Kasey Kahne wins Truck Race in photo finish

Kahne wins in a photo finish

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Kasey Kahne collected his fifth-career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win on a thrilling finish over rookie Erik Jones in Friday night’s NC Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Kahne and Jones battled side by side over the final laps of a green-white-checkered overtime finish before coming to the line in a near photo finish that was the second-closest finish in series history.

Truck Series points leader Matt Crafton was third, followed by Tyler Reddick and Brad Keselowski.

Friday night’s race was Kahne’s first truck series start since 2012. In his six career starts, he’s never finished worse than second.

Kahne’s victory was the first for JR Motorsports new truck series team that is normally driven by development driver Cole Custer.

“That was a great race," said Kahne. “We had team mates that helped us to keep Eric (Jones) close tonight. It was close at the line, really close. I didn’t know who won. I knew it was super close."

The closing lap duel was a culmination of a battle that had been waged between the two drivers for over 20 laps.

Kahne started off the day winning his first truck series pole, but ended up starting in the rear after his team changed a shock on his Chevrolet Silverado. He started alongside Jones, who qualified on the outside pole but was sent to the rear for missing the drivers meeting.

After first taking the lead on lap 26, it was clear Jones had the truck to beat, leading a race-high 88 laps.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Following a restart with 25 laps to go, Kahne powered past Jones with a push from Crafton to take the lead, and moved out to a half-second lead over Jones.

Jones mounted a comeback, reeling in Kahne over the next five laps before pulling even on the front stretch. Kahne moved up to block but Jones wouldn’t budge, holding onto the high side and powering past Kahne on the backstretch.

Kahne celebrates win using illegal truck

Nick Laham/Getty Images

Back out in front, Jones looked to have the edge and was just one turn from seeing the white flag when the final caution flag of the night waved, setting up a three-lap shootout to the finish.

On the restart, Kahne had the edge on the inside and held his ground as Jones tried to get around on the outside. The two stayed side by side for the next two laps, coming out of turn four for the checkered flag nearly door to door.

Just 100 yards from the finish, Kahne and Jones bumped, sending Kahne loose, but Kahne managed to hang on to beat Jones by less than a foot at the line.

“I needed that final restart," said Kahne. “I knew what (Jones) had done earlier when I was on his outside and how well it worked for him, and I thought I might have a shot at him."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]After the race, a bitterly disappointed Jones lamented the second race in row where he led the most laps and didn’t win the race.

“I can’t believe that the lapped trucks just can’t just us finish a race. It sucks when it has to come down to a green-white-checkered and the fastest truck loses the race again two weeks in a row," said Jones. “It just sucks. We had such a good Dollar General Tundra – I just can’t believe we lost it. I don’t even know what to say – it really, really hurts.

“We ran hard the whole lap. I was wide open the whole lap and we got a run on him (Kasey Kahne) off of four and he just unfortunately side-drafted us and beat us to the line. It’s hard to stop that."

Despite his disappointment, Jones managed to gain one spot in the points standings on leader Matt Crafton, now trailing the defending series champ by 16 points. Reddick fell one position to third in the standings, just two points behind Jones. Johnny Sauter and Jon Wes Townley round out the top five in the points standings.

Immediately following the race, it was announced that Kahne’s truck had failed post-race inspection. Penalties will likely be assessed nest week, but Kahne’s victory will stand.

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