and finished fourth. He then finished 11th at Texas. At Kansas, Kahne again finished second to Kenseth in a finish very similar to the finish at Las Vegas. Kahne's season also started with a number of run-ins with Kyle Busch, who wrecked him in three of the first 11 races: at the Daytona 500, Kahne was running in the Top 5 when Busch turned him approaching turn 1 on lap 33, resulting in a seven-car wreck also collecting Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jamie McMurray, and other cars. At Talladega, on lap 43, Kahne was in the outside lane when Busch turned him into the wall again heading towards turn 1. Kahne bounced off the wall and back into Busch and collected an additional 14 cars, including Kevin Harvick, David Reutimann, Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart, Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, David Stremme, and Scott Speed. Later, at Darlington, another incident happened when Busch sent Kahne into the wall while being challenged for the lead late-race, causing a caution. At the Coca-Cola 600, Kahne had influenza and there was doubt he could finish the race. This didn't stop him from leading the most laps and nearly winning the race, but Kevin Harvick got by him on a restart with 11 laps to go. At Michigan, Kahne led the race, but slid into the turn 2 wall, and the car caught fire. Kahne finished 38th, and dropped down four spots in the points standings to 12th. Following the DNF at Michigan, Kahne rebounded with a sixth-place finish at Sonoma and an 11th-place finish at Kentucky. At Daytona, Kahne was running behind Jimmie Johnson for most of the race until he got tagged by Marcos Ambrose on a late restart, sending him into the inside wall on the back straightaway and relegating him to a 32nd-place finish. This was followed by an 11th-place finish at New Hampshire, and a third-place finish at Indianapolis. At Pocono in August, Kahne started 18th. He led 66 laps of the race and was involved in a tight battle with Tony Stewart for the lead in the final laps. A decision by Gordon to take the final restart on lap 158 on the inside lane gave Kahne the opportunity to draft past Gordon in turn 1 and then sail away to his second career Pocono race victory and second