May 28, 2008
By Chuck Abrams
Just as happened in the All-Star race, Kasey Kahne made the most of the opportunities presented him in the form of misfortunes -- of others.
The Coca-Cola 600 often proves to be a test of man and machine since it is the longest race on the NASCAR tour.
One by one, drivers started to have problems and Kasey Kahne was there to clean up. Stewart had a tire fail with a five second lead, handing the victory to Kahne. But Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Earnhardt, Johnson, Hamlin, Edwards and Brian Vickers all had tire or mechanical failures or ran out of gas while Kahne seemed destined to run another charmed race at Lowe’s leading to his first win in 52 races.
The race also proved to be a telling event for Elliott Sadler who started in the top 10 and finished in the top 10. Sadler can occasionally get a top 10 starting position but he rarely finishes there.
David Reutimann, Bobby Labonte, Sam Hornish, Jr. and David Ragan also had top finishes and Ragan continues to surprise everyone with his continued improvements.
While Hornish had another decent finish, he is still outside the top 35 in owner points and now has to qualify on speed at Dover this week. That will be a monster task for the team. While Dover is a one-mile track, it is a unique, high banked concrete track that takes it toll on machines in a much different way than the Coca-Cola 600 did.
Heading into Dover we have only Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. within a single race striking distance of Kyle Busch in the NASCAR point standings. Only Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer are the next two within 300 points of Busch and the rest are within 400 points while Kahne’s win positions him at 406 -- and the last position in the Chase group.
While Kyle Busch has no wins at Dover, he has four top 10 finishes in the last five years so we may see him still at the top of the standings come next Monday. Jeff Burton has won there and can possibly tighten up the race a bit. Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle both have had good luck at Dover and stand to be the favorites going into the race.
Kahne had better take time to cherish this win because he may want to forget his next trip to Dover where he has just one top ten finish in the last five years and five DNFs. OUCH.
In the last five years, neither Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt, Tony Stewart or Hamlin have wins at this track either. Jimmie Johnson has just one win in his last eight tries. Could be an interesting day and we could see someone like Bowyer, Ryan Newman or Martin Truex, Jr. visit Victory Lane this week too.
Oh yeah, the Indy 500 ran this past Sunday and Scott Dixon started from the pole and came home the winner. Danica Patrick got into some trouble on pit row on the last pit stop, ending her day and gave us all a good look at what a short, ticked off female driver looks like.
Sarah Fisher also had her day end unceremoniously. So much so it brought her to tears and rightly so. She had worked hard and started her own team in order to make this race. Having your day end like that is heartbreaking.
Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.
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