Kasey Kahne scores thrilling overtime victory at Atlanta

September 1, 2014 Greg Engle 2014 Chase, Main Page, NASCAR News Top Story, Top Stories 0

Kasey Kahne, driver of the #5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on August 31, 2014 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
Kasey Kahne, driver of the #5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on August 31, 2014 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
Kasey Kahne, driver of the #5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on August 31, 2014 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)

Kasey Kahne scored a timely win holding off Matt Kenseth on a green-white-checkered flag finish Sunday night to power to victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Oral B 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  After scoring only two top five finishes the entire season, Kahne got his first win since August of 2013 at Pocono Raceway to secure his spot in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Kahne took the lead on a restart with 23 laps to go from a dominant Kevin Harvick and the race appeared to be down to those two. But a caution with two laps to go set up the first green white checkered flag finish. That restart led to a crash that ended Harvick’s night, brought out the final caution and the second attempt at the green white checkered flag finish. Kahne charged from third under Denny Hamlin and outside Kenseth. The two battled until they exited turn 4 and headed towards the white flag; Kenseth got loose and Kahne was able to power ahead and onto victory.

“We were all over the place during the race,” Kahne said. “But the guys stayed with me and worked hard.  On those restarts – I didn’t know what would happen because I had great restarts all night and I struggle with restarts a lot.  That’s big, because that is one of the things you have to be good at and it worked really well tonight.” MORE>>>

 

Greg Engle
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Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.