Kasey Kahne had no chance of repeating the runner-up finish he had at Texas during his rookie season.
He was too far ahead of the field on Sunday.
"I've learned a ton since 2004," Kahne said.
PHOTO: AFP
Kahne certainly looked as though he has, speeding away from his competitors after the final restart with 17 laps to go. He crossed the finish line 5.229 seconds ahead of Matt Kenseth for the second-largest margin of victory at Texas Motor Speedway.
Two years ago, Kahne was second in the closest Cup race in Texas -- only two-hundredths of a second behind with his nose on the rear bumper of winner Elliott Sadler when that race ended.
"That was probably the most disappointing second-place finish I've ever had," said Kahne, who had five of them that season. "I remember being so mad when it was over."
This time, Kahne was ecstatic.
Kahne became the 11th different winner in as many Nextel Cup races at the high-banked, 2.4km track marking its 10th season of racing. And he still managed to score a first in the No. 9 Evernham Dodge, becoming the first driver to win from the pole at Texas.
"This is a great victory," said Kahne, who turns 26 on Monday. "This track, Indianapolis and Daytona. If you can win at one of these tracks, you have really done something."
Kahne won for the third time in his career and the second time this season, in the same car he took to Victory Lane from the pole in Atlanta last month. The last three times Kahne's been on the pole, he's won, including Richmond last season.
All 10 past Texas Cup winners were in Sunday's 334-lap Samsung/Radio Shack 500. None won from the pole position.
After the final restart, Kahne needed a couple of laps to finally clear the lapped car of Robby Gordon. Tony Stewart and Kenseth were left behind once Kahne got in the clean air.
"I don't think I could have caught him on eight tires he was going so fast," Kenseth said.
Stewart had been the one cruising ahead of the field until lap 302. That's when the reigning Cup champion came up behind the lapped car of rookie J.J. Yeley on the backstretch. That allowed Kahne to catch up and even nose ahead, though he didn't complete the pass and didn't officially lead until a few laps later.
"I thought I could block him in behind J.J., but knowing Tony, that might make him mad," Kahne said. "I didn't want to mess with that. ... I actually got a little loose there and couldn't pick up the throttle as hard as I wanted."
Kahne crept alongside Stewart and was on the champion's bumper several more times before finally taking the lead. Kahne went around Stewart in the fourth turn at the end of lap 307 and made the final pass right at the line.
"We had nothing for them there at the end," said Stewart, who led 99 laps in Texas after winning last weekend at Martinsville.
"It was fun racing like that," he said. "Obviously, if there had been 80 laps to go, neither one of us would have been racing each other that way."
After taking the lead from Stewart with 27 laps to go, Kahne built a 1.4-second cushion over Stewart and Kenseth before a caution flag for debris on the track. All three cars took four tires on the pit stop and came out in the same order they went in.
Sebastien Bourdais began the quest for his third straight Champ Car World Series title with an overpowering victory in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Winning here for the second straight year, Bourdais trailed only after a midrace pit stop, leading 70 of 74 laps on the 3.1km, 11-turn circuit that threads its way through city streets tucked between downtown and the Pacific Ocean.
The 27-year-old Frenchman was dominating throughout the weekend, leading nearly every practice and winning both sessions of qualifying. Through most of Sunday's race, he was as much as a half second faster than runner-up Justin Wilson on each lap.
Wilson, last year's third-place finisher in the series, tried hard to keep up with Bourdais, but never could catch the leader. The Englishman finished 14.096 seconds behind the winner in the race shortened by two laps because of the 2-hour time limit.
Likely championship contenders Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira and A.J. Allmendinger didn't even make it through the first turn of the first race of the season.
As the leaders approached the left-hand turn, Mario Dominguez hit the rear of Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Tracy's car, lifting his rear tires off the ground and sending Tracy careering into Bourdais' teammate Junqueira.
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