Kahne stays upbeat despite brakes on title hopes
By Seth Livingstone
USA TODAY
DOVER, Del. — Kasey Kahne's official 2007 autograph card features his Dodge lost behind a cloud of smoke during a victory burnout at Lowe's Motor Speedway last season.
It was one of six Nextel Cup victories for Kahne, whose '06 season appeared to position him on the cusp of NASCAR stardom.
This season there have been no burnouts. Only Kahne's title hopes have gone up in smoke.
Monday's 11th-place finish in the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway was his best since a season-opening seventh at the Daytona 500. He's mired 29th in driver points, miles from mounting a challenge to the top 12 and a spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
"That's the way racing is," says Bill Elliott, the driver Kahne replaced in the No. 9 after the 2003 season. "You can be a hero one week, zero the next. This sport will eat you up and spit you out if you let it."
So far, Kahne shows no evidence of letting it get to him.
He remains a heartthrob among female fans, calmly answers questions about his season and manages to maintain a positive attitude, something team owner Ray Evernham says is evidence that he's maturing as a driver.
"I'm sure Kasey's frustrated," said Evernham, who also fields cars for Elliott Sadler (20th in points) and Scott Riggs (36th). "We're not giving him cars as good as he is."
Evernham said Kahne has assumed the role of cheerleader — something that paid off with a Busch Series victory at Lowe's.
"Listen to him on the radio — he's really pumped his guys up," Evernham said.
"Drivers go through stages. When I was with Jeff (Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports in the 1990s), he went through a stage where he (became) a cheerleader for the team."
Kahne has a long way to go to match Gordon, who leads the Nextel Cup points standings, but he remains upbeat.
Maybe it's because even at 27, Kahne already has experienced ups and downs. As a rookie in 2004 he recorded 13 top-five finishes and finished 13th in points, narrowly missing the Chase. The next year he managed only five top-fives and finished 23rd.
"To win a championship is probably out of the picture for this year, but we can definitely still run well," Kahne said. "I'm not saying we can't make (the Chase) but we'd have to do some really crazy stuff — things that the guy leading the points hasn't even done this year."
Kahne lost an engine at California and failed to finish races in Las Vegas and Richmond after accidents. Overall, his cars have not run the way Evernham envisioned.
"I think we've missed it badly, aerodynamically, with the new Charger nose (on the '07 cars) and I think with these COT cars (NASCAR's new generation car) we're missing it setup-wise," Evernham said.
Kahne's team director, Kenny Francis, said the chief problem has been getting the car to grip and turn though the corners.
Francis and Evernham saw signs of progress at Dover, where Kahne qualified fourth, led 28 laps and ran on the lead lap all day.
"It's little things like that … that can get a team pumped up and make you feel like you can still win races," Kahne said.
Despite his struggles, the fan mail hasn't stopped.
"I get lot(s) of letters from the females saying 'Keep your head up and you'll win,' " Kahne said. "But no one's really sent me advice on how to fix it yet."
A disappointing start
Kasey Kahne's sole top-10 in 2007 is a surprising start compared with last year's three wins and eight top-10s in the first 13 races.
Track 2006 start 2006 finish Comment 2007 start 2007 finish Reason
Daytona 27 11 Lead lap 28 7 Lead lap
California 13 4 Lead lap 2 38 Engine failure
Las Vegas 5 4 Lead lap 1 35 Crash
Atlanta 1 1 Lead lap 12 39 19 laps down
Bristol 23 10 Lead lap 2 19 Three laps down
Martinsville 5 35 Engine failure 41 25 Two laps down
Texas 1 1 Lead lap 34 20 Two laps down
Phoenix 22 6 Lead lap 10 31 Three laps down
Talladega 37 39 Crash 30 12 Lead lap
Richmond 6 34 Four laps down 5 40 Crash
Darlington 1 21 One lap down 5 20 Lead lap
Charlotte 9 1 Lead lap 18 23 10 laps down
Dover 26 7 Lead lap 4 11 Lead lap
Source: racing-reference.info
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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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!!!!! S***w all the haters!!!
pisses me off when she says that and i know that she knows he's gonna win one but she wont admit it. And the only reason that i'm poting on this is because she is a HAUGE Kahne fan like kkfan. and i am a HAUGE Reed fan like MYLRSNKK.
bye
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