“This is pretty meaningful because it’s with Rick,” he said. “He’s such a great man because he’s been through so much. I’m glad to be able to win for him, for Tony Jr., for the team for believing in me.”

Kasey Kahne, coming off a victory the previous week in Pocono, finished second and almost came up with his fourth victory in his last five starts, including the non-points all-star race last month in Charlotte.

“It was pretty close there,” Kahne said. “We topped off there and I think we pretty much had the most fuel of anybody out there. We did the best thing we could do today to get a good finish. the team did a good job.”

Matt Kenseth finished third, followed by Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart and two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

Kenseth, who led several times, said he might have won the race if not for mishap in the pits on his last stop. A NASCAR officials, apparently thinking Kenseth was going to take four tires instead of two, walked in front of his car just as the former series champion started out of his pit. Kenseth didn’t hit the officials, but the hesitation cost him valuable seconds.

“I was hoping for some kind of break (from NASCAR),” Kenseth said. “The official walked in front of the car as I was ready to go. It was either I run him down or wait for him to move. The car just came up short because of circumstances and strategy.”

Series points leader Kyle Busch finished a less than memorable three-race weekend with a 13th-place finish on Sunday. The youngster, with a total of 10 races this season in NASCAR’s three top series, finished seventh in the truck race here Saturday, drawing criticism when he spun out Ron Hornaday Jr. near the end. Busch then flew to Kentucky, where he crashed and finished 30th in a Nationwide race.

But Cup runner-up Jeff Burton finished 15th Sunday and still trails Busch by 32 points, with Earnhardt 84 behind in third. Defending race winner Carl Edwards finished seventh and goes to next week’s race on the road course in Sonoma, Calif., fourth in the standings, 206 points behind.

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