Gastonia, NC — September 7, 2009 Atlanta, Ga. (September 7, 2009) – Kasey Kahne passed Kevin Harvick with 11 laps to go and pulled away down the stretch to win the Pep Boys Auto 500 Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway, beating Harvick to the checkered flag by 1.766 seconds.

Cars using WIX Filters swept the top four spots in the race and have now won 12 of the 25 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season in addition to the Budweiser Shootout and Sprint All-Star Race.

The ninth and final caution of the race on lap 310 gave Kahne a chance to win. Clint Bowyer spun off Turn 4 on lap 310 of the 325-lap event, giving Kahne the short run he needed to chase down Harvick.

“It feels awesome to win at Atlanta, to win on a night like tonight when the Chase and everything has been so tight for the last two months,” Kahne said. “This team has stepped up. The pit stops were awesome all night. The calls from Kenny Francis [crew chief] were perfect. I knew we could go fast for about 15 laps, faster than anybody. It was just after that I would get a little too loose to hang with Harvick and Montoya. With 11 laps to go just getting to the front was what I was thinking I needed to do. Once we did it everything was perfect from there out. Just a great team effort, something Richard Petty Motorsports really needed.

“We came into this race just like we came into the last few. It worked. I think we’re kind of a veteran group. We’ve worked together for a long time. We knew each other a lot. We know a lot of things that we’re thinking. The way I say something, Kenny understands it. It’s great to have that relationship and that communication line.”

Kahne said he got a push from David Reutimann on the final restart of the race, a move that gave him a much needed boost.

“Once I got that little extra burst of speed, it just cleared me into Turn 1 on the bottom,” Kahne said. “I was able to just rip off the bottom and get beside Harvick off Turn 2. Once I was beside him, I thought I had the preferred line into three on fresh tires, was able to stick right on the white line and go from there.”

Kahne climbed five positions in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings with his victory at Atlanta. He is sixth, 76 points ahead of 12th-place Matt Kenseth entering the Sept. 11 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.

“We just need to go into that race the same way we came into this one, the same way we went into Bristol, the same way in the race before Bristol,” Kahne said. “Keep working hard, communicating, doing things to make our car race good on Saturday night. That’s key. If you can race and pass and run side-by-side, then hopefully we’ll be in good shape.

“It’s a lot on the line. You’re just going to that race trying to focus as hard as you can, do the best job you can. But it’s tough. It’s going to be intense. From fifth to 14th is going to be really intense at Richmond next week.”

Kahne averaged 134.033 mph in a race that took 3 hours, 44 minutes and three seconds to complete. There were nine cautions for 42 laps and the race featured 31 lead changes among 13 drivers.

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 http://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 http://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.