Kahne makes it a Lowe's double.

Kasey Kahne took his second victory in as many weeks at the 1.5-mile Lowe's Motor Speedway on Sunday night as he won NASCAR's longest race, the Coca Cola 600, for the second time in his career.

Last weekend Kahne became the first driver to win the annual All Star race at LMS after winning the fans choice vote and fortune was once again smiling on the driver of the #9 Gillett-Evernham Motorsports Dodge on Sunday as he gladly picked up the pieces when leader Tony Stewart blew a tyre on the 398th of 400 laps.

The longest race on the Sprint Cup calendar certainly tested the endurance of all 43 starting drivers and their teams as fortunes ebbed and flowed throughout the four-hour plus marathon. Time and time again a driver would fight their way to the front only to encounter problems leaving 2006 Coke 600 winner Kahne sitting pretty when the chequered flag finally fell.

From the outside of the front row Kahne was hardly a surprise winner, especially considering the boost his All Star win gave to both him and his #9 team, but many others, including Kyle and Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr and the luckless Stewart, can rightly feel aggrieved on a night when a potential win slipped away.

The younger Busch brother, who started from pole position, started the race with a purpose after dominating the first half of last weeks non-championship event before engine failure put him out. However continuous voltage-metre problems, which eventually necessitated a change of battery coupled with a suspected puncture put the driver of the #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota a lap down. Busch fought back to third at the finish to extend his championship lead but he was still disappointed after leading the opening 30 laps with ease.

Kyle's elder brother Kurt was quick to take over the leaders mantle as the race passed the 100-lap mark but the driver of the #2 Penske Racing Dodge, who also led commandingly in the 2007 Coke 600 before a crash put him out, nearly suffered the same fate on Sunday as he blew a tyre and slapped the turn one wall. Like his sibling Kurt was able to recover but could only finish 16th with his damaged car.

From third on the grid Brian Vickers was arguably the surprise package of the night for Red Bull Racing, taking the fight to the leaders and paced the field for more than 60 laps as the race approached the half way mark. However a rear wheel broke clean off as Vickers headed into turn one on lap 184, sending Vickers hard into the wall and his left rear tyre into a spectators camper van in the infield. Injuries were avoided but Vickers' night was over on the spot.

Kahne took the lead for the first time shortly after Vickers' demise but he had to contend with the #88 Hendrick Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr, who had been stalking the leaders all evening. Earnhardt Jr took the lead much to the delight of the busy, but not full, LMS grandstands and he remained a major factor until he cut a tyre whilst leading on lap 298 and was rear-ended by JJ Yeley. Despite suffering damage to the right side and rear of his car Earnhardt Jr managed to eke out some 60 laps on his final tank of fuel to finish fifth.

Triple Coke 600 winner Johnson had been biding his time in the #48 Hendrick Chevrolet, leading the race briefly as early as lap 47 but not really featuring until the race entered its final 100 miles. Johnson was in front when the eleventh and final caution flag of the night waved on lap 332 of 400 and continued to head the field off pit road after everybody took what they hoped to be their final tank of fuel. But on lap 346 Johnson's car suddenly slowed as his engine lapsed from eight to seven cylinders and five laps later it went bang for good, dropping the defending series champion to 39th.

By this point Tony Stewart was ready to make his move. After starting 31st and barely avoiding going a lap down in the early stages Stewart's #20 Joe Gibbs Toyota came into its own as the sun went down and the track cooled. Taking the lead briefly with 100 laps to go Stewart and Kahne battled back and forth for a while before Johnson's temporary charge and then continued their scrap following his demise.

But with nearly everyone forced to make a late stop for a top up of fuel the advantage seemed to swing Stewart's way as Kahne spent a couple of seconds longer in the pits. After running nose to tail with Kahne prior to the stops, Stewart emerged from the pits with less than 15 laps to go with a commanding five-second lead. However going into lap 398 Stewart's right front tyre went flat and while he avoided the outside wall he had to pit, losing a lap in the process and handing Kahne an unchallenged lead.

Kahne ended the race having led a total of 66 laps with a comfortable margin over Greg Biffle, ironically the driver who also finished second to Kahne in the All Star race. Kyle Busch recovered to take third with Jeff Gordon fourth after managing to go the final 60 laps without a top-up of petrol. Earnhardt Jr, like his teammate, went the distance without pitting in the final laps and rose to fifth despite the damage sustained in his clash with Yeley with Jeff Burton sixth, Matt Kenseth seventh, Elliott Sadler eighth, Carl Edwards, who ran out of fuel on the final lap, in ninth and David Reutimann completing the top ten.

Further down the finishing order Sam Hornish Jr backed up his strong All Star run with a 13th place finish with Kurt Busch 16th, Stewart a dejected 18th, Johnson 39th and the unfortunate Vickers a lowly 42nd.