For the second weekend in a row, Kasey Kahne pulled his No. 9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM) Dodge into Victory Lane at Lowe's Motor Speedway and celebrated with a cold Budweiser. With five laps to go, Kahne was over five seconds behind race leader Tony Stewart following the final dash for gas on pit road.

For the second year in a row, Stewart looked like he was poised to win his first Coca-Cola 600, only to have it slip away at the end. Learning from last year's disappointment, Stewart ensured there was enough fuel to go the distance and after making an excellent stop that lasted only two seconds, appeared to be on his way to his first victory of 2008. That all came to an end when his right-front tire gave way, forcing the No. 20 back to pit road and relegating the Joe Gibbs Racing team to an 18th-place finish, one lap down.

"We got a flat tire - another tire that wouldn't hold air," Stewart's crew chief Greg Zipadelli said. "We must have run something over or had a small leak or something. I would say we lost a tire with a five-and-a-half second lead. I don't even know what to say - I'm so frustrated."

Going into turn three Kahne was able to capitalize on Stewart's misfortunes and take the lead as the Home Depot Camry headed to the attention of its crew. The recipient of last week's Sprint All-Star Fan Vote was able to run smooth and maintain the lead for the final three laps, en route to his first victory of 2008.

"I was thinking second and I saw Tony slow up," Kahne explained after the race. "I thought he was out of gas and at that point I couldn't believe it. From there I just tried to hit my marks and make sure to bring it home."

This win breaks a 52-race winless streak for Kahne - not counting last week's all-star event - and moves the GEM driver into the top-12 in the standings. The Budweiser Dodge was out front of the field six times for a total of 66 laps.

"Sometime it takes just one thing to get some momentum going. These guys are winners," team founder Ray Evernham explained. "They've won a lot of races for me in the past and they seem to be clicking again.

"If you keep putting yourself in position to win, sooner or later you're going to win," Evernham went on to say. "That's what these guys are doing and now they have momentum."

With about 70 laps to go, crew chief Kenny Francis made the call to pit for two right side tires and fuel, while others gambled with fuel only. Those teams taking fuel only were forced to run the remainder of the race on a hundred lap old tires. The winning crew chief described running over a hundred laps on the right sides as "sketchy."

"These tires aren't built to run a hundred laps," Francis explained. "This is probably the most load [sensitive] track we have as far as load on the tires - amount of force on the tires - and one of the highest corner speed tracks we have. Goodyear has a great tire here, but it's hard enough to get one to go 60 laps, much less a hundred."

With this victory, Kahne became only the sixth driver in NASCAR history to pull off a win in the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same year. Kahne put his name in the record books alongside the likes of Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Davey Allison, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

"To have my name with those names is probably one of the neatest things I've ever done in racing," Kahne pointed out. "It's all because of my team and because of these guys I work with."

Kahne summed up the night by saying, "We were a first or second-place car at the end of the race, and Tony was a first or second-place car and he just had problems. When luck's on your side it's great."