Opening Ceremonies for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motorspeedway Photo courtesy of Nascar.com |
When Kasey Kahne drove into Victory Lane at the Coca-Cola
600 on May 27th, he earned his wings into the winning club that is
Hendrick Motorsports. He now joins the ranks of the many great drivers that
helped achieve 200 plus Cup victories.
''It's something I've been
looking forward to for a long time,'' Kahne said after winning NASCAR’s longest
race for the third time.
Kasey Kahne captures the checkered flag at the 2012 Coca-Cola 600 Photo courtesy of Nascar.com |
Kahne crossed the finish line nearly five
seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin followed by Kyle
Busch in third and current
points leader Greg Biffle fourth. It was Kahne's 13th career win
and first
since last November in Phoenix.
For much of this race, it looked as if Biffle was untouchable. He led
204 laps and dominated the race early on. His car seemed to be performing the
best in the Charlotte NC heat. Once the sun went down and night fell, the track
cooled but Kahne got HOT! Kahne led 96 laps,
including the final 42.
''Kasey's car was just better at night,'' Biffle said.
It was just a matter of time for Kahne to get a win this season. Up
until now he basically had a streak of bad luck with his cars. Once they
figured things out all he had to do was what he does best-DRIVE IT! Congrats
Kasey for one of hopefully many wins in the future for you and your team!
What the heck happened to the stellar pit crew of Jimmie Johnson? After taking home last week’s top honours at the All Star Pit Crew Challenge, their performance this week cost their driver a possible victory. When Johnson attempted to make his final pit stop of the long night on Lap 354 of the 400-lap event at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he was running third behind race winner Kahne and Denny Hamlin.
Crew
Chief Chad Knaus has requested a two tire pit stop in an attempt to save
Johnson time to get off pit road and jump in front of the current leaders. Then
things got ugly. Once the jack drops that is the cue to the driver that he is
good to go. Well the jack dropped and Johnson took off...with his gas man
Brandon Harder and his fuel can still stuck to the car.Kasey Kahne with his first trip to Victory Lane with his new team at Hendrick's Photo courtesy of Nascar.com |
What the heck happened to the stellar pit crew of Jimmie Johnson? After taking home last week’s top honours at the All Star Pit Crew Challenge, their performance this week cost their driver a possible victory. When Johnson attempted to make his final pit stop of the long night on Lap 354 of the 400-lap event at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he was running third behind race winner Kahne and Denny Hamlin.
I looked at my husband and said “I can’t wait to hear the radio transmission from Knaus after this. He is going to be flipping out.” A few moments later we watched the replay of an animated Chad on the pit box and listened to the following.
"Go! Go! Go! STOP! STOP! STOP! ", Knaus yelled over the radio as he watched the chaos ensue. "Oh my God! We just destroyed our [#*&%ing] day!"
The Gas Man for the #48 walks away after a major pit crew foul up Photo courtesy of Nascar.com |
NASCAR
tends to frown upon cars leaving pit road with equipment and/or people still
stuck to the cars.
So
the powers that be at NASCAR handed him a scolding. The Lowe’s 48 car was ordered to serve a
stop-and-go penalty. This ended up dropping his position to 13th
place and a lap down from the lead lap. Johnson was never able to recover the
momentum he needed and finished just outside the top 10 in 11th
place.
Of note, Danica Patrick was the first woman to drive the 600 since Janet Guthrie in 1976. She finished the race five laps down in 30th place, which was her best finish in her three Sprint Cup races so far. Her sole goal for the race was to just finish and she managed to accomplish just that. It really is a long race and she had a poor starting position due to a lousy qualifier but she stuck it out to the end. Kudos to Danica!
The race was the quickest ever for the 600 at 3 hours, 51 minutes, 14 seconds, nearly five minutes faster than the mark set in 1995.
This
week we are headed to the “Monster Mile” at Dover International Speedway for
the Fedex 400 Autism Speaks to see if 2011 winner Matt Kenseth can pull off a
repeat.
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