Kasey Kahne Uses Restarts to Win Atlanta, Spot in the Chase

Kasey Kahne battled all night long, but used a late restart to earm his first win of the season earned him a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.  Kahne zipped past Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin in a two-lap shootout to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night.

Matt Kenseth, who finished second, also qualified for the Chase on points. He began the second restart in first place, but couldn’t stop the charge from Kahne.

“I struggle with restarts a lot and that’s big,” Kahne said. “That’s one of the things you have to be good at. It worked really well tonight.”

Much of the spotlight for the night was on Tony Stewart who was racing for the first time since the tragic accident that took the life of a fellow driver, Kevin Ward Jr..  Stewart hit the wall for the second time after his right front tire blew out on Lap 172, ending his night with a 41st-place finish.

“I wish we could have had a better effort and a better finish for him,” crew chief Chad Johnston said. “We’ll go on to Richmond and hope we can do better there.”

Jeff Gordon maintains a slim lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Sprint Cup Standings and Joey Logano is third