BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kasey Kahne passed Ryan Newman with eight laps to go, then held off several charges from Jason Leffler to win the Busch Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday night.
The race was marred by a NASCAR scoring error against Kyle Busch that cost him a chance to run for the win. Busch was penalized with 77 laps to go and had to forfeit his second-place position, a penalty NASCAR later said was incorrect.
It stuck Busch back in 28th and made it easy for Newman to pull away as the leader. He had little competition until the closing laps, when both Kahne and Leffler closed the gap.
Kahne went high around Newman, Leffler went low and the three cars squeezed together. The contact caused one of Newman's tires to go flat, and he fell off the pace as Kahne scooted by.
But Kahne still had to contend with Leffler, the pole-sitter who had dominated the race by leading a race-high 82 laps. But he gave up the lead on a late pit stop for tires. Leffler could have spun Kahne several times but tried to pass him cleanly.
Leffler made one last attempt on the final lap, couldn't get past Kahne, and was spun by the third-place car of David Reutimann as they closed in on the finish line.
Busch wound up fourth, then went to the NASCAR hauler to discuss the scoring mistake.
It was a wild finish to a competitive race on Bristol's repaved surface, which has developed several racing lines because of its smooth new concrete. But television viewers missed it because ESPN lost its satellite feed with three laps to go in the event.