Kasey Kahne won the Coca Cola 600 at Lowes Motorspeedway in Charlotte on Sunday night, taking advantage of a late flat tyre by Tony Stewart with three laps to go to take home his first points win of the season.

“Tony Stewart had the win right there, and had a little problem, so we definitely had some help,” admitted Kahne, who became just the sixth driver in NASCAR history to win both the All-Star Race and Coca-Cola 600 at the same track.

Stewart’s crew chief Greg Zipadelli was equally shocked by the way the flat tyre took Stewart from a Victory Lane certainty to an 18th place finish.

“It’s just stupid. I don’t know,” Zipadelli said. “We must have run over something, a small leak or something. But I’ll just say we lost a tyre with a five and a half second lead.

“I don’t even know what to say, I’m so frustrated. I feel bad for everybody.

“All day we did a good job. We knew we needed to keep our car where it was and it would be good at the end and we did exactly that, and we just fell short.”

Behind Kahne finished Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler, Carl Edwards and David Reutimann.

Kyle Busch is still the points leader, with Jeff Burton second and Dale Earnhardt Jr a close third. Denny Hamlin is fourth, Clint Bowyer is fifth.

Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Gordon, Biffle and Kahne round out of the Top 12.

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