The driver of the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge had to ask his crew chief for directions to Victory Lane after taking the checkered flag in a green-white-checkered finish in Sunday's Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway.
Kahne held off road-course ace Tony Stewart through a succession of four late-race, double-file restarts (watch video), the final time after Scott Speed's spin on Lap 108 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, matching the best result of his Sprint Cup Series career.
"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 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 to finish fourth. Denny Hamlin, who led 33 laps -- second only to Kahne's 37 -- came home fifth. Juan Montoya, A.J. Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler completed the top 10.
The victory was Kahne's first of the season and the 10th of his Cup Series career. Before Sunday's race, his highest finish on a road course was 14th at Watkins Glen.
"It was crazy," Kahne said, after following Francis' directions to Victory Lane, where he was met by Petty (watch video).
"I feel just as good as he does," said the King, clad in his trademark cowboy hat and sunglasses. "It's great, man. It's great."
Petty's race team teetered on the verge of collapse at the end of last season and needed a January merger with Gillett Evernham Motorsports to stay in business. The team was re-branded as Richard Petty Motorsports and kicked off the season with a strong showing at the Daytona 500.
But it's been a rough ride, since. Team manufacturer Chrysler is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and funding to RPM has slowed to a crawl as Dodge restructures. The team laid off nine employees earlier this month and made company-wide salary cuts, and it's been plagued by whispers of financial instability the past several weeks.
Just Saturday, majority team owner George Gillett agreed to sell the NHL's Montreal Canadiens in a deal that should help him fight any solvency issues.
It's made for a frustrating season for Kahne, the star of the four-driver team, who at times this year has been vocal about RPM's progress. His criticism prompted team officials to push out a new Dodge engine, and the improved motor had given Kahne hope that there's reason for optimism.
"To me, we started the season a little bit behind," Kahne said. "But it gave the guys that work at Richard Petty Motorsports a chance to build some better race cars, some better engines and work on the setups. It's paid off. [Sunday] was a bonus, and it shows that we do have a lot of smart, really good people who work hard."
Francis said the business issues have been unsettling, even as the No. 9 team began to turn a corner and put together consistent runs. Kahne has collected three top-10s and his first win of the season in the past five races.
"It's definitely tough times right now economically, everybody is feeling the pinch," Francis said. "What we've tried to do is not let it distract us. It's been difficult, really, to not let that distract you."
Using humor, Petty tried to put his people at ease.
"From the financial end, we'll definitely be there next week," he joked. "We've got enough money to do that."
The victory moved Kahne to 13th in the standings, one spot shy of qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. He's just three points outside the top 12 in what's shaping up to be an intense 10-week push to qualify for the title hunt.
After Kahne took the lead on a restart on Lap 80, he stayed out front the rest of the way.
"I learned how to drive on dirt," Kahne said. "So to come out and win on a road course ... it feels great. I can't believe it."
Stewart's attempts to pressure Kahne into a mistake failed to produce the desired result.
"The second-to-last run there [when Stewart was leading Kahne], we were looking in our mirror and we were fast, but Kasey was matching us lap for lap," Stewart said. "Then when he came out in front of us after that last set of pit stops, I was like, 'Oh, we might be in trouble here.'
"We could run about the same pace. I just couldn't get [to him]. I was a little too loose in the right-handers.
Stewart has mentored Kahne at times in his career.
"Kasey just never made a mistake at the end," Stewart said.. "He did an awesome job those last 20 laps and just never slipped a wheel, never missed a corner and never made a mistake."
Reposted from www.nascar.com
Article written with assistance from Associated Press
