BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kasey Kahne won his first career Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway after Brad Keselowski struggled on the final restart.

Tempers flared after the race when Joey Logano leaned inside the car window of former teammate Denny Hamlin to complain about Hamlin spinning him during the race.

At the time, Logano was racing Jeff Gordon for the lead.

Logano was pulled away from Hamlin’s car by crew members for both drivers in a classic post-Bristol clash that delighted the crowd.

Logano wouldn’t discuss what he told Hamlin.

“That is for me to know and Denny to know. Frustrating,” he said.

“I had a really fast ... Ford and I felt like it was capable to win the race.”

Keselowski was the leader on the final restart with 39 laps to go and lined up next to Kane. Hamlin was lined up behind Keselowski, with Logano lined up behind Hamlin.

When the flag waved, Keselowski didn’t go and Kahne rocketed to the lead and never looked back.

Although it appeared Keselowski spun his tires, he was adamant after the race about what happened — “I got ran over!” — and that prevented him from breaking away on the restart.

Hamlin backed up Keselowski’s account.

“The 22 (Logano) ran into me and shoved me into (Keselowski),” Hamlin said. “Sorry to the 2, but I was the pinball in the sandwich. Once he throttled up, the 22 lifted me up and just flat out pinned me up against the 2.”

Logano seemed to think Keselowski spun his tires and that created the bottleneck, but Keselowski believed he had help from behind.

“I haven’t seen the replay, I just know my rear tires were off the ground before I got to the restart zone,” he said. “Eventually I got hit so hard it pushed my foot in the gas pedal, made myself look like a (fool). That was the deal. Never had another chance.”

Nobody came close to Kahne, who drove his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the win by 1.7-seconds. Hendrick drivers have now won two of the first four races this season.

Kyle Busch snagged second from Keselowski, who took over the Sprint Cup Series points lead as the only driver to open the season with four top-five finishes. Kurt Busch finished fourth and was followed by Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Ryan Newman was seventh, Brian Vickers was eighth and Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top 10.

The race changed dramatically with 110 laps to go in a bizarre crash between leaders Gordon and Matt Kenseth. Gordon was out front when he suddenly lost a tire and his car darted up the track into the wall. Kenseth had nowhere to go to avoid him and drove directly into the back of Gordon, causing heavy damage to both cars.

“You all right?” crew chief Alan Gustafson radioed Gordon.

“Yeah, I’m OK. Did we take out Matt, too?” Gordon asked.

With the top two cars in the garage, the rest of the field headed to pit road to reset for the final 100 laps.

“I hate that for Matt Kenseth,” Gordon said. “He was coming, and it was just a matter of time before he caught us. We needed points. This definitely isn’t going to get us many.”

Kenseth, winner of last week’s race at Las Vegas, said the crash was unavoidable.

“There’s not a lot either one of us can do about that,” he said. “There was nowhere to go.”

Before the Gordon-Kenseth crash, Gordon and Logano were dueling for the lead. Gordon used a two-tire stop with about 175 laps to go to gain eight spots on pit road and take the lead. Logano chased Gordon around the 0.533-mile bullring, pulling even with the four-time champion as he exited the corners only to lose ground on the straights.

Lurking behind in third was Hamlin, who apparently got tired of waiting for Logano to get past Gordon and showed how restless he was with slight contact on Logano’s bumper as they exited Turn 2.

The tap caused Logano to back his car into the wall and took him out of contention, leading to the post-race drama Bristol is known to create.

WHERE THEY FINISHED

Listed below is the finishing order from Sunday’s race in Bristol, Tenn.

1. (2) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 500 laps, 137.4 rating, 47 points, $171,760.

2. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 500, 114.3, 43, $188,893.

3. (7) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 500, 108.4, 42, $163,451.

4. (19) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 500, 106.1, 41, $134,255.

5. (23) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 500, 97.6, 39, $144,543.

6. (32) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 500, 89.2, 38, $115,185.

7. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 500, 83.6, 37, $135,368.

8. (4) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 500, 82.6, 0, $107,385.

9. (5) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 500, 90.9, 36, $129,526.

10. (6) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 500, 82.2, 34, $126,030.

11. (24) Greg Biffle, Ford, 500, 90.5, 33, $112,210.

12. (9) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 500, 90.4, 32, $129,560.

13. (29) A J Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 500, 75.1, 31, $123,418.

14. (18) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 500, 99.2, 30, $139,446.

15. (15) Casey Mears, Ford, 500, 72.2, 29, $121,718.

16. (28) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 500, 71.6, 28, $142,271.

17. (10) Joey Logano, Ford, 500, 89.9, 28, $123,643.

18. (21) Carl Edwards, Ford, 499, 59.4, 26, $130,035.

19. (22) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 499, 64.2, 25, $122,449.

20. (26) David Stremme, Toyota, 498, 56.3, 24, $110,318.

21. (30) David Ragan, Ford, 498, 51.7, 24, $114,293.

22. (13) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 498, 93.3, 22, $139,996.

23. (3) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 498, 103.7, 23, $116,485.

24. (14) David Gilliland, Ford, 496, 66.5, 20, $103,557.

25. (43) Terry Labonte, Ford, 496, 38.2, 19, $94,260.

26. (40) Josh Wise, Ford, 496, 46.4, 0, $93,485.

27. (35) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 495, 56.1, 17, $93,235.

28. (41) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 495, 41.4, 16, $90,085.

29. (38) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 490, 34.4, 0, $89,985.

30. (17) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 487, 59.1, 14, $121,349.

31. (8) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 464, 32.5, 13, $135,660.

32. (16) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 458, 39.9, 12, $99,260.

33. (42) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 410, 35, 11, $88,710.

34. (11) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, accident, 390, 99.8, 11, $135,596.

35. (12) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, accident, 390, 102.8, 10, $123,601.

36. (33) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, accident, 321, 54.5, 8, $88,560.

37. (20) Aric Almirola, Ford, accident, 245, 57.6, 7, $125,439.

38. (37) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, engine, 234, 53, 6, $91,700.

39. (25) David Reutimann, Toyota, engine, 184, 41.6, 5, $79,700.

40. (27) Scott Speed, Ford, electrical, 184, 32.5, 4, $75,700.

41. (39) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, engine, 159, 43.1, 3, $79,700.

42. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, accident, 26, 29.4, 2, $67,700.

43. (36) Mike Bliss, Toyota, engine, 3, 26.8, 0, $64,200.

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Race Statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 92.206 mph.

Time of Race: 2 hours, 53 minutes, 25 seconds.

Margin of Victory: 1.700 seconds.

Caution Flags: 10 for 66 laps.

Lead Changes: 17 among 10 drivers.

Lap Leaders: Ky.Busch 1-55; P.Menard 56; D.Ragan 57-58; K.Kahne 59-63; D.Hamlin 64-145; K.Kahne 146-153; Ku.Busch 154; D.Hamlin 155-189; K.Kahne 190-236; Ky.Busch 237; M.Kenseth 238-322; J.Logano 323; J.Gordon 324-389; K.Kahne 390-396; B.Keselowski 397-445; K.Kahne 446-447; B.Keselowski 448-460; K.Kahne 461-500.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): D.Hamlin, 2 times for 117 laps; K.Kahne, 6 times for 109 laps; M.Kenseth, 1 time for 85 laps; J.Gordon, 1 time for 66 laps; B.Keselowski, 2 times for 62 laps; Ky.Busch, 2 times for 56 laps; D.Ragan, 1 time for 2 laps; Ku.Busch, 1 time for 1 lap; P.Menard, 1 time for 1 lap; J.Logano, 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 12 in Points: 1. Bra.Keselowski, 166; 2. D.Earnhardt Jr., 157; 3. J.Johnson, 151; 4. C.Bowyer, 128; 5. G.Biffle, 126; 6. D.Hamlin, 125; 7. K.Kahne, 124; 8. C.Edwards, 124; 9. P.Menard, 118; 10. Ky.Busch, 115; 11. R.Stenhouse Jr., 115; 12. J.Logano, 104.

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NASCAR Driver Rating Formula