Kahne wins at New Hampshire for second victory of season

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) - The best car was rolling toward victory - until its driver and crew chief couldn't agree on how many tires to change.

Kasey Kahne capitalized on that confusion between Denny Hamlin behind the wheel and Darian Grubb in the pits to win his second Sprint Cup race of the year and make a leap toward one of the 12 spots in the Chase that determines this year's NASCAR champion.

"For those guys to miscommunicate, that helped us a ton," Kahne said. "I'll take 'em any way we can."

Hamlin's Toyota led for 150 of the 300 laps at the one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. His communication wasn't quite as good.

Kahne, who finished second two weeks ago at Kentucky to Brad Keselowski, went ahead to stay during a restart on the 240th lap when Hamlin spent extra time in the pits as his crew changed all four tires. Hamlin wanted just two new ones.

"Darian asked me how much of the tires I felt I'd used up. I felt like I had used up a substantial amount," he said. "(I said) give me tires and no adjustments. He thought I meant four tires. Nothing's a given. Even though it looked like we had one in the bag if we took two tires, you never know."

NASCAR Sprint Cup

Lenox Industrial Tools 301

Sunday

At New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Loudon, N.H.

Lap length: 1.058 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (2) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 301 laps, 131.5 rating, 47 points, $220,275.

2. (3) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 301, 141.2, 44, $228,751.

3. (5) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 301, 106.8, 42, $161,549.

4. (9) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 301, 116.1, 40, $120,360.

5. (22) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 301, 103.8, 40, $141,130.

6. (8) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 301, 113, 39, $142,721.

7. (7) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 301, 112.8, 38, $135,771.

8. (12) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 301, 102, 36, $136,721.

9. (11) Greg Biffle, Ford, 301, 91.7, 35, $97,735.

10. (6) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 301, 90.7, 34, $128,968.

11. (4) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 301, 91.8, 33, $114,399.

12. (10) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 301, 82.3, 32, $134,110.

13. (27) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 301, 88.1, 31, $134,071.

14. (16) Joey Logano, Toyota, 301, 83.4, 30, $91,060.

15. (15) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 301, 87.2, 29, $83,235.

16. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 301, 100.8, 29, $132,168.

17. (13) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 301, 76.1, 27, $89,635.

18. (21) Carl Edwards, Ford, 301, 75.3, 26, $123,676.

19. (20) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 301, 72.2, 25, $108,593.

20. (28) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 300, 68.4, 24, $112,593.

21. (25) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 300, 68.5, 23, $118,510.

22. (24) Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge, 300, 65.5, 0, $120,760.

23. (18) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 300, 66, 21, $105,718.

24. (14) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 299, 68.7, 21, $103,418.

25. (31) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 299, 55.6, 19, $109,476.

26. (17) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 298, 58.1, 18, $100,818.

27. (39) David Gilliland, Ford, 298, 49.5, 17, $89,993.

28. (23) Aric Almirola, Ford, 298, 59.6, 16, $114,971.

29. (29) Landon Cassill, Toyota, 297, 47.9, 15, $104,005.

30. (30) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 297, 50.5, 14, $96,457.

31. (37) Ken Schrader, Ford, 294, 38.2, 13, $84,710.

32. (43) Stephen Leicht, Chevrolet, 293, 34.9, 12, $83,435.

33. (26) David Reutimann, Chevrolet, engine, 229, 53.2, 11, $73,735.

34. (19) David Ragan, Ford, engine, 139, 46.8, 10, $73,535.

35. (40) David Stremme, Toyota, vibration, 101, 34.8, 9, $73,335.

36. (33) Casey Mears, Ford, vibration, 91, 45.4, 8, $73,110.

37. (32) Josh Wise, Ford, brakes, 82, 31.8, 7, $72,905.

38. (34) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, brakes, 71, 30, 0, $72,678.

39. (35) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, brakes, 68, 37, 5, $69,850.

40. (36) Michael McDowell, Ford, vibration, 63, 36.1, 4, $69,700.

41. (41) Scott Riggs, Chevrolet, vibration, 32, 29.9, 3, $69,525.

42. (42) Kelly Bires, Ford, brakes, 19, 28.9, 0, $69,400.

43. (38) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, engine, 4, 29.3, 1, $69,767.

Top 12 in Points: 1. M.Kenseth, 707; 2. D.Earnhardt Jr., 691; 3. G.Biffle, 667; 4. J.Johnson, 656; 5. D.Hamlin, 628; 6. K.Harvick, 622; 7. T.Stewart, 618; 8. M.Truex Jr., 617; 9. C.Bowyer, 614; 10. B.Keselowski, 613; 11. C.Edwards, 567; 12. K.Kahne, 547.