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CUP: Kahne Wins at Lowe’s
Written by: Tom Jensen   
Concord, N.C.
 
Kasey Kahne turned in a dominant performance to win the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images/Rusty Jarrett) » More Photos

Reports of Kasey Kahne's demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated, at least in the context of the 2006 edition of the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

Kahne, who opened the Chase with three disastrous finishes of 16th, 38th and 33rd, followed last week's runner-up finish at Talladega Superspeedway with a dominating victory in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, where for the second consecutive time he bested Jimmie Johnson on Johnson's home track.

Heading into Talladega, Kahne was 273 points behind championship leader Jeff Burton, his hopes for a first title seemingly over almost before they started. But in just two weeks, Kahne has cut Burton's margin nearly in half - the deficit is now just 160 points - despite Burton finishing third at Lowe's.

More importantly, perhaps, Kahne's sixth win of the season came at the opening of a stretch where the Cup teams will race at three 1.5-mile tracks in four weeks, all tracks where Kahne won earlier this year: Lowe's, Texas and Atlanta.

Once again, as he did in the spring races at the 1.5-milers, Kahne crushed the field in his Evernham Motorsports Dodge Charger, leading 134 of 334 laps, including
73 of the final 78. In the process, he again defeated the all-conquering Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Johnson, who had won five consecutive points races at the venerable North Carolina track prior to Kahne's Coca-Cola 600 victory here in May.

During the race's final caution period that began on Lap 303, both Kahne, who entered the pits in the lead, and Johnson took fuel only. Somehow, Johnson emerged from pit road with the lead. But when the green flag fell on Lap 307, Kahne quickly began stalking Johnson. Two laps later, Kahne went around Johnson on the high side going into Turn 1, and from there he was never headed, crossing the finish line 1.642 seconds ahead of Johnson for his series-high sixth victory of 2006 and the seventh for Dodge.

"We really had a great Dodge Charger," Kahne said. "From the green flag, the car was really good. It was a matter of doing the right things and adjusting on it and making it better. …To pass Jimmie Johnson was huge. He's the guy that you have to beat if you want to win at this racetrack. We got him twice and he got us once this year (at the Nextel All-Star Challenge, which Johnson won), so that's pretty cool for everybody at our team."

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