Kahne grabbed his first win of the 2009 season and gave team co-owner Richard Petty his first visit to victory lane since John Andretti won the spring race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in 1999.

Cars using WIX Filters have now won seven of the 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season in addition to the Budweiser Shootout and Sprint All-Star Race.

Kahne led twice for 37 laps, including the final 34, and claimed WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors for the first time this season, adding an exclamation point to his victory.

Kahne was leading Stewart when the final caution of the race waved for a spin by Scott Speed just two laps from the finish of the 110-lap race. The caution set up the third restart in the final 22 laps, a pressure packed situation made even more intense with NASCAR’s double-file restart rule.

“My biggest thing was, work on getting into Turn 1 there and just being beside him at the top of the hill and hopefully hold him off there,” Kahne said of his strategy on the restarts. “A few of the times we were able to jump the start and beat him into one no problem.

“That new restart deal is tough. I think every weekend I’ve had some good ones and some bad ones and as far as the restarts go. Today [Sunday] we were able to pick where we wanted to be and it worked out really good for us and we were able to hold him off.”

Kahne’s first victory of the 2009 season was his first in six races at Infineon Raceway. He claimed his second top-five and fifth top-10 and is just three points behind Juan Pablo Montoya for 12th-place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings and a birth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, a fact not lost on Kahne.

“It’s really important,” said Kahne. “You know, the Chase is what we work for each year. Our Budweiser Dodge has been quick. We’re right on the verge. It’s been like that a couple years now and we need to make it. We need to figure out how to make the Chase and just be consistent. I think we have a great opportunity if we keep showing up and working as hard as we have been to make the Chase.”

The Richard Petty Motorsports team enjoyed a strong performance at Sonoma. In addition to Kahne dominating victory, two of his teammates finished inside the top-10: AJ Allmendinger (seventh) and Elliott Sadler (10th).

“The cars were good,” Petty said. “They come off the trailer pretty good, all four of them, and they practiced good. It was probably the best race we’ve been to as far as all four cars working together. This was probably the best our cars have been as far as being equal to each other.”

Petty enjoyed the spoils of victory lane by sampling wine in victory lane.

“Oh yeah, that’s the reason I like to come to Napa Valley,” Petty said. “I got in a cave the other night. They had wine down one side in big barrels and they had wine down the other side. As we walked in I think we drunk something out of every barrel. That was a long deal. It was straight and when we got to the other end and I turned around, that dadgum cave was like that and like that [indicating zigzagging]. It changed after I went through it. It was straight going in. It wasn’t too straight coming out [laughter].”

Kahne’s official margin of victory over Stewart was .748 seconds. He averaged 71.012 mph in a race that took 3 hours and 10 minutes to complete. There were 10 lead changes among eight drivers and the race was slowed by seven cautions for 20 laps.

Since 1939, WIX® Filters, a member of the Affinia Group family of brands, has been an innovator in filtration products. WIX designs, manufactures and distributes products for automotive, diesel, agricultural, industrial and specialty filter markets. Its product line includes oil, air, cabin interior, fuel, coolant, transmission and hydraulic filters for automobiles, trucks and off-road equipment. WIX, a member of the Affinia family of brands, is the number one filter in NASCAR and an exclusive NASCAR Performance Product. Its NASCAR relationship also includes the WIX Filters Lap Leader Award, which recognizes the drivers leading the most laps in each race. For more information, visit www.wixfilters.com.

Affinia Group Inc. is an innovative global leader in the design, manufacture, distribution and marketing of industrial grade products and services, including extensive offerings of aftermarket parts for automotive and heavy-duty vehicles. With more than $2 billion in annual revenue, Affinia has operations in North and South America, Europe, Asia and India. For more information, visit www.affiniagroup.com.

*Affinia Group Inc.’s affiliated companies include Brake Parts Inc. WIX Filtration Corp LLC, Affinia Products Corp LLC and other high quality manufacturers of the Affinia family of brands.