NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
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TRUCKS: Kahne Wins At Rockingham
Kasey Kahne flies in from Fort Worth, then wins another Truck Series race…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted April 15, 2012   Rockingham, NC
Can Kasey Kahne race on limited sleep?

You bet he can.

After driving in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway, Kahne flew back across the country and then to Rockingham Sunday morning to participate in the revival of NASCAR racing at The Rock – the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 Camping World Truck Series race.

Kahne figured to be among the favorites if he could overcome the handicap of starting at the back of the field because of the driver change (Brad Sweet qualified the No. 4 truck while Kahne was in Texas).

Kahne handled that advance without too much trouble. By lap 155, he had rolled into first place, and he hung on to the spot with tenacity from there forward, leading the final 46 laps and winning the first NASCAR event at the one-mile track since 2004.

Kahne held the lead through a late-race restart. He said it was special to win the first Truck race at the track.

“It was exciting they got the race going,” he said. “It’s fresh. It looks good. Once we got racing, it was like the old Rockingham. Nothing’s changed.”

In five career appearances in the Truck series, Kahne has four victories.

Nelson Piquet Jr., one of Kahne’s potential challengers for the victory, lost his shot during the last pit-stop round when he was nailed for speeding as he left his pit. He started the ensuing green-flag period from the back of the field.

Turner Motorsports finished 1-2 as James Buescher followed Kahne to the finish, 1.478 seconds behind. Completing the top five were Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter and Timothy Peters.

Peters’ finish pushed him into the series point lead.

A crowd announced at 27,500 looked on as NASCAR vehicles tested the aging asphalt at the track for the first time since Matt Kenseth won the final Sprint Cup race here in 2004. Ironically, Kahne was a close second in that race, an event he said he’s reviewed on video numerous times.

Piquet led the first 67 laps Sunday without a serious challenge, and he totaled 107 laps led for the day. He said he simply made a mistake during the final round of pit stops as he bolted from his pit after service.

Piquet charged through the field over the closing 20 laps to make up much of the deficit, then shoved Ty Dillon into the outside wall as they made contact racing to the checkered flag. Piquet finished seventh and Dillon eighth.

“He crammed me up into the wall,” Dillon said. “He was frustrated. He had a real fast truck. I just told him we don’t need to be crashing cars running to the line for seventh.”

Several Cup drivers posted praise of the Rockingham event on their Twitter accounts during the race, with Denny Hamlin saying he would race at Rockingham next season even if he had to build his own truck.

Kahne made that plan for Sunday. He said he slept only four and one-half hours Saturday night but was fresh for Sunday afternoon’s race.

“As soon as I heard about it, I was trying to figure out who I’d race for and how I’d get here from Texas,” Kahne said.

Track president Andy Hillenburg said he was pleased with the day’s attendance and that he will continue to fund improvements to the track while hoping to keep NASCAR on the speedway schedule.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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