Here’s the second-closest finish in Truck Series history
Kasey Kahne beat Erik Jones at Charlotte Friday night in the second-closest finish in Truck Series history.
Kahne’s winning margin was 0.005 seconds. Yes, that’s five-thousandths of a second.
But – and this is a big but – Kahne’s truck failed inspection after the race. NASCAR ruled the truck was too low on both sides of the front and too high on the right rear.
The win won’t be taken away from Kahne. NASCAR typically doesn’t do that when winning teams don’t pass inspection. But it’s fair to wonder what advantage he had at the end of the race. A truck closer to the ground in the front has more downforce (and doesn’t create as big a hole through the air), and the spoiler higher in the air in the rear creates more downforce too.
Don’t get us wrong, the finish was great. But it’d have also been a lot more fun if it was after the end of a 20-lap run and wasn’t set up by a green-white-checker restart. Daniel Hemric lost a tire while Jones was pulling away with two laps to go. Before he took the white flag, the caution was out, and for the final two green flag laps, Kahne and Jones dueled side-by-side.
Penalties for Kahne’s JR Motorsports team will be announced this week. They’ll likely include a fine and points penalty for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s newly founded truck team. The win was Kahne’s fifth in six Truck Series starts.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
