Pole-sitter Kahne gains first career NASCAR win

Published 12:00 am Monday, May 16, 2005

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) &045; Kasey Kahne raced to his first victory on NASCAR’s premier series Saturday night, putting the domination of Roush Racing and Hendrick Motorsports to rest &045; at least for a night.

While points leader Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon had miserable nights and Roush’s Kurt Busch struggled, Kahne finally finished a race that he started with one of the strongest cars.

Kahne, a six-time pole-sitter and six-time runner-up in his career, just beat Tony Stewart off pit road after all the leaders pitted under caution with about 67 laps to go. The Evernham Motorsports driver gradually pulled away from Stewart on a restart with 61 laps remaining, and then again three more times.

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The last came with seven laps to go, and when Kahne got clear of Stewart after a one-lap battle, he left Stewart to battle Ryan Newman for second and won by 1.67 seconds in just his 47th career Nextel Cup race.

Unlike the Busch race a night earlier, when 14 Nextel Cup drivers took part in a crashfest slowed for 66 of 253 laps by caution, this race featured long green-flag runs and 21 lead changes in the first 300 laps.

Kahne accounted for the 21st when he got by Stewart on lap 295, and it seemed only cautions gave Stewart a chance to regain the top spot.

Kahne allowed none of it, pulling away each time to hang on for the first victory for the new Dodge Charger on an unusual night that made the points race a whole lot closer.