Redstate Sports

By Leon H Wolf Posted in NASCAR — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Kasey Kahne entered Sunday's Sony HD 500 in desperation mode: as the first man out of the Nextel Chase for the Cup standings with two races to go, and a 90-point gap between himself and 10th-place Mark Martin, Kahne was in a very uncomfortable position, one in which he had to either hope that one of the ten most reliable drivers in NASCAR would crash early, or rely on himself to get the job done. And Kahne did indeed get the job done, leading 132 laps at California to get both the win and the most-laps-led points bonus. Kahne's impressive performance now has him within 30 points of 10th place, and 80 points of fifth place; in other words, with the exception of Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson, no one's spot in the Chase is safe going into the final pre-Chase race at Richmond this weekend.

Read on...

Kahne's dominating win was all the more impressive due to the way he accomplished it. Kahne led a few laps early in the race, but was soon passed by Denny Hamlin, who looked ready to pull away from the pack as he did at Pocono twice this year. However, when Hamlin fell back into traffic, his car never recovered without the clean air, and he ultimately finished 6th. Kahne spent much of the middle of the race battling Jeff Gordon for the lead - and when the field came down pit row on lap 127 for a yellow-flag stop, Kahne was flagged for speeding down the middle of pit row, and was sent back to 24th. Many, including myself, wrote Kahne's season off at that juncture, but Kahne was not done. Over the next 50 laps, Kahne fought his way back up to the top 15, then took a two-tire pitstop on lap 176 to get himself back up to second. Jeff Gordon, who looked poised to take the race, had to re-enter pit row because his team failed to get all the lug nuts tightened, and suddenly found himself in 25th, and the door was opened for Kahne. When the green flag dropped, Kahne flew past Dale Earnhardt Jr., and managed to hold the lead on two new tires until the next caution flag, where he was able to get four new tires and put himself back on equal footing. Coming out of that pit stop, Kahne found himself behind four cars that only took two tires, led by new teammate Elliott Sadler; a few short laps later, he had passed them all and was off to the races, building a 7-second lead as the race wound down.

However, because the last pit-stop was so close to the pit window for many of the cars, some of them, including Reed Sorenson, came back in on the last caution lap and topped off, in an attempt to go the rest of the race without pitting again. Thus, when Kahne and the rest of the field were forced to come in down the stretch for a splash of gas and right tires, rookie Reed Sorenson found himself with a huge lead with less than ten laps to go. Sorenson's crew wasn't sure if they had the fuel, but decided to go for broke; up until the very end, it looked like this gamble would pay off; Kahne was taking about a second off Sorenson's lead every lap, but with only two laps to go Sorenson still led by six seconds. However, before Sorenson could cross and get the white flag, his car pulled up and slowed to the inside, having run out of gas. Kahne flew by for his much-needed fifth win of the year. Matt Kenseth finished seventh, and passed Jimmie Johnson for the overall points lead.

Here is the way that the standings sit right now; this is how NASCAR scoring works, so you'll have some idea of what Kahne has to do next week in order to make the Chase; if he makes the Chase, he will be a dangerous contender. Of the ten Chase courses, Kahne has wins this season on three of them.

This brings me, by the way, to my soapbox moment for the week; after last night's victory, Kahne now has five wins this year; the most of any driver in NASCAR, and yet finds himself in very real danger of missing the Chase for the cup. In fact, it's mathematically possible that he could win this week at Richmond and still miss the cup, especially if all the drivers in front of him finish in the top 16 like they did this week. To put this in perspective, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson have combined for 13 wins this year - all other drivers combined have 14. The other two guys have been more consistent and thus are tops in the standings by far, but I think that this shows that NASCAR's point system needs some serious tweaking. The difference between first and second ought to be worth more than a led-lap bonus plus a pole position. Someone will no doubt retort that consistency should be rewarded, and this contention has merit; but Dale Jr., who has only one win this year, and went through an absolutely horrible three-race stretch earlier this year which featured back-to-back last place finishes finds himself comfortably in sixth after this weekend's second-place finish. Kahne's major error this year seems to have been a stretch of mid-20s finish in which his team seemed to lose focus, and that fateful crash on the final lap of the Brickyard 400 (without which Kahne would currently be in fifth) - it just doesn't seem to make sense that the Cup's leading race-winner currently sits behind Jeff Burton (who has not won once all year), and might finish outside the Chase despite having a very real shot at winning at least 7 races this year.

Up next, Richmond - preview later this week.