After leading most laps, Kahne comes up just shy

Kasey Kahne gave it a good shot in the closing circuits, but had to settle for runner-up to Matt Kenseth today at Las Vegas after leading the most laps out of any driver.

Kahne was a force in the race’s first half and stayed toward the front up to his final pit stop of the day under yellow. He entered pit road first but was momentarily held up by an oncoming Tony Stewart that was going into his pit box, and as a result, he found himself sixth on the restart with 37 laps to go.

Five laps later, Ryan Newman blew up his motor to bring back the caution and after what would be the last restart of the day, Kahne made his way up into second position and battled Kenseth for the win. But while it appeared that his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had an edge over Kenseth in Turns 1 and 2, Kenseth’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was faster in Turns 3 and 4.

The outcome: Close, but no cigar.

“Matt did everything right,” said Kahne, who led 114 of 267 laps. “When I caught him, I was like, ‘Man, this is not the guy you want to have to race with at 10 [laps] to go.’ He’s gonna do everything right and you’re gonna have to figure out how to squeeze by him.”

Kahne said he briefly considered utilizing the apron in an attempt to pass Kenseth — a move that eventual fourth-place finisher Kyle Busch used on Kahne to grab the lead on a Lap 165 restart — but couldn’t since Kenseth was running that same line.

“I could follow him and stay in his draft a little bit, and stick with him about the same amount, then when I didn’t do that, he’d pull away,” Kahne said.  “It was definitely faster down there if you got a good run off of Turn 4 to do that down the front straightaway.

“I would’ve had to go through the grass, and I don’t think that would’ve been good.”