Bristol, Tenn. • Kasey Kahne won his first career Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway after Brad Keselowski struggled on the final restart.
Tempers flared after the race when Joey Logano leaned inside the car window of former teammate Denny Hamlin to complain about Hamlin spinning him during the race. At the time, Logano was racing Jeff Gordon for the lead.
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Sprint Cup standings
Pts. Beh.
1. B. Keselowski 166 —
2. Earnhardt Jr. 157 9
3. J. Johnson 151 15
4. C. Bowyer 128 38
5. G. Biffle 126 40
6. D. Hamlin 125 41
T7. K. Kahne 124 42
T7. C. Edwards 124 42
9. P. Menard 118 48
10. Ky. Busch 115 51
11. Stenhouse Jr. 115 51
12. J. Logano 104 62
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Logano was pulled away from Hamlin’s car by crew members for both drivers in a classic post-Bristol clash that delighted the crowd. "They’re fighting! It’s Bristol!" yelled Clint Bowyer, who saw the action on the infield big screen.
Logano wouldn’t discuss what he told Hamlin.
"That is for me to know and Denny to know. Frustrating," he said. "I had a really fast … Ford and I felt like it was capable to win the race."
Hamlin shrugged it all off.
"He said he was coming for me," Hamlin said. "I usually don’t see him, so it’s usually not a factor."
The two sparred briefly on Twitter after the season-opening Daytona 500, when Hamlin complained Logano ruined the closing laps of the race. But he said Sunday’s flap was not a carryover.
"It didn’t have anything to do with that," Hamlin said. "You’ve really got to control your car and he slipped up into me. Really, he would have been in the garage with no radiator in it if I had not checked up twice. I meant to run in to him. I didn’t mean to spin him out, but his day was fine. We finished bad and he finished bad. It’s even."
Their feuding may have played a role in the outcome of the race.
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Keselowski was the leader on the final restart with 39 laps to go and lined up next to Kahne. Hamlin was lined up behind Keselowski, with Logano lined up behind Hamlin. When the flag waved, Keselowski didn’t go and Kahne rocketed to the lead and never looked back.
Although it appeared Keselowski spun his tires, he was adamant after the race about what happened — "I got ran over!" — and that prevented him from breaking away on the restart.
Hamlin backed up Keselowski’s account.
"The 22 (Logano) ran into me and shoved me into (Keselowski)," Hamlin said. "Sorry to the 2, but I was the pinball in the sandwich. Once he throttled up, the 22 lifted me up and just flat out pinned me up against the 2."
Logano seemed to think Keselowski spun his tires and that created the bottleneck, but Keselowski believed he had help from behind.
"I haven’t seen the replay, I just know my rear tires were off the ground before I got to the restart zone," he said. "Eventually I got hit so hard it pushed my foot in the gas pedal, made myself look like a (fool). That was the deal. Never had another chance."
Nobody came close to Kahne, who drove his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the win by 1.7-seconds. Hendrick drivers have now won two of the first four races this season.
Kyle Busch snagged second from Keselowski, who took over the Sprint Cup Series points lead as the only driver to open the season with four top-five finishes. Kurt Busch finished fourth and was followed by Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Ryan Newman was seventh, Brian Vickers was eighth and Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top 10.
The race changed dramatically with 110 laps to go in a bizarre crash between leaders Gordon and Matt Kenseth. Gordon was out front when he suddenly lost a tire and his car darted up the track into the wall. Kenseth had nowhere to go to avoid him and drove directly into the back of Gordon, causing heavy damage to both cars.
"You all right?" crew chief Alan Gustafson radioed Gordon.
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