Kahne says he hasn't punched his Chase ticket yet
By SceneDaily Staff
Saturday, June 21, 2008
- TEXT SIZE: Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Reset Text Size
- No Comments. Leave a Comment
- Digg This
- Add to Del.icio.us
- RSS Feeds
David Griffin / NASCAR Scene
Latest Headlines
- ABC’s overnight TV ratings for Charlotte Cup race drop 12.5 percent
- Nationwide COT will not make its race debut until 2010
- Rea White: Chase For The Sprint Cup filled with intriguing storylines
- Justin Allgaier wins ARCA title; Scott Speed parked in final race
- Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton finds enjoyment in title chase
SONOMA, Calif. – Kasey Kahne says that his Gillett Evernham Motorsports team has clearly hit on something in recent weeks to help them finish no worse than second in three of the last four points races. While he's pleased with that performance swing, Kahne isn't counting on it to put him in the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup.
The driver who is seventh in driver points after 16 races says that he's pleased with his team's surge. Clearly, they've discovered a few things that netted them wins in the non-points all-star race and the points-paying Coca-Cola 600, then continued that run with a win at Pocono Raceway and a runner-up finish at Michigan a week ago. Kahne, though, says the team was already running "decent" and points out that it was never worse than 14th in the standings this season.
"We were decent this whole year and then the all-star race it really got good and we've been good since," he said. "We just hit on a few setup things that have helped a lot, then also just team morale and my communication with the team has been really good … Just a lot of little things really got going since we started winning, but we haven't been bad. We've been close all year. It's been good. We've had good race cars."
Still, he's not counting on that run ushering him into the 12-driver Chase field. He says his team needs to keep improving, keep gaining ground and hopefully put a little more distance between itself and the 12th and final position in the 11 races before the championship-contending group is locked in.
"I'm not super comfortable with where we're at," he said. "We definitely need to keep staying after it and keep gaining points and doing everything we can to stay in that top 12. We definitely have a lot of work to do to be in there. There's good cars on the outside and there's really good cars behind us still, so we've got to keep working. There's a lot of good tracks for us coming up."
One area that Kahne says his team needs to work on is fuel mileage. Despite that fact that he nursed his tank to a second-place finish last weekend when others ran dry, he says that the Dodges just don't get the fuel mileage of some other models and that the team needs to work on that.
He also hopes they improve their road-course performances. Kahne has a top finish of 23rd in four races at Infineon, a fact that has tempered his goals for this weekend.
"It's a race that we can run in the top 15 at and, for me, if we can run the top -15 at Sonoma, that will be a good weekend," he said.
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Kasey Kahne
No Comments
Be the first to comment on "Kahne says he hasn't punched his Chase ticket yet". Login or sign up for a free account below to post your comment