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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Sunshine returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and 36 drivers took advantage of the first complete six-hour practice day since May 6 to turn 2,164 laps on the historic 2.5-mile oval.

Scott Dixon, who won the pole for the 92nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 10, topped the speed chart at 223.713 mph. Team Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe were second and third, respectively, with Will Power fourth and Graham Rahal fifth. 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier turned his first laps of the month in the No. 91 Hemelgarn Johnson entry. He will attempt to qualify for his 16th Indianapolis 500. Friday’s practice was the final opportunity for 25 drivers who have not yet qualified for the 500-Mile Race to prepare for qualification attempts. Starting positions 12-33 will be determined by four-lap qualifying attempts May 17. Drivers who don’t qualify will attempt to bump their way into the field on May 18. Friday’s practice was marred by three incidents. E.J. Viso, Will Power and Briscoe were all uninjured in separate incidents and are cleared to drive. Continued

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The SPEED simulcast NASCAR Nationwide Series from Richmond scored an average Nielsen Household Rating of .88 (637,000 households), peaking at a 1.08 (781,000 households). It was the highest rated show of the day on SPEED, edging NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying, which had an average household rating of .84 (604,000 households).

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