Posts Tagged ‘mart’
Kasey Kahne held off points leader Tony Stewart on several late-race restarts, including one for a green-white-checkered finish, to win Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. Kahne grabbed the lead for the final time with 34 laps to go and then beat Stewart to the finish line by 0.748 seconds for his first victory of the season and the 10th of his Sprint Cup Series career. He gave Richard Petty Motorsports its first win since “The King” merged his team with Gillett Evernham Motorsports before the start of the 2009 season. Prior to his win at Sonoma, Kahne had never finished in the top-10 in a NASCAR road-course race. His best finish was 14th, which came twice at Watkins Glen, NY. Kahne also ended a 37-race drought, with his last win coming in June 2008 at Pocono, while driving for Gillett. “It feels great, I can’t believe it,” Kahne said. Petty came to victory lane and congratulated Kahne, who gave the NASCAR legend his first team owner victory since John Andretti’s win in April 1999 at Martinsville. “I feel just as good as (Kahne) does,” Petty said. Boris Said turned Scott Speed around in the closing laps, which set up the two-lap overtime finish, the first since NASCAR amended its new double-file restart rule. Kahne moved in front of Stewart and quickly pulled away from there. “Stewart is just as good as they get out here,” Kahne said. “He was giving me tons of room so I didn’t get any rubber on my tires.” Stewart knew he had his hands full after Kahne took …
