AVONDALE, Ariz. — While Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart have gone round-for-round in their race for the Sprint Cup title, Kasey Kahne has quietly turned his performance up a notch outside of the championship spotlight.
Kahne’s performance the last nine weeks has trailed only the two title contenders, and Sunday, he finally got a win.
Kahne snapped an 81-race winless streak with his victory at Phoenix International Raceway, where Edwards and Stewart finished second and third, respectively, to keep the title race tight headed into this weekend’s season finale.
“If I’m in a race car, I want to do the best that I can,” Kahne said, crediting crew chief Kenny Francis for giving him strong Toyotas that have allowed him “to perform with and run with Carl and Tony, who have been probably the two best.”
They’ve been the only two drivers better than Kahne, and one of them will officially unseat five-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson next Sunday.
Stewart, winner of four Chase races this season, dominated Sunday but he had to pit for gas with 18 laps remaining, and was forced to work his way back to the front. He needed a late pass of Jeff Burton to finish third, right behind Edwards.
“I wasn’t going to give him the spot. He earned it and he got it,” Burton said.
It was a critical pass, as it picked up another point for Stewart and kept his deficit at three points.
“We had an awesome day. We came up two spots shy. I don’t know how you could have asked for a better day,” he said. “We led the most laps, we were on the same pace we were last week, just to have a perfect day. Just fought as hard as we could all day.”
Kahne, meanwhile, won for the first time since Atlanta in 2009, and it came in his next-to-last race with Red Bull Racing. He’s moving to Hendrick Motorsports next season, and Red Bull is pulling out of NASCAR.
His win was only the second for Red Bull, which came into NASCAR in 2007 amid much fanfare but never delivered.
Kahne, who won in a new car, said it’s a shame Red Bull is leaving.
“I wouldn’t say there’s anyone out there that’s building better cars at this time,” he said. “The Red Bull guys are doing an awesome job, and they haven’t given up.”
Kyle Busch, racing again after NASCAR parked him last weekend for wrecking Ron Hornaday Jr., worked his way up to third before his engine failed. He finished 36th.
