Kahne Konquers Infineon
Written by Racin with Russ, Monday June 22 2009
Kasey Kahne hadn’t been in a victory lane for more than a year until Sunday’s roadcourse run at Infineon when the Richard Petty Motorsports driver brought home the Budweiser Dodge barely ahead of a hard charging Tony Stewart.
Kahne’s previous best at the tricky track was 14th, yet the young driver ‘got up’ on the wheel to best Stewart, road race ace Marcos Ambrose, 4-time champion Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin.
The race began with yet another pole for Toyota driver Brian Vickers, who led the opening 17 circuits. Stewart and Hamlin then led most of the laps before Kahne took over late in the show.
Kahne had his hands full as there were numerous double file restarts with the top dogs nipping at his heels, also dodging many minor wrecks behind him.
Most all of the restarts saw multi-car incidents with a long list of those involved.
Just some of the names involved included Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Boris Said, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton among others. Several cars looked like they’d been in demo derby rather than a Cup race by the end, most notably Kyle Busch without a straight panel on the car and a ton of colored tape holding the car together.
The teams leave the West coast to prepare for the next race in New Hampshire where the one-mile oval usually proves to be challenging.
Stewart extended his lead over Jeff Gordon to 84 after Gordon recovered from a challenging day to record a ninth place finish.
Notable: After claiming his 10th career Sprint Cup win, Kahne is now only 3 points out of the Chase, just behind Juan Montoya…..Dale Earnhardt Jr ran well all day until late in the race, when he spun down to 26th place. The fan favorite fell two spots in the standings to 20th, 724 points out of first place. There’s always next year.
Nationwide - Carl Edwards finally landed in victory lane with his first win this year, after coming from the back of the Nationwide pack on Saturday night at the famed Milwaukee Mile. The Roush-Fenway driver made the 2,000 mile trek from Infineon along with Kyle Busch where both started at the back and led the 250-mile race. Busch finished a begrudgingly second in front of Brad Keselowski, Eric Darnell and newbee Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The two points leader led the most laps with Edwards now trailing Busch by 126 in the big picture.
Truckin’ - Ron Hornaday notched his 41st truck trophy on Saturday afternoon after their Friday night Milwaukee show was postponed due to rain. Hornaday gave the field a driving lesson along the way, leading way more laps than anyone else by far.
Rounding out the top five included Dennis Setzer, Brian Scott (with a broken arm), Todd Bodine and young James Buescher.
Hornaday’s latest win elevated him back atop the points, but just 36 over Matt Crafton with Bodine in third.
Open Wheel News - Dario Franchitti recorded his second win of the season after the checkers flew at the Iowa 250 for the Indy Racing League. The accident strewn race saw lots of carnage with a strong performance by the personal Scotsman. Not far behind at the stripe were the cars of Ryan Briscoe, Hideki Mutoh, Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon.
ABC did another horrible job of broadcasting with the on-track sounds way louder then the commentator’s play-by-play. It should be about 70% to 30% voices to on-track sounds and for the second race in a row, it was the exact opposite. Wake up audio control room!!
Across the Pond in England, the latest round of Formula One racing went to Red Bull Ferrari driver Sebastien Vettel. The 21-year-old driver took pole, fast lap and his second win of the season, this one in front of his teammate Mark Webber and Braun driver Rubens Barrichello. Points leader and six-time winner Jenson Button started and finished sixth, still well in control of the points.
From Rumorville - Jeremy Mayfield’s next legal battle with NASCAR and the courts is slated for July 1st. If the suspension was lifted, Mayfield could be in the Lowe’s race on July 4th. Stay tuned.
--- Danica to NASCAR?? Don’t look now, but the latest rumors from the pits has IRL darling Danica Patrick slated to drive for Jack Roush next year and beyond. While I usually respect Jack’s choice of drivers over the years, this is one I definitely would not. He feels two years in the Nationwide ranks would prepare Miss Prissy for the Bigs….Sprint Cup. I say at this point she is only a marketing tool and would NEVER win anything in NASCAR but pin-up calendar sales. What about you? Drop me a line.
That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the Nationwide and Sprint Cup action from New Hampshire Speedway, truck stats from Memphis along with more racing news from around the globe.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@comcast.net
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