Kasey Kahne wins Friday night’s NASCAR Truck race at Charlotte – News & Observer

One of the most prolific runs in the NASCAR Truck Series continued in startling fashion on Friday night.

Kasey Kahne, who has finished no worse than second in his five previous starts, added another victory in the N.C. Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, holding off Erik Jones in a thrilling side-by-side finish.

Khane has now won five races in his six series starts. The .005-second margin of victory is the tied for the second-closest in series history.

Jones, who has led 239 laps in the past two races, has yet to earn a victory this season.

Series points leader Matt Crafton finished third, Tyler Reddick was fourth and Brad Keselowski was fifth.

Turning point

Jones appeared ready to earn the win when Daniel Hemric’s wreck brought out a caution with one of the scheduled 134 laps remaining. That sent the race into a two-lap overtime. Jones and Kahne battled side-by-side the entire dash to the finish.

3 who mattered

Kasey Kahne: If the Sprint Cup Series thing doesn’t work out, Kahne certainly wouldn’t have a hard time getting a regular ride in the Truck series.

Erik Jones: He’s getting frustrated at not getting to Victory Lane, but he battled head to head with one of the Cup series’ best and never blinked.

Matt Crafton: Crafton continues to inch toward a third consecutive series championship.

Observations

▪ JR Motorsports has already established itself as one of the top Xfinity Series teams in NASCAR, and although it’s only in its first season fielding a Truck series team, it certainly looks like the organization is going to be no slouch there either.

▪ If NASCAR wants to get a handle on its aerodynamic package in the Cup series to improve competition, it needs to focus on why the Truck series races on many of the same tracks are so much more entertaining and seem to feature far more side-by-side battles for the lead.

They said it

“That’s two weeks in a row we’ve had the fastest truck, but we can’t seem to bring it home.” –Erik Jones

N@SCAR

Three tweets from Friday night’s race: