LONG POND, Pa. — Kasey Kahne promised a month ago to use momentum to turn his slumping season around.

Boy, has he delivered.

Kahne dominated today at Pocono Raceway for his second victory in the last three Sprint Cup Series points races. Counting his win in the All-Star race last month, Kahne has been to Victory Lane three times in the past four events.

And he should probably thank his fans for this season-saving run that's pushed him into championship contention.

Kahne's fans voted him into the All-Star event, and after picking up the $1 million first prize, he vowed to parlay the victory into a strong surge through the summer months of the schedule. Although he bobbled with a 31st-place finish last week at Dover, he owned the weekend at Pocono.

Kahne started from the pole, overcame an early pit road penalty that dropped him to 38th and led a race-high 69 of the 200 laps in his Dodge.

"Never. I've never had a car that dominant before," Kahne said. "This one stayed the same all day long. It was so good all day long."

Brian Vickers was second for his best finish since joining Red Bull Racing at the start of last season, and Denny Hamlin was third to give Toyota two cars in the top three.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fourth and appeared winded after racing over four hours on the hottest day so far of the NASCAR season. Temperatures hovered around 90 degrees all day, even after a brief rain shower halted action midway through the race.

"It's pretty hot," a red-faced Earnhardt said. "It's going to be a little hotter the next couple months."

Vickers concurred, sweating profusely from the podium after his finish.

"I'm exhausted, lets get this going," he said.

Jeff Burton was fifth and was followed by Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch. Carl Edwards and Mark Martin rounded out the top 10. Bobby Labonte was 11th and AJ Allmendinger was 12th to give Red Bull its best all-around day since the two-car team joined NASCAR last season.

Kyle Busch successfully became the first driver to compete in all three of NASCAR's national series at three different race tracks on the same weekend, but fell far short of winning a triple crown and finished last Sunday in the Sprint Cup race.

Busch, who wrecked his primary car in Saturday's practice session, started at the rear of the field when he had to switch to his backup Toyota and was running deep in traffic when he ran into Jamie McMurray as the battled for the same spot of race track. It sent Busch into the garage for repairs, and even though his crew rebuilt the car and got him back on the track, he wound up 43rd.

"I saw (McMurray) get high, get loose, and thought he faded back further than he did," Busch said. "We broke the mirror trying to adjust it there before the race and couldn't see anything out my right rear quarter panel. So I couldn't clear myself. The spotter didn't say anything, so I apologize to McMurray for wrecking their day."

Busch was second in Friday night's Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, and was a distant 20th in the Nationwide Series race at Nashville on Saturday night.

But even worse, his cozy lead in the Sprint Cup Series standings was gobbled up as Busch lost 121 points of his lead. Burton now trails him by just 21 points.