Kahne edges Jones in thrilling photo finish
A wild end to a enthralling night of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series action.
Photo by: NASCAR Media
The North Carolina Education Lottery 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday night came down to rather spectacular fight between young gun Erik Jones and veteran racer Kasey Kahne.
The two battled side-by-side for a number of laps until a GWC when they raced door-to-door for the final sprint to the finish. At the checkered flag, 5/1000ths of a second was the difference in Kahne winning and Jones losing. The two made contact through the tri-oval as they drag-raced to the line.
"I actually got a good draft down the back off of Erik. I got a run off of him in turn three and actually spun my wheels," Kahne said. "The draft worked out for us at the end."
Jones, visibly upset, "It's really a shame that we can't bring it home. I really thought tonight was the night. Unfortunately, we just couldn't do it."
Post-race inspection
After the race, officials found that the winning No. 00 Truck, owned by JR Motorsports (Dale Jr.), to be too low on both sides at the front and too high on the right rear. Penalties will be revealed on Tuesday, should NASCAR decide it is warranted.
Best of the rest
Matt Crafton finished third, Tyler Reddick fourth, and Brad Keselowski fifth.
"We just weren't where we needed to be at the start of the race, but we got better and the end and ran out of laps," Keselowski said.
The win was Kahne's fifth Truck victory in just his sixth start in the series. It was also the 200th CWTS victory for Chevrolet.
"What a great team," crew chief Joe Shear said. "Look at his track record in the Truck Series. He pulled it out again."
Meanwhile, it was a second-straight race dominated by Jones without a win. He led the most laps at Kansas Speedway a week ago before running out of gas with five laps remaining in that race.
"We can't get the trucks any better," Jones said. "We just have to get something going our way."
Finishing sixth through 10th were John Wes Townley, Timothy Peters, Matt Tifft, Justin Boston and Spencer Gallagher.
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