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| PHOTO CREDIT: Geoff Burk/Getty Images NASCAR Media Group |
Kahne can add the Food City 500 trophy from Thunder Valley to his collection of trophy's at his shop, Kasey Kahne Racing, in Mooresville, North Carolina. The 32 year old Washington native now has 15 (career) Cup victories.
"This is a big race for me," Kahne said at the post race press conference. "I just feel like when you’re racing in the Sprint Cup Series, Bristol’s one of those tracks that as a driver you really feel like you need to win at, you want to win at. There’s so many things that are thrown at you when you come to this place."
The one mile oval is not so easy to figure out- Kahne has worked hard for years to win and admits (it has been), "Such a tough track over the years. My first time here in 2002 was just something I couldn't believe the way that you drove, as hard as you drove here, the way things happen so quickly. To win a Sprint Cup race here feels really good."
It is the tenth time Kahne has won a Cup race from the front row. He started in second, and was able to hold on to a top five spot for the majority of the race.
Last week, the No. 5 team walked away from Las Vegas with a second place finish. All in all, Kahne was happy with the results.
"We've gained a lot of spots here in the last two weeks," said Kahne who is now seventh in point standings, "and feel really good about where we're at, where our team's at. There was a lot that went on during the off-season to get a little bit better. I felt like each one of us needed to get a touch better. So far it's all paying off. The guys are doing an awesome job."
Winning a race is a team effort, and the work the pit crew has done over the wall is much appreciated by Kahne. "The pit stops have been really good," Kahne said."The guys are just nailing it on pit road. It's fun to come to pit road and break even or gain spots."
The race had a few altercations on the track. Wrecks are inevitable on Bristol's high banked, and gritty grooved track. One in the headlines is the altercation between Joey Logano, and Denny Hamlin. The second crash was much worse. Jeff Gordon was in the lead, a tire went flat, he lost some control of the car, hit the wall hard and leaving Matt Kenseth nowhere else to go but directly in the rear-end of the Chevy SS. Both cars were totaled beyond repair, and ended the day for the two. Luckily, both drivers walked away visibly unharmed from the wreck.
The wreck gave Kahne an advantage however, at the time he was in third, but after the re-start he took the lead and control of the final laps.
Repeat winners Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch were right behind Kahne fighting for second place. Keselowski's restart wasn't very helpful however, he later told press, "I haven't seen the replay. I just know my rear tires were off the ground before I got to the restart zone. Eventually I got hit so hard it pushed my foot in the gas pedal. Made myself look like an ass. That was the deal. Never had another chance."
Would he have been able to catch up to Kahne for the win? "I don't think I had anything for Kasey, I don't know if anyone did. He was good through the middle, really everywhere. In a league of his own. I'd be damned if it was going to keep me from trying."
The battle seemed a little more complicated than Keselowski made it out. The 2012 had a back and fourth battle for the lead that made for an intense ending.
Kahne told the media his side of the story:
"Brad got out to the lead there and it took my car a few laps to get going. I reeled him in. Just trying to make the pass. He was driving into the corner so hard I couldn't really do anything on the bottom or try any type of somewhat of a slide job or anything like that. It was just trying to get momentum off the corner and make something happen on exit.
It took a while to do it. I bumped him a few times. He was sideways trying to hold us back. I got the lead, then gave it right back in lap traffic two laps later.
Definitely I was mad at myself at that point in time. About spun out off of two a few laps after that. Had to calm down, get things going again. Felt like we got a good restart that final restart, got to the lead. From there it was just momentum and try to drive away."
Busch had hoped to sweep the weekend after winning the Nationwide Race on Saturday. The No. 18 M&M's Toyota started the Cup race on the pole. Unfortunately Busch was thrown to rear of the field after a speeding penalty on pit-road. He finished the race in second place.
"Yeah, it was a good run for us battling back from our pit road penalty which we need to stop," said Busch. " If we didn't have so many of those, we'd be a lot better off. Being able to work on our car further up front, there's a difference when you run back in traffic. All in all we battled back.," Busch continued to tell press. "Crew chief made some good calls. Pit crew did a good job on pit road. You got to hustle it and drive hard out on the racetrack, especially after restarts, get what you can get."
NASCAR heads west for next weeks Sprint Cup race at Fontana, California. Be sure to tune in to FOX at 3 PM Eastern time.
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