CONCORD, N.C. — Kasey Kahne claimed his second straight Sprint Cup Series win at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600. Kahne won the All-Star race last weekend but Sunday’s trip to Victory Lane marked his first points-awarded race win since 2006 when he won at LMS, 52 races ago.

Kahne had a strong car throughout the 600-miler, leading six times for a total of 66 laps in the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge. Though contending at the finish, Kahne partially owed his win to the misfortune of Tony Stewart who suffered a flat tire and hit the wall three laps from the finish, handing the lead to Kahne.

“He (Stewart) went out of my sight into turn 1, he was up high. When I came off of 2, he was low and slow. I thought he had run out of gas,” Kahne said.

“He had a problem. We were in position. The luck was on our side this week and last week. I feel like it's just pretty awesome to be on this side of things, for sure.”

Stewart was unavailable for comment following the race but crew chief Greg Zipadelli had no problem filling in for Stewart in terms of his usual outspokenness.

"We got a flat — another tire that wouldn't hold air. It's hard to believe. It’s just stupid. We must have run something over or had a small leak or something. I would say we lost a tire with a five-and-a-half second lead. I don't even know what to say. I'm so frustrated.”

Stewart, who led 23 laps, wasn’t the only one to suffer tire troubles throughout the 400-lap race.

Though unrelated to a flat, on lap 185 Brian Vickers, who led 61 laps early, drove into turn 1 shortly after announcing to his crew over the radio that he felt as though he had a loose wheel. Vickers was right, as moments later his Toyota broke loose, spun and slammed the outside retaining wall. The left rear tire flew off of his machine, bounced down the racetrack and over the inside retaining wall, narrowly missing a parked ambulance, before bouncing off of a camper and coming to a stop.

“We knew we had a problem the last two runs and we had the left rear wheel work loose toward the end of a run but it stayed on. At the beginning of that run, it started vibrating a little bit. It was like one lap it started with the vibration and a couple of guys got by me and the next lap it just completely came off,” Vickers said.

He finished the event 42nd. NASCAR confiscated the tire for analysis.

As the race crept past the halfway mark, yet another driver had issues with one of his Goodyears. While leading on lap 297 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. hit the wall in turn 3, collecting J.J. Yeley.

Earnhardt led 76 laps prior to the accident and refused to relent to the back of the pack knowing he had such a strong car. Under the caution flag, Kyle Busch dropped his Toyota down pitroad for a new battery. He was penalized to the tailend of the longest line for pitting too early. Though all of the paint was worn off of the right side of his Chevrolet, Earnhardt also raced down pitroad for repairs and joined Busch at the tailend of the lead lap of cars.

Both drivers would overcome their trouble and be a factor at the finish. In fact, Busch, who won Saturday’s Nationwide Series race and the Sprint Cup Series’ last points awarded race two weeks ago in Darlington, was back at the top of the leader board on lap 346 after choosing the high line to pass Jimmie Johnson. Laps later, Johnson, who prior to Kahne was the last driver to sweep the All-Star/Coke 600 Cup Series race weekends, pulled into the garage with an engine failure.

Busch didn’t hold the lead for long however as Kahne swooped in for the position on lap 361. He stayed out front until lap 384 when he surrendered the position for a trip down pitroad and a splash of gas. Tony Stewart was there to inherit the top spot but he hit pitroad for the same reason on lap 387.

As the green flag of pitstops cycled through for fuel, the lead swapped hands between Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Dave Blaney before cycling back to Stewart.

With three laps remaining his tire let go and the No. 20 Toyota hit the turn 3 wall. Kahne was there to take the lead coming to the line with two laps to go.

Kahne sailed to the finish with a 10.203-second lead over the second place car of Greg Biffle.

Biffle also finished runner-up to Kahne last week in the All-Star event.

“It’s the same thing two races in a row and we finish second to Kasey,” Biffle said. “You’d think 600 miles is a long enough race to get it done and it took us that long to get our track position. We just kept passing cars and passing cars. I was probably more frustrated last week not getting the win because I felt like I had the fastest car. Tonight, I didn’t feel like I had the fastest car.”

Busch had an up and down night, overcoming early tire trouble and a late race battery change to finish a strong third.

“Overall we came through a lot of adversity. We were able to come through traffic and come back towards the front. We were battling Carl where he ran himself out of gas and it allowed Greg Biffle to get up there and get by me,” he said.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ignored late race gas and goes for track position. The strategy paid off as they took the fourth and fifth spots respectively.

“We just saved gas at the end. We came in and topped off with about 62 to go. I was about two laps short and needed to save two laps. So, me and Jeff sort of just drafted a little bit and lifted real early getting in the corners and made it to the end,” Earnhardt said.

"We tore the car up pretty bad when we blew the tire going in to three. I thought we were done then I got motivated again, but the car wasn't as fast, we were just trying to hang on."

Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler, Carl Edwards and David Reutimann closed out the top 10.