Luck lands on Kahne
BRISTOL, Tenn. – The way things have gone for him this season, a cynic could say Kasey Kahne's unofficial 2007 motto has been an offshoot of the old saying, "Don't start what you can't finish."
Kasey Kahne has qualified well in half of the first 24 races, including two poles, 10 starts in the top five positions and two other top-10 starts.
Unfortunately, it has been a different story at the end of most races for the Enumclaw, Wash., native: His average finish has been 24th.
It's no wonder the fourth-year Nextel Cup driver is ranked 23rd in the standings with 12 races remaining.
Since practically the season-opening Daytona 500, many of Kasey Kahne's loyal fans have hoped that he'd turn around his ongoing slump.
Each subsequent race, the faithful would hope and pray that this would be it, that the No. 9 would find its way to victory lane – or at least a decent finish.
Instead of getting better, however, things continued to get worse. Kasey Kahne went from winning a series-high six races last season to not even earning one top-five finish – and just two top-10s – in the first 23 races.
But after starting from the pole and finishing second in Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, in addition to his win in the Busch Series event there the night before, might the worst finally be behind Kasey Kahne?
"It was fun," Kasey Kahne said of Saturday's runner-up finish. "It was exciting to get a good run in our Dodge Avenger. It has been a while since we've had a top five. It's been a while since we've run up front all night long and had a pole. We just kind of put the whole thing together."
Indeed, it had been a long time coming. Kasey Kahne's last top-five outing was fourth in last season's finale at Homestead, Fla., and it was his best finish overall since winning at Charlotte in October.
Kasey Kahne has gotten the monkey off his back, at least for one week, but does that mean it's off for good? Will it be smooth sailing in the final third of the 2007 season?
Or will the guy who has had arguably the worst luck of any driver in the Cup series this season revert back to the out of sight, out of mind performance he's displayed in so many races this season?
"You go into a season and you think you're going to run well and then you don't," Kasey Kahne said after Saturday's race. "And then to get a great weekend here like we did this weekend feels good. We are just going to try and carry it on."
If Kasey Kahne hopes to have another race like he had at Bristol, he and the rest of the No. 9 team will have to recapture some of the past success he had in the Dodge Charger that will once again be run at California Speedway this weekend, not the Car of Tomorrow Dodge Avenger that he rode to victory lane at Bristol.
In the late February race at California, Kasey Kahne started on the outside of the front row. However, engine failure halfway through the 250-lap event ended his day and race prematurely.
But Kasey Kahne has a better overall history on his side when it comes to racing at the two-mile Southern California track: He won last year's Labor Day weekend race at Fontana – and has two other top-five and an additional top-10 finish in seven career starts.
He's hoping he can get some of that old feeling back in order to continue the new good vibes he came away with from Bristol.
"(Now) we're back to California and we are back to that same car that we ran 31st with last week (at Michigan, the same type of two-mile track that California Speedway was patterned after)," Kasey Kahne said. "Hopefully we do something this week to make that performance come up a touch next week."
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