Kasey Kahne celebrated his 25th birthday with the sixth runner-up finish of his career. Credit: Autostock

Evernham shows flashes in Kahne, Mayfield runs

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Jeremy Mayfield started Sunday's Advance Auto Parts 500 from third place and didn't run worse than fourth until Lap 323. Kasey Kahne started 35th and spent the first 150 laps trying to stay ahead of the leaders.

ADVANCE AUTO PARTS 500 •   Results •   Standings •   Harvick hampered by clutch troubles •   Johnson perseveres with 12th consecutive top-10 •   Evernham shows flashes in Kahne, Mayfield runs •   Rudd relishes first top-10 in six races •   Frustration mounts at Joe Gibbs Racing •   Notes: Edwards' season takes hit on short tracks

At the end, however, it was Kahne sitting in second place and Mayfield was 15th. It was a tale of two races, and quite literally, it was the best of times and the worst of times.

Mayfield had a killer car and was a threat to win the race from the time the green flag waved until Lap 323, when Jeff Green's spin brought out the caution flag. Mayfield went down pit road in fourth place, but got caught speeding coming off and put to the end of the longest line for the restart.

When the green waved again, Mayfield had a tire go flat, and he lost three laps getting to pit road and getting a new one. That ended his day, at least in terms of battling for the victory.

Final lapsGordon comes back from three laps down for the victory Tough breakStewart loses a tire and his chance for a win Spin cycleGordon bumps Busch and sends him into the wall Tire troublesDale Jr. touches Bliss and gets a severe tire rub Heavy damageEdwards gets loose and collects H. Sadler on Lap 68 Early cautionNewman suffers damage after contact with Riggs Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"We had the car to win [Sunday]," a very disappointed Mayfield said after the race. "I guess I just messed it up."

Kahne, on the other hand, once he finally cracked the top 10 he remained there, slipping as low as 11th but hanging around the lead group. On the day's last pit stop, on Lap 433 for the Kurt Busch-Jeff Gordon tangle in Turn 3, Kahne came out fifth and he was on the pedal hard.

He passed Rusty Wallace, Sterling Marlin, Ryan Newman and Mark Martin over the final 50 laps to run second, then had one last shot at Gordon on a restart with three laps remaining. He couldn't catch Gordon and finished second for the sixth time in his young career. It also bumped him to 18th in the points, five behind Mayfield.

"I think he [Gordon] had more forward bite than I did," Kahne said. "I just had to feather the throttle and I just couldn't get in the gas enough to challenge him. You can't ever count out Jeff Gordon here. He's one of the best ever at this track."

We need to get some more top-fives and get all the points we can and start working our way back up in the standings," said Kahne, who celebrated his 25th birthday this weekend. "Most of the day, I was back there where I had to start on the outside of a lot of lapped cars. It was pretty wild to battle all day to get up front.

In the past two weeks, Kahne finished 14th at Bristol and second at Martinsville, both times driving brand new Evernham cars. He was fifth at Atlanta.

Asked if he was getting tired of finishing second, Kahne laughed and said, "Not this year. We struggled and I crashed a couple of cars that didn't need to be crashed earlier in the season and lost a lot of points. We've run fifth, 14th and now second the last three weeks, so I'd really love to win, but second at Martinsville is a great finish for me and the whole team."