Kahne back on track

Unlikely Coca-Cola 600 victory ends long winless stretch

CONCORD -- For nearly a year, nothing went right for Kasey Kahne.

Over a two-week span, nothing has gone wrong and Kahne's season suddenly seems back on track.

Kahne earned a Lowe's Motor Speedway sweep Sunday night when he pounced on Tony Stewart's bad luck to win the Coca-Cola 600. It was the second straight victory for Kahne, who won the Sprint All-Star Race eight days ago to bring a wave of momentum into NASCAR's longest event of the year.

"I can tell you that this team has had a much different step since they won that feature, that race here last week," team co-owner Ray Evernham said. "That momentum is something. I don't how you measure it in professional sports."

Kahne had no momentum at all before the series rolled into Charlotte for two weeks of racing. He had led five laps all season heading into Sunday's race and had a 52-race winless streak in points events dating to October 2006.

Then the fans voted him into the all-star race, where he gambled on the final pit stop to steal the $1 million prize. He vowed to carry momentum into this race, and he did with a strong run that put him out front late until he had to stop for gas with 16 laps to go.

It put Stewart out front and he cycled back into the lead even after he stopped for his own splash of gas minutes later. He was cruising toward his first win of the season when a flat tire with three laps to go sent him into the pits.

"Tony Stewart had the win right there, and had a little problem, so we definitely had some help," Kahne said. "It wasn't like we weren't fast. It wasn't like I couldn't run with Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. early in the race or I couldn't lead laps. We were a first- or second-place car at the end of the race, and you know, and Tony was a first- or second-place car and he had problems.

"When luck's on your side ... it's great. Luck is a big part of, I think, everyday life."

And Stewart doesn't seem to have any of it this season.

This was his second near-miss this season in one of NASCAR's crown jewel events. But unlike the heartbreak at the Daytona 500, when a last-lap pass left him devastated, Stewart stormed into his trailer kicking at the cabinets after a fluke flat tire with three laps to go stole his Coca-Cola 600 win.

Stewart's team tried to stretch a set of tires the final 100 laps of the race, and he almost pulled it off. But when the tire went flat, he was denied a 600 victory for the 10th time.

He wound up a frustrating 18th and stormed to his hauler.

It was the second consecutive loss in the 600 for Stewart, who led 55 laps last May only to fall short on fuel and forfeited the lead for a late gas-and-go.

Kahne, meanwhile, became just the sixth driver -- joining Davey Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Darrell Waltrip -- to win both the All-Star race and the 600 in this eight days of racing at LMS.

"To have my name with those names, I think that's one of the neatest things that I've ever done in racing," said Kahne, who moved into Chase contention with the win.

Still, he needed help to make history, and it came in a race of attrition that saw most of the heavyweights drop out of contention during an event that started in the late afternoon, ended in the evening and required intense mental focus and luck to make it to the finish.

Greg Biffle finished second to Kahne for the second straight week and Kyle Busch, the Sprint Cup Series points leader and winner of Saturday night's Nationwide Series race, finished third despite two battery changes during the race. Gordon was fourth.

Earnhardt Jr., Johnson, Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch led laps but had parts failures or tire issues that cost them the victory.

Vickers led 61 laps and was running in third right before the halfway point when the left rear wheel broke on his Toyota and the tire bounced across the track, over a fence and into the infield, where it ricocheted off the awning of a camper before coming to rest amid cheering fans.