Brickyard 400 Takeaways: Kasey Kahne's win brings playoff upheaval

After finally getting his first taste of victory in nearly three years, Kasey Kahne used words like confidence and momentum to describe how important the breakthrough was Sunday.

Kahne used a flawless overtime restart at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to outduel Brad Keselowski and conquer a race of attrition that had relegated many cars to the scrap heap.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver had not won a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race since Aug. 31, 2014, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, so Kahne’s Brickyard 400 victory was fused with a combination of elation and sweet relief.

“Oh, man, it’s been a while since I’ve won,” Kahne said in his post-race news conference after receiving IV fluids to combat dehydration and cramping. “I mean, you have to wonder — like, as a driver all I want to do is win, all I want to do is perform. I put the effort in each week, whether it’s at the shop, whether it’s physically, mentally, at the race shop trying to prepare, watching videos, looking through old notes, how can we be better.

“My team works really hard, as well. But we haven’t had the performance. We haven’t ran up front. We don’t lead a lot of laps. ... Yeah, those things have to cross your mind. If they don’t, something would be wrong, I think.

“I think a win like today can give myself confidence and momentum, our whole team a boost, which is something that we need.”

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Kahne now has a chance to build on that momentum, and his next race may be ideally suited to that cause. The series will hit Pocono Raceway this weekend, which, as team owner Rick Hendrick noted, is a good track for Kahne, crew chief Keith Rodden and the No. 5 team.

Kahne has two career Cup wins at The Tricky Triangle — one of only three tracks (the others being Atlanta and Charlotte) where he has multiple victories. While his most recent race at Pocono resulted in a crash and a 35th-place finish, his successful foray around Indianapolis Motor Speedway could prove invaluable.

Pocono, like IMS, is a 2.5-mile superspeedway that is relatively flat — at least in two of its three distinct corners. Perhaps more significantly, Turn 2, which has 8 degrees of banking, was modeled after the turns at Indianapolis, which should be fresh in the mind of a resurgent Kahne.

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Here are three other takeaways as the series moves from the Midwest to the mountains of the northeast:

BUSCH’S BAD LUCK: Kyle Busch won two of three stages at the Brickyard 400 and led a race-high 87 laps, but once again, Busch didn’t lead when it counted. Only Martin Truex Jr. (1,260 laps led) has paced more laps than Busch’s 1,040 this season, yet those flashes of dominance have translated into three victories for Truex and zero for Busch. It has been one year since the Joe Gibbs Racing driver went to victory lane in a Cup Series race, and it may not get any easier this weekend. Pocono is one of only two active tracks (also Charlotte) where Busch, who has 38 career Cup wins, has never prevailed at NASCAR’s highest level.

PLAYOFF HOPEFULS TAKE HIT: The Brickyard 400 shook up the points race in a major way as Kahne became the 12th driver to clinch a spot in the playoffs with a win. That leaves only four berths for winless drivers with just six races left in the regular season. Assuming there are slots remaining for winless drivers once the regular season ends, eligible drivers must be in the top 16 in points. So the scramble is on.

Two hopefuls — Chase Elliott and Clint Bowyer — took damaging hits at Indianapolis. Elliott finished 39th after his engine expired, and Bowyer finished 30th after a hard multicar crash. Bowyer fell outside the top 16 cutline for a playoff transfer spot, while Elliott lost ground to Jamie McMurray, who leapfrogged the Hendrick Motorsports driver in playoff positioning. Elliott fell to 15th in his playoff push, 22 points ahead of Matt Kenseth, who occupies the final transfer spot heading into Pocono.

PENSKE’S GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS: First the bad news. Team owner Roger Penske saw a great chance to capture his first Cup Series win at IMS — where he has won a record 16 Indianapolis 500s — evaporate when Keselowski fell to Kahne on the final restart. The good news? Joey Logano joined Keselowski in the top four Sunday. Keselowski had crashed in two of the three races leading up to the Brickyard, while Logano had managed only one top-five finish since the beginning of May. Like Kahne, the two Team Penske drivers will try to build on that momentum at the Tricky Triangle, where each has won before — Logano from the pole in 2012 and Keselowski in 2011.

Follow Horrow on Twitter @EllenJHorrow

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