The driver of the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge had to ask his crew chief for directions to Victory Lane after taking the checkered flag in a green-white-checkered finish in Sunday's Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway.
Kahne held off road-course ace Tony Stewart through a succession of four late-race, double-file restarts, the final time after Scott Speed's spin on Lap 108 caused the seventh caution of the day. After starting from the rear because of an engine change, Marcos Ambrose chased the top two finishers to the line to claim third place, matching the best result of his Sprint Cup Series career.
"Awesome - not too bad for a dirt-tracker from Washington!" Kenny Francis, Kahne's crew chief, radioed after his driver crossed the stripe on Lap 113, three laps beyond the scheduled distance at the 1.99-mile road course. "Unreal," replied Kahne, who gave owner Richard Petty his first victory since John Andretti in 1999. "Gosh, we had to hold Stewart off for a while. We won a road-course race! Oh, my God, I can't believe this."
Jimmie Johnson recovered from a pit-road speeding penalty to finish fourth. Denny Hamlin, who led 33 laps - second only to Kahne's 37 - came home fifth. Juan Montoya, A.J. Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler completed the top 10.
