Kahne able to see improvement to his No. 9 Dodge team
By Lee Montgomery
Friday, February 29, 2008
Harry How / Getty Images
FONTANA, CA - FEBRUARY 23: Kasey Kahne, driver of the #9 Budweiser Dodge, drives during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500 Practice at the Auto Club Speedway on February 23, 2008 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS – Kasey Kahne sees improvement in his Gillett Evernham Motorsports team this season.
After a lackluster 2007 season that left Kahne 19th in the driver standings, he has run better in the opening races of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, and the strong start has Kahne sixth in the series standings.
While he’s pleased with the turnaround, Kahne and his Kenny Francis-led team understand that it will take more time before they get a good feeling for how this season will play out.
“It’s definitely true that we’re further along. … As far as the structure of the team, everything is better in order to run good for a longer period of time,” he said. “We struggled last year, but so far this year, things have been much better. We’re focusing on one race car [as opposed to the two models used in 2007], and I feel like we are bac where we need to be. The communication is great. Things are different. We won’t know for a few more races how good we really are, but I think as of right now we’ve done a
really good job to start the season.”
As to this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kahne says that he’s ready to get a good look at his Dodge – in qualifying. He says that he likes that part of the race weekend and was disappointed that teams were delayed a week in trying out the new car in that setup at an intermediate track after qualifying was rained out at California. NASCAR’s new model is being run at all tracks this season, putting drivers in the car at several race tracks for the first time – including California and Las Vegas.
“It’s a lot different, the way that it drives and the things you have to change on it to make it comfortable and to make it go fast,” Kahne said of qualifying. “It’ll be exciting. I was looking forward to doing it last week.
“I love qualifying.”
