Kahne making late-season surge
FORT WORTH, Texas - Kasey Kahne is quietly turning his difficult season around, and Ray Evernham may be the reason behind Kasey Kahne's recent surge.
Kasey Kahne is still deep in the Nextel Cup points standings, but after five consecutive finishes of 16th or better - including three top-10s - Kasey Kahne has moved to 17th in the points.
While that's a long way from the top 10, it's also a long way from where he was earlier in the season. He was 32nd in Nextel Cup points after the Coca-Cola 600 in May after starting the season with nine finishes of 20th or worse.
"I think we've really stepped it up, the team has," Kasey Kahne said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. "I think I have the last couple of months. The team definitely has. Things are going good. We still have the same group of guys, and we're starting to run better."
Kasey Kahne has also qualified in the top 10 in the last four races. He started fourth and finished ninth last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a track similar to Texas.
"Atlanta felt awesome," Kasey Kahne said. "I think we started eighth or 10th a few different times and drove all the way to ... second or third. [We] led a couple laps under caution because the team got me out of the pits quick. We're close. I think we're getting closer."
Kasey Kahne said that Evernham has been more involved with the team since he sold majority interest in the team to George Gillett.
"I can tell a difference with Ray being back," Kasey Kahne said. "I can tell a difference with some of the people that Ray's hired, with Gillett taking over and giving us a better foundation, giving Ray a better opportunity to get out there and help the team and putting the right people in place.
"I think it all goes back to when Gillett bought the team, and it's opened up more doors for us and for our company, and it's just going to get better as time goes."
Kasey Kahne said the recent test of the car of tomorrow at Atlanta was "our best COT test, probably one of our best tests of the year."
"We're making gains," Kasey Kahne said. "We started off the first practice and weren't very good, and I thought by the end of the first day we were better, pretty good. The second day, we ran some really strong runs.
"We're definitely getting better in the COT and the regular car, everything that [team director] Kenny Francis and our whole Dodge Dealers team's been working on lately."
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