Late drama, Edwards' edge is gone and more Coca-Cola 600 lessons

Kasey Kahne took advantage of Tony Stewart's late slip to earn consecutive wins. AP Related Links Kahne zips past Stewart to win Coca-Cola 600 Tom Bowles's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Tom. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

Six things we learned at the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday night:

1. Even in NASCAR's longest race, every lap counts.

At 400 laps and 600 miles, the Memorial Day weekend marathon at Lowe's Motor Speedway is as much a matter of survival as speed. But despite taking a season high four hours, 25 minutes to complete, the finish was packed with exactly the type of drama you'd expect from any other race on the circuit. With three laps to go, leader Tony Stewart thought he had this one in the bag, using his final pit stop to build a five and a half second lead over Kasey Kahne. But heading into Turn 1, Stewart's right front tire suddenly blew out, forcing the No. 20 car to the pits while allowing Kahne to sneak by for the victory. It's the second straight first place finish for Kahne -- he won NASCAR's All-Star Race last week -- and snapped a victory drought of 52 races that dated all the way back to October, 2006.

2. It's official: the rest of the pack has caught up to Carl Edwards on intermediate tracks.

During a test session at Lowe's early this month, the story was how many cars were changing their setups to compete with Edwards and his No. 99 Ford. That car had dominated tracks 1.5 to 2 miles in length to start the season: Edwards had three wins in four tries to date, with a blown engine at Atlanta the lone blip on his resume. But during two full days of scrutiny, everyone discovered Edwards' key to success -- an adjusted rear end housing that led to increased downforce on the Car of Tomorrow. Within two weeks, everyone was mimicking the team's setup -- in which the car's alignment is so crooked, the car will tilt sideways down the straightaway -- and that stripped Edwards of most of his advantage. Never a factor Sunday, he ran out of gas on the white flag lap and was forced to settle for ninth.

3. The Dodges might be finally getting their act together.

After winning the Daytona 500 with Ryan Newman in February, the Dodge Charger appeared to be set to dominate the series in 2008; instead, their teams have slumped. With just two Top 5 finishes in the 10 races since, the manufacturer fell a distant fourth behind Toyota, Ford, and Chevrolet entering Lowe's. The poor performance has reflected in the driver standings, too; none of their teams were in the Top 12 spots to make the postseason Chase for the Championship. But Kahne's win ended the car's Victory Lane drought, and also proved symbolic of a larger turnaround; teammate Elliott Sadler finished fourth, and Penske Racing's Kurt Busch led 64 laps before smacking the wall near the race's halfway point. In all, Dodge drivers led 133 laps on the night, more than they've led in all other races in 2008 combined.

4. NASCAR's penalty box doesn't apply to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Halfway through the event, it looked like Junior's two-year victory drought might finally be reaching an end. The No. 88 led a race-high 76 of the first 296 laps, and was pulling away from the field until a flat right rear tire sent his car heading to the concrete wall and into the path of J.J. Yeley. The resulting crash left Junior's car a pile of junk; but in an effort to stay on the lead lap, he desperately made several stops on pit road under caution to fix the car.

There's just one problem with that strategy: Junior sped down a closed pit road not once, not twice, but three times. The quick stops may have kept Junior ahead of the pace car but it was also dangerous business as several maintenance vehicles were in the middle of pit lane putting speedy dry down and attempting to clean up the asphalt after the wreck. Junior should have been destined to face the consequences for such an egregious disregard of both the rules and the safety of others -- but curiously, no one ever took the No. 88 to task. NASCAR initially put out the call for a one lap penalty, but just before the restart, they mysteriously chose to take it back.

I'm puzzled -- as are many at the track -- exactly what evidence there was to reverse the call, other than the fact NASCAR's most popular driver would see his chances for a solid finish disappear if they threw the book at him. The proof was in the radar gun, as Junior was clocked at well over 100 miles an hour -- nearly twice the speed limit put in place to keep people on pit road safe. But NASCAR let him get away with it, and Junior's team made the most of his free gift. Using pit strategy to run the final 63 laps on a tank of fuel, he jumped from a top 20 run on the back of the lead lap all the way up to a fifth place finish.

5. Race tires can't be kept as a souvenir -- even when they land on your trailer.

After leading 61 of the first 181 laps, Brian Vickers saw his race fall apart when the left rear wheel snapped off his car in turn one. While his No. 83 car hit the wall in a hard crash, the tire jumped in the air and smashed David Gilliland's hood before beginning a long, awkward bounce down the banking. Hopping over a guardrail and nearly hitting a track worker, the Goodyear Eagle carried such speed and height that even a protective fence wasn't enough to completely stop the flying debris. The rubber went up and over, landing on the canopy of some fan's trailer in the infield.

Within minutes, security was on the scene of what could have been a dangerous situation. Luckily, no one was hurt -- in fact, the fans were psyched to have a racing tire land smack in the middle of their very own weekend backyard. But instead of leaving them with that fancy souvenir, security chose to take the tire back on a golf cart for research and development purposes.

"I guess NASCAR took the wheel from them because they want to find out what happened," said Vickers after his wreck. "But we're going to send [those fans] some cool stuff."

No word on whether NASCAR might actually pay for any damage to the fan's RV.

6. Sam Hornish, Jr. may be on the verge of turning his season around.

On a day in which 2007 Indianapolis 500 champ Hornish could have easily contended elsewhere, the former IRL veteran chose to continue his commitment to stock car racing at Lowe's. It proved a smart decision; for after four months of problems, the rookie finally has something to show for his efforts. After a surprising transfer into the series' All-Star Race last weekend, Hornish backed that up with a career best 13th place finish in the 600-miler. The highest finishing rookie for the fourth time this season, Hornish did fall short in his quest to put his No. 77 team back in the Top 35 in owner points. But even though he'll be forced to qualify on speed at Dover, the momentum he gained could be enough to establish himself as a frontrunner for Rookie of the Year.