Kenseth holds off Kahne to get 5th win of season

BRISTOL, Tennessee: Kasey Kahne was fed up with all of Joe Gibbs Racing by the time contact with Matt Kenseth ended his race at Watkins Glen earlier this month.
It was the fourth time a JGR driver had wrecked Kahne, and he took to Twitter to voice his displeasure, posting: “Headed to Joe Gibbs Racing to talk to whoever will come out front.”
But when Kahne had his chance Saturday night to right all of those wrongs, he passed on retaliation.
A clean racer to his core, he trailed Kenseth for a dozen laps around Bristol Motor Speedway, trying every which way possible to pass him without wrecking him and failing miserably. Kenseth ended up with his Sprint Cup-leading fifth win of the season, and Kahne settled for a disappointing second.
“I don’t know,” sighed Kahne, winner of the spring race at Bristol. “I just ... I think at the end of the day, I just don’t wreck people. I just didn’t get it done and I’m upset with myself for not figuring out how to win.”
It’s the third time this season Kahne has finished second behind Kenseth, who wrapped up at least a wild-card berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
“Kasey’s as good as they get and he’s a clean driver,” Kenseth said. “He raced as hard as he could, we ran out of room off (turn) four, we were both digging as hard as we could to try to get it. Kasey’s just an unbelievable talent, he wanted it bad. We raced as hard as we could race and used every inch of race track.”
Kahne, meanwhile, is still hoping just to make it into the Chase. With two wins on the year he’s in pretty good shape, but he’s only eighth in the standings with two races remaining to set the 12-driver field.
“I needed a win bad, but I also needed a finish,” Kahne said. “I just basically ran as hard as I could, tried to pass him two different times and ran on his bumper and hoped he’d screw up, and he really never did.”
After Kahne passed Juan Pablo Montoya for second, he set his sights on Kenseth and tried numerous times over the final dozen laps — “It felt like 112,” Kenseth said — to make the pass, but never could make it stick. He went for the bump and run on the last lap and missed, and has to settle for second.
“I had a better car. I just couldn’t clear him,” Kahne said. “There was a couple shots I took, and I had to have been close, but I could feel him on the right side of my car, and I just didn’t clear him. I didn’t figure out how to get by. It’s disappointing not to win here. I thought we had the best car the last 200 laps, and it was a lot of work.”
Montoya, who learned two weeks ago he won’t be brought back to Chip Ganassi Racing next season, was third. Although he could use a win, especially on an oval to prove he belongs in NASCAR, he said he was pleased with the result — especially since he came back from an early speeding penalty.