CONCORD, N.C. -- It lasted barely five minutes in all, but those minutes seemed to stretch on like an eternity to Kasey Kahne last May when he was in limbo, waiting to find out if he was going to be able to participate in the Sprint All-Star Race.

Then he discovered that the fans had bailed him out, voting him into the event after he had failed to race his way in during the preliminary Sprint Showdown. For those who believed that Kahne knew in advance that the fans were going to get him in if he didn't race his way in, guess what? You were wrong.

“

The fans got us in the race and then from there we stepped up and won it. It was awesome to get voted in by the fans -- and then to win was even better.

”

-- KASEY KAHNE

Kahne said Friday that he had no idea if he was in or out until the official word came down last year.

"You never really know. It's one of those things where people can say that you've got good fan votes, but I really didn't know exactly," Kahne said. "I saw no paperwork on who was voting for whom. Going into the race, they told me that if we didn't make it by racing our way in [via the Sprint Showdown], we had a pretty good fan vote.

"So I tried to race my way in; it didn't happen. It was about five minutes after [conclusion of the Showdown] that I actually found out I was in for sure. I was just kind of waiting there, hoping we had the votes."

You know the rest of the story. Buoyed by the fans' faith in him, Kahne charged all the way from the back of the field to the front in the All-Star Race. By the time the green flag dropped on the final 20-lap segment of the event, Kahne was all the way up to third.

He eventually passed Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin to earn the victory that fans recently voted as the most exciting memory in the 50-year history of Lowe's Motor Speedway (read more).

"I was surprised myself, doing it -- and I think everyone else was as well," Kahne said. "To me, it was a huge surprise. To look at where we had been the previous month with our cars and how they were handling, that even made it a bigger surprise for me."

This year, with the final segment being changed from 20 to 10 laps, Kahne does not see himself -- or anyone else -- being able to shock the racing world in similar fashion, whether they are voted into the All-Star Race or not. (Continued)