Kasey Kahne Takes Infineon For First Career Road Race Win

The 2009 Toyota / Save Mart 350 had teams talking about fuel mileage from the start. However, when the laps were winding down a steady stream of cautions let the drivers race hard for the win. Kasey Kahne survived a string of double-file restarts and claimed his first career road racing victory.

Qualifying

For the second week in a row Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch started on the front row. The second row hosted Marcos Ambrose and Tony Stewart. Kasey Kahne rounded out the top five.

Marcos Ambrose qualified third but had to move to the back of the field for the start. Watching him storm through the field could be fun early in this race.

Drop Of The Green

Brian Vickers got a good jump on the start and lead lap one ahead of 2008 winner of this race Kyle Busch. Kyle got past Vickers for the lead on lap 17 and continued to lead until he pitted under green on lap 27.

Storylines

Pit strategy and fuel mileage dominated this event.

Road racing brings an entirely new strategy with it. Instead of pitting under caution you want to pit under green and stay out under the yellow. Teams will calculate backwards from the end how far they can go under a tank of fuel and start planning their pit stops from there.

This had teams talking about saving fuel before the race was even half over.

Chasing The Checkers

There was bedlam in the closing laps as cars were spinning each other and crashing all over the race track. All the giving that drivers were doing early in the race became all take as the checkered flag loomed.

The final double-file restart came as a green-white-checkers. The multiple late cautions helped remove the fuel mileage question and let them race to the end.

Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart had the front row with Marcos Ambrose and Jimmie Johnson behind them. The restart was uneventful as Kahne won the battle into turn one and lead them all the way back to the checkers.

Top Ten

1. Kasey Kahne
2. Tony Stewart
3. Marcos Ambrose
4. Jimmie Johnson
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Juan Montoya
7. AJ Allmendinger
8. Clint Bowyer
9. Jeff Gordon
10. Elliott Sadler

The Points

Tony Stewart's second place finish allowed him to add a few points to his lead but Jeff Gordon was also in the top ten.

Juan Montoya posted his third top ten in a row and wrestled his way into the top twelve. Montoya replaces Jeff Burton in the current Chase standings.

The top twelve are now:

1. Tony Stewart
2. Jeff Gordon -84
3. Jimmie Johnson -157
4. Kurt Busch -280
5. Carl Edwards -313
6. Ryan Newman -318
7. Denny Hamlin -355
8. Greg Biffle -372
9. Kyle Busch -402
10. Matt Kenseth -407
11. Mark Martin -438
12. Juan Montoya -447