Kasey Kahne wins Atlanta, locks himself into the Chase

Kasey Kahne has been feeling the pressure all season. His three teammates (Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.) all have three wins in 2014 and have locked themselves into the Chase. Kahne headed into Atlanta winless, but that changed when the checkered flag waved, with Kahne winning the Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The win didn’t come easy for Kahne. In a race dominated by Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, Kahne looked to have the win in the bag with two laps to go, when Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. made contact with each other, bringing out the caution flag.

Kahne, and the rest of the leaders came in to pit under caution. The No. 5 crew had a slower stop than usual, but took 4 tires, and would restart the race in 5th.

When the green flag came out for the second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, Kahne passed by race leader Matt Kenseth, and set sail on the field, winning the race and locking himself into the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup.  

Though Kenseth finished second, he was still able to lock himself into the Chase based on points. That leaves 2 spots open to be decided next weekend in Richmond.

In terms of other notable finishes:

• Danica Patrick finished 6th, a career best for her
• Kyle Larson finished 8th, and still has a shot at making the Chase
• Jeff Gordon, who was 2 laps down at one point during the race, rallied back for a 17th place finish (on the lead lap)
• Clint Bowyer had a shifter issue and finished the race in 38th, 21 laps down
• Tony Stewart, in his return to Sprint Cup racing finished 41st after blowing a tire and going into the wall