Kasey Kahne Wins the Toyota/SaveMart 350

Kasey Kahne had a hard time finding Victory Lane after winning Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. It has been awhile since the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge had to find its way to the winners circle and Kahne had to ask for directions to find the crowd of fans and industry professionals waiting to pay homage to the latest winner of the 2009 NASCAR season.

Sunday's Toyota/SaveMart 350

Kahne had to fight off early challenges by the field, but once he got up to speed the quality of his ride and driving skill started to take over. He had to fight-off a late charge by road-course guru Tony Stewart through a series of double-file restarts at the end of the race, the last time due to Scott Speed’s disastrous spin during Lap 108, and just beat Stewart to the line to take the win. This was just one of seven caution flags of the day that was filled with bangs and crashes on the track and a few off the track as well. This was Kasey’s first win of the 2009 Sprint Cup NASCAR season and the tenth in his short career, but certainly not his last.

Marcos Ambrose had a good run, he had difficulty in the opening laps, but after beginning at the rear due to the changing of an engine, he was able to chase down the leaders for third, and if the race had been a few more laps the ending might have been a little different.

Jimmie Johnson had a difficult day, he had to recover from a speeding penalty in pit lane that put him behind but after battling through to the end, he was able to take fourth place. Denny Hamlin lead in Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 for 33 laps of the race, which was second to Kasey Kahne’s 37 laps in the lead, but had a few problems near the end of the race and finished fifth. Juan Montoya had a difficult day but managed to finish sixth, A. J. Allmendinger ran at a steady speed to take seventh, Clint Bowyer managed eighth. Jeff Gordon had a few problems getting through the field and finished ninth, while Elliot Sadler finished up the top ten in the Toyota/SaveMart 350 held at Infineon Raceway on Sunday afternoon.

“Image: Zuma Press”