CONCORD, N.C. -- The Coca-Cola 600 isn't so much a Sprint Cup Series race as it is a war of attrition, a test of survival.

Sunday night's 49th running of NASCAR's longest event at Lowe's Motor Speedway was no exception, leaving in its devastating wake some of the sport's biggest names.

Kasey Kahne eventually won in his No. 9 Dodge, but not before the likes of Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. flirted with various calamities that appeared to be byproducts of the race's grueling nature.

Stewart appeared to have the race won in his No. 20 Toyota before blowing a tire with less than four laps left and slapping the outside wall. He had more than a five-second lead on the rest of the field at the time -- but that merely illustrated both the beauty and the brutality of the 600. Anything can happen at any time, especially over the last 100 miles. Five horrible seconds can destroy more than four hours of good work, turning emotions completely upside down and inside out.

"We got a flat -- another tire that wouldn't hold air," said a distraught Greg Zipadelli, Stewart's crew chief. "It's just stupid. We must have run something over or had a small leak or something. We lost a tire with a five-and-a-half-second lead. I don't even know what to say, I'm so frustrated."

Jimmie Johnson was leading this event that he had won on three previous occasions when the engine started to let go in his No. 48 Chevrolet. It was the first time in 96 races Johnson had to exit because of an engine failure, but that is what can happen, even to the best of the best, when the length of a race is extended well beyond the limits that are tested at every other track.

Anything can happen at any time, especially over the last 100 miles. Five horrible seconds can destroy more than four hours of good work, turning emotions completely upside down and inside out.

Wheel came off
No other Sprint Cup race runs more than 500 miles, but it isn't always during the final 100 miles when crazy, weird stuff seems to happen during the Coca-Cola marathon. Brian Vickers discovered that on Lap 184 when the wheels literally came off his chances of winning the race.

Well, technically it was just one wheel.

But Vickers' No. 83 Toyota snapped around and slammed into the wall when the left-rear wheel came flying off. It bounced high in the air, slammed into the hood of driver David Gilliland's innocent car and kept on hopping until it leapt over a fence supposedly protecting infield spectators.

"We knew we had a problem the last two runs and we had the left-rear wheel work loose toward the end of the runs -- but it stayed on," Vickers said. "At the beginning of that very last run, it started vibrating a little bit. The first time it happened, it was very gradual -- and the last time it happened, it was very, very sudden. It was like one lap it started with a vibration and a couple guys got by me, and the next lap it just completely came off."

That's how fast disaster can strike in the 600. It left Vickers searching for answers -- and for his missing wheel.

"I'm not really sure where it went, but somebody said that it got into the infield. ... We're going to find out exactly where it went," Vickers added.

That answer came soon enough. The wheel grazed the top of a pop-up camper and came to rest on a nearby grill before being retrieved by NASCAR officials eager to get a better look at it, hoping to determine why it went on a ride all its own.

Others felt they had been char-grilled by the end of the race -- including Earnhardt, who was leading when he had his own brush with the wall after another tire issue (he eventually rallied to finish fifth); Edwards, who was running third when he ran out of gas on the final lap; Hamlin, whose blown tire after a late pit stop dropped him from the lead (however briefly) all the way to a 24th-place finish; and the older of the Busch brothers, who was running up front early before an accident robbed him of the good finish he had so desperately needed.

Coca-Cola 600

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
2.	Greg Biffle	Ford
3.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
4.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
5.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet
6.	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
7.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
8.	Elliott Sadler	Dodge
9.	Carl Edwards	Ford
10.	David Reutimann	Toyota

• Results | Points | Lap-by-Lap
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The home stretch
There is nothing else in stock-car racing like the final 100 miles of the 600. Everything comes into play. Fuel. Tires. The mental toughness and physical condition of the drivers. The durability of the cars, and how they have been prepared.

Edwards thought he was racing for the lead at the end, not realizing that Kahne had taken on four fresh tires the previous pit stop and checked out on the field following Stewart's mishap.

"I realized when that fuel light came on that things were not working out quite as well as I thought they should," said Edwards, who salvaged a ninth-place finish. "I know the price of gas is high -- but I would have paid, I don't know, fifty or a hundred grand for another gallon of gas. That would have been nice."

David Reutimann registered a career-best 10th-place finish, but considered the fact that he had made it 600 miles without any major problems the greater feat.

"I managed to race the top side of the track all night without knocking the right side of the car off. That's a good start," he said.

"You know it's a long race. I think you just try to take care of yourself and the car a little bit more -- short-shift the thing on restarts and all that stuff. Just be a little easier on it, you know, because you're turning 9,000 [RPMs] every lap for however long we run. It's amazing that we can go out there and do that to 'em and they don't blow up every week."

This week is not like every other week, though, as Reutimann discovered the hard way during the home stretch of the 600.

"I noticed about the last 40 laps, my mind was wandering a little bit there. I was thinking about some things and not really concentrating on what I should be doing," Reutimann said. "I was thinking maybe I should try to move up a little bit more, and then I was thinking, aw, maybe I should just try to take it easy and make sure we finish this thing. Sometimes you can think too much. Finally, I just started concentrating again on hitting my marks and we were able to finish like we were supposed to. I'm really happy."

Many of the other drivers who left after mixing it up for four hours, 25 minutes and nine seconds couldn't say the same. But Edwards said everyone needs to get over it, calling the 600 one of the best tests of the long 36-race Sprint Cup season.

"I prepare for these; this is what I train for. I wish we could race 750 miles every week," Edwards said. "It's fun. We need a race like this. This race would be a whole lot different if it was only 500 miles.

"It is tougher. It's tougher on everybody. But I like that."

So do we. It's just that usually this race isn't fully appreciated until it's finally over. And that takes ample time, not to mention considerable casualties.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.