Exhibit A -- Friday night's Busch Series race. Kasey Kahne, on older tires, was able to hold off a hard-charging
Jason Leffler on fresh tires, who was driving his Toyota on the bottom, the former preferred line at Bristol.
That's right. Kahne won
by riding on the outside -- at Bristol.
The last few laps of
that race were a real dogfight as leader Ryan Newman, on much older tires, tried his best to hold off Kahne, Leffler, and
David Reutimann, who all pitted for tires after Newman. After some contact with Kahne, Newman's left front tire let go with
a few laps ago, ending his shot at victory.
Leffler had one last
shot through turn 3 and 4. He dove to the inside of Kahne, started drifting up into him, and had to back off. He then lost
his momentum and Reutimann got into Leffler coming to the checkered flag. Kahne won, Leffler finished 2nd -- backwards, and
Reutimann third.
After witnessing such
a great finish on Friday night, fans expected the biggest and longest race of the weekend to be the best one. It was -- depending
on who you ask the drivers or the fans.
Jeff Gordon was quoted
as saying “I have never seen that much racing all over the race track like it was tonight". And that's coming from the
guy who finished 19th. The never-existent outside groove was working in full force on Saturday night, and drivers were able
to go three-wide with almost no trouble. I think I recall a four-wide pass in either the Busch or Cup race as well....
2006 StockCar Review.
