Kahne wins Lowe's Busch

Kahne, who started from 32nd on the grid, took the lead on lap 157 when Greg Biffle was forced to pit with a cut on his right rear tyre. He stayed up front all the way to the chequered flag, despite losing his rear brakes and his car running a bit hot right before the last caution period with 15 laps remaining.

"The brakes were a little off there at the end but you don't need them much when the car is handling as well as it was," Kahne said after winning for the first time at Lowe's in the Busch Series.

Kahne's season both in the Busch Series and the Nextel Cup has been a very disappointing one thus far, but he might have just started to turn that around with a victory at the same venue where he had won for the last time last year.

"We don't like to lose like we've been losing lately and it's a big win for us," Kahne added. "We've had some good cars in practice this year and we've lose them throughout the race.

"This was the first time that I felt strong about everything that went on and the team did a great job. The final pit stop was about one of the best of the night and it's the one that counts."

Casey Mears finished second trying to remain in contact with Kahne, but struggling to do so due to lack of grip on the front end of his car in a night where most drivers suffered with the nature of the very hard tyres selected by Goodyear for the weekend.

"We were fighting tight all night long," Mears said after matching his best result of the season. "We kind of fought that the majority of the night but it was a good finish for us. I'm happy to have a good run.

"The guys did a good job and gave me a good call. Staying out there at the end obviously, we saved all the fuel we could and we got to the end."

Mears along with Kahne were among a handful of drivers who stayed out while the leaders pitted under caution with 51 laps to go when Kurt Busch, who had led the race early on, spun and made contact with the wall in the front stretch.

"We just kept struggling with [the car] after we lost the lead, real tight on one run, real loose on the other," said Busch, who had already brushed the wall twice before spinning out of the race. "It just seems like we were on an edge every time we changed tyres. We kept the tyres on and then we were OK. We just kept behind and couldn't get back up."

Busch was one of several top drivers to get caught out by the conditions. Denny Hamlin, had run well most of the night but smacked the wall with 42 laps to go, while Jimmie Johnson spun twice but still finished sixth on his one-off in the Busch Series, leading 16 laps during the race.

Points-leader Carl Edwards also spun on lap 103, picking up punctures to his right front and left rear tyres and falling a lap down because of it. He managed to recover and finish 17th, the first car a lap down.

Juan Pablo Montoya made contact with the wall on lap 149, hitting it out of turn 2 while running high in the banking. The Colombian had recovered from 37th on the grid all the way up to 15th, despite losing a lap early on.

"It was really bad to start with but I got the lucky dog," Montoya said. "The last few runs I'd been running clean air and got into really dirty air. I had been running on the top all day and for some reason I just went in the gas and I thought it was fine out of the corner, just clipped the wall.

"I came back and the left front was flat. That is a little weird because I hit on the right-side only."

Australian Marcos Ambrose was the top rookie of the night finishing 20th and being one of the few first-year drivers not to hit the wall during the night.

"The most important thing is to stop crashing," Ambrose said. "We've had a lot of crashed cars in our team over the five different races across the three series. Not that it's self-induced on our part but we've just got to play our part here and finish some races with a straight car and develop them and that's what we did tonight."

Carl Edwards maintains a healthy lead in the championship as Kevin Harvick had a very quiet night driving for his own team and finishing 12th after being further down the order for most of the race. He remains second in the standings, a massive 423 points behind Edwards.

Pos  Driver              Make        Laps
 1.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge        200
 2.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet    200
 3.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet    200
 4.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet    200
 5.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet    200
 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet    200
 7.  Matt Kenseth        Ford         200
 8.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet    200
 9.  Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet    200
10.  Stephen Leicht      Ford         200
11.  Dave Blaney         Toyota       200
12.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet    200
13.  Jon Wood            Ford         200
14.  Aric Almirola       Chevrolet    200
15.  Todd Kluever        Ford         200
16.  David Stremme       Dodge        200
17.  Carl Edwards        Ford         199
18.  Jamie McMurray      Ford         199
19.  Ward Burton         Ford         199
20.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford         199
21.  Greg Biffle         Ford         199
22.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet    199
23.  Mike Wallace        Chevrolet    199
24.  Shane Huffman       Chevrolet    199
25.  David Ragan         Ford         199
26.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet    199
27.  David Gilliland     Ford         199
28.  David Green         Toyota       199
29.  Stanton Barrett     Chevrolet    198
30.  Steve Wallace       Dodge        198
31.  Jason Leffler       Toyota       198
32.  Robby Gordon        Ford         198
33.  Bobby Hamilton Jr   Ford         197
34.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet    197
35.  Brent Sherman       Chevrolet    196
36.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet    196
37.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet    189
38.  Kyle Krisiloff      Ford         181
39.  Mike Bliss          Dodge        153
40.  Juan Montoya        Dodge        148
41.  Kurt Busch          Dodge        148
42.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge         53
43.  David Reutimann     Toyota         4