Kasey Kahne out drove and out thought his rivals through 15 caution flags and just as many pitstops to take his third win of the season in Sunday's four and a half hour Coca Cola 600 at the Lowe's Motor Speedway.
The combination of hard tyres and a small fuel cell coupled with the usual Lowe's hazards made for a disjointed race in which the lead changed hands nearly 40 times among 16 drivers and the entire lead lap order seemed to shuffle every 30 laps as drivers discovered that while their tyres would easily last more than 35-40 laps, their fuel tanks couldn't.
The result was a race dominated by pit strategy for while overtaking was possible, and plentiful in the pack, the leader at the head of the train always seemed to have an advantage in clean air, forcing crews to decide between four, two or no tyres at nearly every pit stop.
Through all this one team appeared to have an advantage over the rest, Evernham Motorsports, which saw all three of its entries run competitively for the first time this year.
Pole sitter Scott Riggs led many laps and only dropped out of the fight for victory when he left his pit box with equipment still attached to the car during the final round of stops with 40 laps remaining. Jeremy Mayfield had his best run of what has been a dismal season but could only manage a 15th place finish in the end while Kahne, who started ninth but quickly proved that he had one of the few cars able to make passes and go from the middle of the pack to the leaders, led 158 of 400 laps to take his fourth career Cup Series win and his first from any starting position other than pole.
