Kasey Kahne Wins At Charlotte
Jimmie Johnson’s reign ended in frantic — but fruitless — pursuit of Kasey Kahne.
There’s
finally a new Coca-Cola 600 winner, and somebody other than Johnson
celebrated in Victory Lane at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for the first time
in six races.
Kahne stopped Johnson’s streak of total dominance
by taking the lead with 29 laps to go, then pulling out to such a huge
lead that Johnson never had a chance to catch him.
Johnson, the
winner of the past three Coca-Cola 600s and seven of the last 10 races
at Lowe’s, finished second. He was well over 2 seconds behind Kahne,
who stopped his car at the finish line to grab the checkered flag and
celebrate with his team.
Greg Biffle Holds Off Gordon At Darlington
Greg Biffle finally snapped the streak of bad luck that has plagued
his season, holding off a late charge from Jeff Gordon to win at
Darlington Raceway on Saturday night.
It was the first win of the
season for Biffle, who had been unable to catch a single break all
year. He led the most laps in three other races, only to see his shot
at a win evaporate because of a wide-ranging batch of mishaps.
It
made for an agonizing start for the driver who had a series-high six
victories last season and finished second in the final standings. But
Biffle never allowed the bad breaks to frustrate him, focusing instead
on solid finishes that would turn around his season.
He did it
last week in Richmond, Va., settling in for a fourth-place finish. But
when his Ford proved strong enough to win Saturday night, he set out to
take his second consecutive Darlington race.
Jimmie Johnson Wins Aaron’s 499 At Talladega
Almost every move Jimmie Johnson made at Talladega Superspeedway seemed to be the wrong one.
Rivals
said he was too aggressive, showed too little patience. Dale Earnhardt
Jr. even called him an "idiot” for his role in accidents that wrecked
39 cars last year.
Johnson took the criticism, then tried to learn from his mistakes.
Boy, has he ever.
Johnson
erased a career full of Talladega troubles, barreling past teammate
Brian Vickers with one lap to go and holding off a charge from Tony
Stewart to win the rain-postponed Aaron’s 499 on Monday.
