CONCORD, N.C. – Kasey Kahne edged Erik Jones by 0.005 seconds in after a contact-filled, final-lap duel Friday night in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Kahne, a Sprint Cup regular making his first start for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s new trucks team, passed Jones on a green-white-checkered finish that ended with his truck wobbling across the line a few feet ahead of Jones. It tied for the second-closest finish in Truck Series history and left Jones with a second straight heartbreaking loss.
But an hour after the race, NASCAR announced Kahne's truck failed the postrace inspection for being too low in the front on both sides and too high on the right rear. Any penalties will be announced next week.
The 18-year-old Jones led 88 of 134 laps. A week ago at Kansas, Jones also led the most laps but ran out of gas late.
Points leader Matt Crafton was third, followed by Tyler Reddik and Brad Keselowski.
Jones appeared to have the race won before Daniel Hemric spun out, leading to a caution moments before Jones was to take the white flag.
On the restart, Jones and Kahne raced side by side for the entire lap, making contact around the final turn before Kahne's No. 00 Chevrolet nosed across the line. It wasn't clear who won with the naked eye, with NASCAR officials depending on the scoring system and a video replay.
The closest Truck Series finish was at Talladega in 2010 when Kyle Busch beat Aric Almirola by 0.002 seconds.
This time, Busch was on the other end. On the same day he returned to the track in Sprint Cup practice following his crash at Daytona, Jones couldn't deliver Kyle Busch Motorsports a victory in the No. 4 Toyota.
It was Kahne's first Truck Series race since he won at Rockingham in 2012. He's won five of six career truck starts.
Kahne qualified first and Jones second, but both started from the rear of at the field after Kahne's team changed the shocks on his truck and Jones missed the driver meeting.
It took Jones one lap to move to 14th and he dominated for large stretches.
Jones, who raced to his first Xfinity Series victory last month and finished 40th in his first Sprint Cup start last week at Kansas, moved to second in the standings — 16 points behind Crafton.
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