Kahne hopes Charlotte momentum continues this weekend
By SceneDaily Staff
Saturday, May 31, 2008
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DOVER, Del. - It’s no surprise that Kasey Kahne suddenly emerged as a winner again when the Sprint Cup circuit hit Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
The Charlotte track has been one of his best in recent years, with Kahne sweeping both points races there in 2006. His wins in the all-star race and the Coca-Cola 600 over the past two weeks were simply verification of how good the driver and his team are at the 1.5-mile track.
Now comes the real test. Can Kahne and his Gillett Evernham Motorsports team carry the momentum to the 1-mile Dover International Speedway this weekend and continue to run well for an extended period of time?
“It’s definitely a Charlotte thing. We’re very good there,” Kahne says. “But I think we learned some things a couple of weeks before that with some testing, and we felt like Darlington was going to be very good, too.
“We’ll see this weekend if we can carry some of that information with us, but the cars have been much better in the past two or three weeks. Hopefully, we can keep carrying that along.”
After going winless last season and struggling a bit early this season, Kahne admits he was starting to have doubts about his team. He says those doubts have begun to fade, however, with his back-to-back wins at Charlotte.
“Yeah, you doubt it once in a while when things don’t go well, but I’ve always known we had a great team and a great company, and the guys have stepped up, and now it’s starting to show again,” he said. “Racing is very up and down, and we were down for a while, and now it seems like we are back on the uphill.”
Kahne won the Sprint All-Star Race after being voted into the main event by fans. He took advantage of the opportunity with clever pit strategy to win. In the 600, he ran up front all night and then took advantage of Tony Stewart’s late tire problem to win and move into the top 12 in points. Both triumphs provided a much-needed boost for Kahne and his team.
“It’s been good all week,” he said Friday at Dover. “… We were in the shop Tuesday, and everybody was excited. It’s just a good thing. We won some races, so it’s good.
“We needed a win. We hadn’t had one in a long time. It feels good.
“We have a good team and good race cars. We just need to keep working on it and stay in that top 12 and the Chase.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Kasey Kahne
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