Kasey Kahne takes a celebration drink after winning the Coca~Cola 600 at Charlotte Motorspeedway
600 grueling miles in almost 90 degree heat, saving equipment until the end, making changes to keep up with the track as the sun goes down, and strategy to gain track position at just the right time. Kasey Kahne had all that working for him. Kenny Francis made all the right changes to his car and stayed ahead of the track, while Kasey took care of his car, keeping it off the wall, saving his brakes, and finding the speed he needed right at the best time to find it, in the final 25 laps.
After a rough start to the 2012 season Kahne has had a solid run for the last 6 weeks finishing top 10. He never gave up despite the string of DNF's early on, he kept any complaints he may have had to himself, and forged on. The end result of that patience it seems is a win at one of NASCAR's marquee races.
'I never doubted myself,' said Kahne. 'I was upset at some of the things that may have happened. I made a huge mistake at Phoenix and hit the wall there, but other than that, we were solid ' we were fast.
'It was just a matter of getting past those [six] weeks and moving on and putting some solid races together.'
'I think the biggest thing for myself was just to figure out the cars, figure out how they drove,' Kahne said. 'It's been a little bit different for me. We've had speed. Even the last five, six races, we've been in the top 10, but not near as fast as Jimmie Johnson or a couple of those guys who have been winning races.'I just knew for myself, I needed to step up. Our team is solid. Our car is solid. Mr. Hendrick gives us everything we need to win races and run up front. [Sunday] night we were able to put it all together.'
Denny Hamlin did everything he could to chase down Kahne, even coming to within a second of him after the final restart, but Kahne could not be caught as he just kept pulling away right up to the checkered flag.
'As the track cooled off, it freed up for us ' the car got better,' Hamlin said. 'Ultimately, it gave us a shot to win. ' The first 10 laps of the last run, we got to them [Kahne], but we wore our front tires trying to get around them.
'Everything was executed great [Sunday], the pit calls, getting on and off pit road, the pit crew themselves. We had a very, very solid day.'
Greg Biffle had been the dominant car all day, leading 204 laps, and looking like the car to beat, until Kahne got by and never looked back.
'It's so frustrating,' Biffle said of his fourth place finish after having the event's dominant car. 'You're driving your heart out, you're wondering, 'Am I doing something wrong? Come on, come on.' You're doing all you can do, but the car won't do what you want it to do. You just take what it gives you, otherwise you wreck it. And I just about wrecked it a half a dozen times trying to get forward.'
Other notable finishers were Carl Edwards who charged from the back of the field towards the front gaining more than 20 positions to finish in in the top ten in 9th place. Dale Earnhardt Jr also did well, running in the top 15 for most of the race and climbing to as high as second on a call by his Crew Chief, Steve Latarte, to stay out on 12 lap tires when the leaders came in to the pits. The gained track position was what he needed to stay inside the top 10 to finish in 6th place. Good enough to stay within 18 points of the points leader Greg Biffle in 4th place overall.
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