Kasey Kahne stormed from 12th on the final restart to nip Regan Smith in a green-white-checkered finish to win Friday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 and foil Smith’s attempt to complete a sweep of the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series events at Daytona International Speedway.
The victory was Kahne’s first in the Nationwide Series since August 2007.
Smith appeared primed to win and continue his excellence on restrictor plate tracks. He nearly survived a pair of late-race restarts but couldn’t fend off Kahne, who benefitted from a push by Ryan Sieg.
What had been a nearly-clean race turned chaotic with two crashes in the final seven laps, the second of which involved series points leader Elliott Sadler as he tried to rally from 11th place.
Like Sadler, contenders Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott also required pit stops before the final restart.
Sieg, Ryan Reed and Kyle Larson followed Kahne and Smith across the line.
Smith, who received a final lap push from Joey Logano, did leave with the series points lead. Reed was pushing Larson on the restart, but it was Kahne, who came flying on the outside, who gained the win by a fraction of a second.
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