By Staff
HAMPTON, Ga. - Young Kasey Kahne held his breath for the last 20 laps Monday afternoon and held off a strong contingent of contenders to win the Golden Corral 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Kahne led most of the final laps in the weather-postponed event originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon and kept his Ray Evernham Dodge in front of Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, points leader Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard, Kyle Petty, Dale Jarrett and Reed Sorenson down the stretch of this 500-mile event.
On a cold, drab, gray day at this 1 1/2-mile trioval, young polesitter Kahne kept his red Dodge near the front of the pack throughout the day before charging to the front with 80 laps remaining.
It was Kahne's second career win, the first for Dodge at this particular track in 29 years and guess who was responsible for that last Dodge win at Atlanta, none other than The King of NASCAR racing himself, Richard Petty.
The King had to be smiling Monday because the new driver of Richard's No. 43, Bobby Labonte, took the familiar red and blue colors to the front of the field before an engine problem sidelined him for the afternoon.
Son Kyle, however, brought his Petty Enterprises Dodge home for a top-10 finish. It was a promising afternoon for the re-vamped Petty team with new manager Robbie Loomis and crew chief Todd Parrott.
Others did not have successful afternoons even though they appeared on the way to great finishes and possible victories. Robby Gordon quickly comes to mind.
Gordon raced his way into contending position several times during the day and was consistently one of the fastest cars on the track. However, Robby wore out his tires on the last green flag run and had to pit. He was speeding on pit road and a penalty ended any chance he might have had for a strong finish. He wound up 28th. It was one of the strongest single-car team performances since the days of Alan Kulwicki who clinched a championship at a season-ending race here at this track.
Earnhardt Jr., was also impressive, battling back to third after several mishaps sent him to the rear of the field.
Matt Kenseth, who wound up 13th, was also impressive, leading the race and running up front before having to pit for tires and gas near the end.
Biffle, who once again dominated the opening half of the race, had numerous pitting problems also, finally running out of gas and finishing 16th.
Kurt Busch also had a disappointing day after racing up front before being involved in a fender-bending altercation that upset the handling capabilities of his Dodge Charger.
Busch wound up 37th.
Bill Lester, the first African-American to start a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race in nearly 20 years, wound up running at the end but was disappointed with 38th place.