Road courses have been tough on Kahne
By SceneDaily Staff
Thursday, August 07, 2008
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Kasey Kahne has failed to produce top-10 finishes on only three tracks currently on the Sprint Cup schedule, and two of those are road courses.
In five starts at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., and four at Watkins Glen International, Kahne has yet to finish higher than 14th. The other track where he doesn’t have a top-10 is Chicagoland Speedway.
This weekend’s Cup race is at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen road course, where Kahne’s best finish has been a 14th in his rookie season.
“Watkins Glen has always been a so-so track for me,” Kahne said. “We’ve had decent runs but don’t really have the solid finishes to show for it. We had a good test at Road Atlanta a few weeks ago to prepare for this weekend. We’re taking the same car we took to Sonoma, and I think the car was pretty good out there. We just had some bad luck that day.”
Kahne won the pole at Infineon, but a loose Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge and a mistimed pit stop dropped him to 33rd at the checkered flag. That finish preceded a 30th at New Hampshire, but Kahne has rallied to come home 15th or better in the last four races – including three seventh-place finishes.
“Momentum is good – it’s confidence,” Kahne said. “It’s good for a driver, good for the team and good for the people back in the shop. You could lose 50 straight races and win one, and it’s like you forget about all that stuff.
“It’s a relief and it feels so good because of how hard it is to win these races – for a driver and the whole team [and] company. I think winning races and running up front is as much of a confidence builder that you can have in racing.”
Kahne has back-to-back seventh-place finishes and has moved to seventh in the Cup standings with five races before the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup begins.
“The best way for us to make the Chase is to remain consistent with our race car each and every race,” Kahne said. “It’s a tough battle right now. For us to come out of Pocono and gain two positions in the Chase is a credit to [team director] Kenny [Francis] and all the guys that work on this Budweiser Dodge. There’s still a lot of racing left, but Pocono was a good weekend for Gillett Evernham and all the guys that work on our team.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Kasey Kahne
Comments
1 response to "Road courses have been tough on Kahne"
said:
Aug 7, 2008 at 6:24 PMHe won the pole at Sonoma after being tutered by Boris Said. I think he may surprise us.
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