Can’t keep a good Kahne down: Kasey wins Pocono

Kasey Kahne and the No. 9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports team may have been down last weekend in Dover, but they definitely weren’t out. After a two-week dominance at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the team struggled at Dover International Speedway after getting tangled in an early accident. But that just gave them an opportunity to rebound.

On Sunday, Kahne claimed his second points-paying event of the year at the Pocono Raceway after his team rallied from an early pit road mishap in the Pocono 500.

Starting from the pole, Kahne knew from the drop of the green flag he had a strong car but trouble in the pits on lap 63 made for a challenging day on the triangular-shaped Pocono track.

Kahne dropped his Dodge down pit road for a four-tire change but halfway through the stop, crew chief Kenny Francis radioed to Kahne to make it a two-tire stop and to exit. Kahne’s tire changer however, had already begun removing lugnuts, forcing Kahne to revisit pit road.

“When I left the pits, I was like, ‘Great call, Kenny way to go, two tires,’ because we came out second and I was like, ‘Man, perfect,’” Kahne explained. “And then he was like, ‘Well, you’re going to bring that back in, you’ve only got two lugs on the left front’ or rear or whatever.”

“I was more worried about — just when you’re back there, it’s tough racing back there. I could pull off.”
A caution flag fell on lap 178 of the 200 for a Kyle Busch spin, the second of two incidents he was involved in on the day. The quick yellow set the field up for a final 19-lap run to the checkered flag and gave Kahne a boost in track position. Having pitted under the previous yellow, his team opted not to pit during the caution period while others did, keeping his Budweiser Dodge on track and moving it into the third spot for the restart.

“That was huge,” he said. “If we didn’t pit on 175, we wouldn’t have been third on that restart.  We would have been 10th or 11th and that would have been tough to get back to the front in that short amount of time. So it was just a perfect call when we pitted. We didn’t need to pit at that time, but that was Kenny’s strategy and it worked out.”

Kahne quickly got to work on Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the restart and then moved to wrestle the lead away from Red Bull Racing’s Brian Vickers. After a few intense laps, Kahne slid into the top spot on lap 185.

“It means a lot. I’m so proud of these guys today,” said Vickers of his runner-up showing. “They did a lot of changes and I’m real proud of them. I felt like we had the best car on the racetrack at the end of the race, we just didn’t have any tires. We did the strategy that we had to do. Kevin (Hamlin, crew chief) made a good call.”

Denny Hamlin, Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton rounded out the top 5.

Burton now trails Kyle Busch in the point standings by just 21 points.

Busch started his weekend off hoping for big things, pulling triple duty in the Craftsman Truck, Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series events. On Friday he finished second in Texas in the Truck event; Saturday, he was involved in an early accident and finished 21st in Nashville in the Nationwide race and on Sunday, things were even worse.

On lap 48 he made contact with the machine of Jamie McMurray, causing severe front and rear end damage to his Toyota. He completed only 95 of the 200 laps and finished the event 43rd.

“I saw the 26 (Jamie McMurray) get high, get loose and thought he faded back further than what he did when the 84 (A.J. Allmendinger) passed him,” Busch explained. “I didn’t know he was out there still. We broke the mirror trying to adjust it there before the race and I couldn’t see anything out my right rear quarter panel. So I couldn’t clear myself. The spotter didn’t say anything so I apologize to McMurray for wrecking their day.”

A red flag period lasting nearly eight minutes for a quick rain shower interrupted the event just past halfway.

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