LONG POND, Pa. --- No lug nuts, no problem.

Kasey Kahne's Dodge was so fast during Sunday's Pocono 500, he made an extra pit stop to bolt on three missing lug nuts and still won by 350 yards.

Kahne has won three of the past four Sprint Cup series races, counting the all-star event in May.

He lost his track position during a routine pit stop on the 59th lap when the team prepared to change all four tires. But at the last second, crew chief Kenny Francis decided to change only two. The crew already had started removing the bolts from the left-side tires when Kahne pulled back on the track.

He returned a lap later to replace the bolts, and the extra stop dropped him to 38th.

Seventy laps later, he was out front to stay.

"I've never had a car that dominant before," Kahne said. "I knew what the car felt like, so I wasn't worried."

After six victories in 2006, Kahne was winless last year. The past month is a sign, he said, that his Gillett Evernham Motorsports team is on the rebound.

Kahne led 69 of 200 laps, including the final 15. Following a caution for Kyle Busch's spin, Kahne was third for the restart behind Brian Vickers and Dale Earnhardt Jr. It took him one lap to get around Earnhardt and two to get around Vickers. After that, he easily pulled away.

"I knew he had the freshest tires," said Vickers, who finished second. "Clean air is huge with these cars. We had a great car, but it was tough. When I saw him in the mirror, I thought it was going to be tough. If we could have stayed in front of him for another five or six laps, the tires would have evened out. He got to us too quick, and we couldn't hold him back."

Three cautions in the final 77 laps created several varying fuel strategies. Francis brought Kahne to pit road with 25 laps to go for a final stop, although he had enough gas to run another 20 laps. Because he had to stop anyway, Francis decided to pit early and wait for a caution to gain track position.

When the final caution came out for Busch's spin three laps later, most of the other lead lap cars made their final stops. Kahne stayed on the track, and that elevated him to third for the final restart.

Busch came into the race with the series points lead, but he crashed into Jamie McMurray on the 48th lap. After extensive repairs, he returned to finish last. Despite his problems, he still leads the rankings, but his cushion was cut from 121 to 21 over Jeff Burton.