Kahne wins rain shortened race

The race was delayed an hour due to rain, repeatedly interrupted by caution flags (three of them due to light showers), and then halted for good on lap 129 of the scheduled 200 as the rain came down even harder.

Kahne had been long-time leader Jeff Gordon's main challenger in the early stages, before having to pit out of sequence on lap 45 when his Dodge ingested some debris and began to overheat.

Swift pit work and a tenacious drive helped Kahne to edge back up the order from 38th position, and he regained the lead on lap 116, seven laps before the final yellow and subsequent red flag for rain.

"It's awesome. I can't believe it's raining this hard," said Kahne. "We fought our way back to the front, I think the fastest two cars were up there and we ended up winning it."

Kahne admitted that the weather was his main concern as he tried to regain the lost ground.

"I was basically scared that the race would get shortened and would stop at lap 100 or something because of rain," he said. "We needed to be back up there, so we did all we could to get back up there, and without a great race car there's no way we could possibly do that.

"I think I passed 12 to 15 cars on pit road today and if we didn't do that we wouldn't have won this race. It's cool, four wins already this season, Ray Evernham has a great team here."

Carl Edwards made great progress from 31st in the starting line-up to take second, and felt he might have been able to challenge Kahne if the race had continued.

"I had a blast driving, I didn't want to see it stop," said Edwards. "I hoped we could have gone further. I'd give anything to have another restart and a couple more laps."

Gordon dominated the opening stages, leading most of the first 67 laps before losing ground in the pits. His pace faded away later on, and he had to settle for eighth place.

Dale Earnhardt Jr and Greg Biffle took charge for a while after Gordon's delay, before Edwards emerged in front at a restart on lap 87. He pulled out a two second lead, but was one of several cars jumped by Kahne in what proved to be the final pit stops.

Reed Sorenson received the quickest service of all during those stops, changing only two tyres in the hope that he could leap to the front and benefit from any rain stoppage. But unfortunately for Sorenson, there was just enough green flag racing for him to be shuffled back to fifth behind Earnhardt and Biffle before the race was finally declared.

Reigning champion Tony Stewart was classified 41st after spending nearly 70 laps in the pits while damage was repaired following a heavy crash on lap 36.

"I just got turned around, something that really didn't need to happen," said Stewart. "It wasn't a very smart, calculated move by the no.66 (Jeff Green) but I guess he was in a hurry."

Results

Pos  Driver              Make      Laps
 1.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      129
 2.  Carl Edwards        Ford       129
 3.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet  129
 4.  Greg Biffle         Ford       129
 5.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      129
 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  129
 7.  Casey Mears         Dodge      129
 8.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  129
 9.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      129
10.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  129
11.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  129
12.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  129
13.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       129
14.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  129
15.  Ryan Newman         Dodge      129
16.  Martin Truex Jr.    Chevrolet  129
17.  Brian Vickers       Chevrolet  129
18.  Robby Gordon        Chevrolet  129
19.  David Stremme       Dodge      129
20.  Dale Jarrett        Ford       129
21.  Travis Kvapil       Chevrolet  129
22.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       129
23.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       129
24.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet  129
25.  Michael Waltrip     Dodge      129
26.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  129
27.  Mark Martin         Ford       129
28.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge      129
29.  Scott Riggs         Dodge      129
30.  Dave Blaney         Dodge      129
31.  Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet  129
32.  Bill Lester         Dodge      129
33.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  129
34.  Kevin Lepage        Dodge      129
35.  Kyle Petty          Dodge      129
36.  Jeremy Mayfield     Dodge      129
37.  Mike Skinner        Chevrolet  129
38.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  126
39.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  86
40.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  80
41.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  58
42.  Ken Schrader        Ford       30
43.  Derrike Cope        Dodge      12