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Kasey
Kahne crossed the finished first in Sunday's Food City 500 at
Bristol.Photo by nascar.com
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Kahne wins Food
City 500 at Bristol
nascar.com
Kyle Busch swept Saturday in true Rowdy fashion but it wasn't enough to
beat Kasey Kahne. He led both Cup practices and won the Jeff
Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 300. For Sunday’s Food City 500, Busch sat on
the pole after setting a new track record during Friday’s Coors Light
Pole qualifying. Kasey Kahne, who led most of the race last week at Las
Vegas, started outside of Busch. Rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and David
Ragan had to start at the rear for an engine change.
Tony Stewart brought out the first caution on Lap 8 when a flat tire
caused him to spin after nor being able to get down to pit road in
time. Stewart went behind the wall for several laps to fix a broken
brake line and returned to the race, 14 laps down.
The second caution came out on Lap 53 when Jeff Burton was wrecked
after being caught on the end of a train of cars that slowed down,
starting with Casey Mears. The wreck collected Marcos Ambrose, Clint
Bowyer, Aric Almirola, Joe Nemchek and Carl Edwards, though Burton had
the most damage. It was during pit stops on this caution that Kyle
Busch received a penalty for speeding on pit road in three different
sections and had to start at the end of the pack. Denny Hamlin
eventually began to dominate, taking over the lead on Lap 64.
Heading toward Lap 200, while Kahne and Hamlin battled for the lead,
Hamlin radioed he had a loose wheel. He carried on as teammate Busch
rallied back from 31st into the top five. On Lap 235, Landon Cassill
hit the wall bringing out the fifth caution, allowing Hamlin to pit and
fix his loose wheel. Matt Kenseth became the leader for the restart.
On the restart on Lap 238, Hamlin spun his tires and Kenseth was able
to maintain the lead. The field stayed green until Lap 322, when Dave
Blaney hit the wall but did not take anyone with him. Stenhouse
received the free pass. Jeff Gordon took the lead for the first time at
the restart on Lap 326. Trying to catch Gordon, Hamlin and Joey Logano
were battling for position. When Logano couldn’t catch him, Hamlin did
the bump-and-run, causing Logano to spin in the high group, bringing
out the eighth caution of the day, and Vickers received another free
pass. On the restart, Hamlin fell back quickly, causing packs to bunch
up and go three wide.
The two-tire strategy that put Gordon in the lead didn’t work out as
his right front blew on Lap 390, causing him to hit the wall in front
of Kenseth, who slammed into the back of him, causing Gordon to wind up
on Kenseth’s hood. Gordon’s right side tires had 154 laps on them.
Mears received the free pass during the caution.
With 99 laps to go, Brad Keselowski took the lead with Paul Menard and
Stenhouse rounding out the top three. None of them pitted, and
Stenhouse quickly fell back. Kahne and Keselowski battled back and
forth, and when lap traffic held Keselowski up, Kahne took over.
Keselowski took the lead back and Kahne got loose trying to pass
traffic with about 50 laps to go, falling .774 seconds back and with 46
laps left, the 10th caution fell for Jimmie Johnson. Stenhouse received
the free pass again, leaving 18 cars on the lead lap.
On the restart with less than 50 to go, Keselowski spun his tires and
Kahne took the lead while Kyle Busch battled Keselowski for second.
Kahne pulled away and maintained a substantial lead on the rest of the
field. Hamlin faded back on his older tires.
With three laps to go, Hamlin couldn’t maintain speed and fell back to
19th. With a right front going down, Kahne came across the finish line,
followed by Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Bowyer. Kahne’s
margin of victory was 1.700 seconds. Stenhouse was the highest
finishing rookie in 16th. There were 10 leaders and 14 lead changes,
with Hamlin leading the most at 117 laps (Kahne was second with 109).
Next week the circuit teams head back west to Auto Club Speedway for
the Auto Club 400. |
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