Kahne wins again at Lowe's

The Gillett Evernham driver was in contention for victory for most of the distance and looked set to finish second until three laps to go when leader Tony Stewart had a right-front tyre puncture.

With 16 laps remaining Kahne had pitted from the lead for a splash and go, while Stewart stayed on the track and stopped a number of laps later, emerging ahead of the Dodge driver after taking a few gallons of fuel in a quicker stop than Kahne's.

A week ago Kahne had somehow inherited victory in the All-Star Challenge after Denny Hamlin blew an engine a few laps from the end, and this time the misfortunes of another Gibbs car gave him a second victory in a week's time.

However, even with his lucky breaks, Kahne was one of the big players of the day leading 66 laps during the race and putting himself in position to win once again on Memorial weekend, a feat he had already achieved two years ago.

He also became the sixth driver to win the All-Star and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same year.

"When I came off of two Tony was low and slow," said Kahne about the moment when he inherited the lead from Stewart. "I thought he had ran out of gas because I knew he took a lot less that us and I got to pit road pretty darn quick and got back to speed pretty quick.

"So I thought the only way he could've beat us was just taking less gas but he had a problem, we were in position and the luck was on our side this weekend."

Tony Stewart was obviously furious to lose what could have been his first victory of the season. His crew chief Greg Zipadelli couldn't believe their bad luck and was left without answers to what had caused them to lose the race and eventually finish down in 18th place.

"We just ran a little more than a fuel run and we were 15 laps short from taking it," Zipadelli said. "There was no tyre wear at all. We must have run something over, had a slow leak or something and it blew out because it happened pretty quick."

Greg Biffle was able to finish second in the end, overtaking Kyle Busch and his Roush Fenway teammate Carl Edwards on the last lap of the race, the latter running out of fuel after trying to complete the last part of the race without stopping unlike the leaders.

"We probably had a fast enough car to run up there with [Kahne]," said Biffle. "We ran lap times, but we just never could get track position. Every time we'd lose track position. I was too loose in traffic, too tight in traffic.

"Once it got strung out about 20 laps in, I would come on. We needed that long green run at the end because my car, I was just mowing guys down."

Third-place finisher Kyle Busch led 61 laps and looked the driver to beat at some points, but he couldn't keep up his pace over the long runs, something Kahne and Stewart profited from. Busch also had electrical problems, which forced him to pit and lose track position after running up front.

Jeff Gordon made it all the way without stopping in the last 62 laps of green flag racing, taking fourth place in the end after gaining a lot of spots in the closing laps thanks to running in fuel-saving mode.

Similarly Dale Earnhardt Jr was able to make the same strategy work, crossing the line in fifth just behind him with a beaten car that led the most laps during the night. On lap 297 Earnhardt hit the wall in turn three while running comfortably in the lead, dashing his hopes of victory despite being able to stay on the lead lap.

"I had been into that corner 250 times before that and I just rolled down in there and it went straight into the wall," Earnhardt said. "The right rear tyre was blown out after I hit the wall, I'm assuming it went flat getting in the corner, but it went straight like when a right front goes flat. Odd."

Other drivers that looked dominant at some point but ended up in trouble included Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers.

Busch led the race early on for 64 laps but hit the wall at turn four on lap 162. Johnson led 35 laps until his engine failed and Brian Vickers was up front for 61 laps but the left-rear tyre on his car appeared to come loose and caused him to hit the wall hard enough to bring his race to a halt.

The points standing didn't change too much at the front after the 600 miles of racing, with Kyle Busch remaining at the top, increasing the gap to Jeff Burton in second. Kasey Kahne moved into the top twelve following his victory.

Pos  Driver                Car        Laps
 1.  Kasey Kahne           Dodge       400
 2.  Greg Biffle           Ford        400
 3.  Kyle Busch            Toyota      400
 4.  Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet   400
 5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet   400
 6.  Jeff Burton           Chevrolet   400
 7.  Matt Kenseth          Ford        400
 8.  Elliott Sadler        Dodge       400
 9.  Carl Edwards          Ford        400
10.  David Reutimann       Toyota      400
11.  Bobby Labonte         Dodge       400
12.  David Ragan           Ford        400
13.  Sam Hornish Jr        Dodge       400
14.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet   400
15.  Mark Martin           Chevrolet   400
16.  Kurt Busch            Dodge       400
17.  Dave Blaney           Toyota      400
18.  Tony Stewart          Toyota      399
19.  Regan Smith           Chevrolet   399
20.  A.J. Allmendinger     Toyota      399
21.  Ryan Newman           Dodge       399
22.  Reed Sorenson         Dodge       399
23.  Jamie McMurray        Ford        399
24.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota      399
25.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet   398
26.  Travis Kvapil         Ford        398
27.  Michael Waltrip       Toyota      397
28.  Scott Riggs           Chevrolet   397
29.  Casey Mears           Chevrolet   396
30.  Juan Montoya          Dodge       396
31.  Sterling Marlin       Dodge       396
32.  Michael McDowell      Toyota      395
33.  Ken Schrader          Chevrolet   395
34.  Martin Truex Jr       Chevrolet   395
35.  Johnny Sauter         Chevrolet   395
36.  Kyle Petty            Dodge       389
37.  Patrick Carpentier    Dodge       363
38.  J.J. Yeley            Toyota      353
39.  Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet   351
40.  David Gilliland       Ford        343
41.  Paul Menard           Chevrolet   244
42.  Brian Vickers         Toyota      184
43.  Robby Gordon          Dodge       181