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DOVER, Del. (AP) — Kasey Kahne entered last year's race at Richmond on the brink of qualifying for the Chase for the championship.
With all the pressure on the babyfaced star, Kahne finished third in the race and qualified in the 10th and final spot. The result seemed almost expected from a driver who won a series-best six races in 2006, and manoeuvred his way up to eighth in the final points standings.
When the green flag drops there this week in the final race before the 10-race Chase begins, Kahne's only pursuit will be for his first victory.
"I'd much rather have the pressure of having to be in the top 12, or having to win a race to get in, then not having any pressure or not having a chance," Kahne said Wednesday.
Kahne's startlingly gloomy season - which had him deep in the points standings around spring training - has seen an uptick in recent races. He won the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway and finished second, then qualified third last week at California Speedway and finished 10th. The two top-10 results in successive weeks matched his total for this season. He's 21st in the points standings.
Plus, he won the Busch Series race at Bristol and finished sixth last week.
Although Kahne's ready to move on to 2008, the two-week hot streak has him confident he might find Victory Lane yet this season.
"We're getting close," he said. "We're getting to back to where you can start to drive the cars again and feel like you can race a little bit."
Kahne - who met with the media after donating 3,000 tickets to the USO for the Sept. 23 race at Dover International Speedway - said last month's sale of the team to Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett Jr., has made it easier for team founder Ray Evernham to focus on competition issues.
"Ray's been able to probably put a little more time and effort into the competition side of things, and coming up with ideas and suggestions on what to do," he said. "That's helping."
Kahne still has faith that Evernham and crew chief Kenny Francis - suspended earlier this year in a cheating scandal - can get the car figured out for next season. After all, they've all won big before, and Kahne won't give up on them now.
"I haven't asked to get anybody changed on the team. I haven't thought that someone wasn't doing a good job or wasn't working hard," he said. "I just know that they're the same guys we won six races with last year and were one of the best cars throughout the season. I feel like we'll be that again."
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