapil sustaining damage on both his front and rear. When Johnson tried to struggle back to the pits for his repairs, his steering broke, putting him into the retaining wall for the second time.

"Cars in front of me were sliding around and it was a chain reaction deal," Johnson said. "I was making my lap back around trying to get to pit road and went down the backstretch and the steering failed. "When I climbed on the brakes, with all the camber and caster in it, I turned right into the inside wall again.

"If it didn't hurt the car too bad that I backed it into the wall the first time, it killed it the second time."

Johnson's teammate and Championship rival Jeff Gordon also had problems, hitting the wall when Bobby Labonte caused Rusty Wallace to spin on lap 165.

"It was one of the stupidest things I've ever done in my life," Gordon said. "A car spun in front of me, I saw smoke and I slowed down, decided to take it a little high and just ran straight into the wall."

Results of the Chevy American Revolution 400 - Richmond International Raceway

Pos  Driver               Make      Laps
 1.  Kasey Kahne          Dodge      400
 2.  Tony Stewart         Chevrolet  400
 3.  Ryan Newman          Dodge      400
 4.  Kyle Busch           Chevrolet  400
 5.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet  400
 6.  Greg Biffle          Ford       400
 7.  Elliott Sadler       Ford       400
 8.  Bobby Labonte        Chevrolet  400
 9.  Michael Waltrip      Chevrolet  400
10.  Jamie McMurray       Dodge      400
11.  Ricky Rudd           Ford       400
12.  Matt Kenseth         Ford       400
13.  Jeremy Mayfield      Dodge      400
14.  Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet  400
15.  Mark Martin          Ford       400
16.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet  400
17.  Kurt Busch           Ford       400
18.  Joe Nemechek         Chevrolet  399
19.  Rusty Wallace        Dodge      399
20.  Scott Wimmer         Dodge      399
21.  Carl Edwards         Ford       399
22.  Travis Kvapil        Dodge      399
23.  Sterling Marlin      Dodge      399
24.  Jeff Green           Dodge      399
25.  Jason Leffler        Chevrolet  399
26.  Scott Riggs          Chevrolet  399
27.  Dave Blaney          Chevrolet  398
28.  Casey Mears          Dodge      398
29.  Mike Wallace         Chevrolet  398
30.  Ken Schrader         Dodge      398
31.  Robby Gordon         Chevrolet  398
32.  Brian Vickers        Chevrolet  397
33.  Kyle Petty           Dodge      397
34.  Dale Jarrett         Ford       396
35.  Tony Raines          Chevrolet  392
36.  Bobby Hamilton Jr    Chevrolet  387
37.  Mike Bliss           Chevrolet  375
38.  Hermie Sadler        Ford       367
39.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet  252
40.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet   80
41.  Johnny Sauter        Dodge       64
42.  Morgan Shepherd      Dodge       36
43.  Mike Garvey          Dodge       23