Kahne able in Busch victory

Driver holds off Biffle for his second series victory this year

? Even though he finished on the inside of Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle claimed to take the high road at the United Way 300 Busch Series race Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

Coming down the stretch with the better car, Biffle stayed side-by-side with Kahne, even though he said he didn’t have to.

The result was Kahne’s second Busch Series win of 2005, with the 26-year-old taking a .03 second victory over Biffle in the fifth-closest Series’ race since the advent of electronic timing in 1993.

“If I would have just given him a little nudge, I could have just moved him up the race track just a little bit and went on about my business and been done with it,” Biffle said. “But (today) I have to race him for 500 miles, so I don’t want him doing that to me.”

Both drivers will compete in today’s Banquet 400 with more at stake. But Kahne said he didn’t believe that would change Biffle’s racing style.

“I doubt he’ll sacrifice his Cup car tomorrow,” Kahne said. “He’s got a lot on the line racing for points. If he wants to nudge, that’s fine. We can nudge, too.”

Biffle was most upset after believing Kahne unfairly aimed toward his right rear quarterpanel to turn his stronger car sideways during the final lap.

“Typically, you don’t race like that except for the win,” Biffle said. “You wouldn’t see him doing that in the middle of the race, because eventually the guy on the bottom is going to prevail. If we would have had three more laps, he wouldn’t have been able to hang there on top.”

Kahne did hang on, however, in part because of a decision to stay on the track when Biffle made a pit stop during a caution with 16 laps to go.

“We’re actually probably our best on old tires anyway, so it was a good call at that point,” Kahne said. “We just needed to hold off Greg, and he was obviously the quickest car all day long.”

Biffle dropped from first to ninth after the delay, but with four new tires quickly moved up to compete with Kahne down the final stretch for the victory.

“If it’s the Cup race and it’s the last lap and the same stuff is going on,” Biffle said, “trust me, it’s going to be a different outcome.”

Johnny Sauter, Kevin Harvick and rookie Jon Wood rounded out the top five.

Martin Truex Jr. retained the points lead with a ninth-place finish. He now leads second-place Clint Bowyer by 49 points.

Bowyer, an Emporia native, ran in the top 10 all day before experiencing a loose tire with seven laps remaining. He ended the race in 16th position.

Kahne made no apologies to Biffle for his daring racing down the stretch.

“If he was in that position,” Kahne said, “he would have done the same thing and probably won the race.”

Biffle promised a different mindset for today’s race.

“I was trying to race him like a gentleman,” Biffle said. “There’s $60,000 on the line (Saturday) and there’s $5.5 million (today), so I’m looking at the big picture.”