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Thu 6/25 6 PM

Kasey: Kahne wins Toyota/SaveMart 350 nail-biter at Infineon

This Bud's for you

By Henry Coleman
Special to the Index-Tribune
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Kasey Kahne drives his No. 9 Budweiser car to the NASCAR Sprint Cup 2009 Toyota/Save Mart 350 title Sunday at Infineon Raceway. David Bolling/Index-Tribune

What had been talked about among the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers since the race at Pocono, when NASCAR said they were going to have side-by-side restarts of the lead cars after full-course caution flags was, "How was this going to work on a road course?"

With a full-course yellow coming out on lap 80 of the 110-lap race Sunday at Infineon Raceway, drivers and fans were going to find out. The stage was set for the drivers on the lead lap to gather it up and follow two-by-two to the green restart flag, not once, but several times before the race was finally won. Kasey Kahne, who, as driver of the No. 9 Budweiser car, is not known for his road-racing prowess, held off road-course ace Tony Stewart through a succession of four late-race double-file restarts, to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Toyota/Save Mart 350.

The last yellow flag came after Scott Speed's spin on Lap 108 which caused the seventh caution of the day. After starting from the rear because of an engine change, Marcos Ambrose chased the top two finishers to the line to claim third place. Kahne cut his racing teeth on dirt tracks, as did Stewart, before getting into NASCAR and Kahne quietly became quite an avid road racer.

"Awesome - not too bad for a dirt-tracker from Washington," Kenny Francis, Kahne's crew chief, radioed after his driver crossed the stripe on Lap 113, three laps beyond the scheduled distance at the 1.99-mile Infineon road course.

"Unreal," replied Kahne, who gave owner Richard Petty his first victory since John Andretti in 1999. "Gosh, we had to hold him (Stewart) off for a while. We won a road-course race! Oh, my God, I can't believe this."
Jimmie Johnson recovered from a pit-road speeding penalty and a late crash that punted Kurt Busch off the racetrack, to finish fourth. Denny Hamlin, who led 33 laps - second only to Kahne's 37 - came home fifth. Juan Pablo Montoya, A.J. Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler completed the top 10.

"It was crazy," Kahne said. "Stewart's as good as they get out there, and I had to restart beside him about four times. Cautions kept coming out, and we were having to hold him off. He was giving me tons of room, which is normal Stewart. The guy's an awesome racer."

•••

Up next at Infineon Raceway are the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals the weekend of July 24 to 26. To purchase tickets for the NHRA Nationals or other Infineon Raceway 2009 major events, or for more information, call (800) 870-RACE (7223), or visit www.infineonraceway.com, or www.ticketmaster.com.

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