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DOVER, Del. -- A year after he should have celebrated his breakthrough victory on the Nextel Cup circuit, Kasey Kahne is back at Dover International Speedway hoping for a better result.
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Kahne was running away from the field last June with 18 laps remaining in the MBNA 400 when he spun in an oil slick dropped a lap earlier by Casey Mears and crashed out. It took him until last month to become a first-time winner on NASCAR's top circuit, and now Kahne has some unfinished business here.
"I had no clue the oil was there," he recalled. "To have a car that good and not be able to race for the win, that's pretty disappointing."
Kahne went on to become rookie of the year on the strength of five second-place finishes and came close to qualifying for the new Chase for the Championship, the 10-race final segment of the season when the top 10 drivers compete for the title. Dover certainly contributed to Kahne's 13th-place finish in the standings.
His 21st-place finish in June -- as disappointing as it was -- was only a precursor to Kahne's next outing on The Monster Mile last September. A broken flywheel put him out after just 13 laps and he wound up 42nd in a filed of 43.
He laments that loss almost as much as his first setback on the high-banked concrete oval.
"We broke early in the race, so we don't know how competitive we could have been," he explained. "We'd like to be around to run the entire race and see what we have at the end, that's for sure."
The misfortune of last year has done nothing to dim the 25-year-old Kahne's enthusiasm for racing at Dover.
"The track is fast and you can drive the car hard here," he said. "I like that. It's a lot of fun. It's a cool track."
Mark Martin was the beneficiary of Kahne's June crash and got his fourth Dover victory, ending a 72-race losing streak that stretched over 2½ seasons.
Mayfield's new contract
Jeremy Mayfield will be driving for Evernham Motorsports for the foreseeable future. The 36-year-old driver has signed a multiyear contract with the Dodge team.
"Year after year, he has shown that he can be a constant candidate to win races and make the Chase for the Nextel Cup," Ray Evernham said Saturday at Dover International Speedway. "He has been a great team player for Evernham Motorsports."
The driver from Owensboro, Ky., has four career victories, nine poles and 46 top five finishes in 357 starts on NASCAR's elite circuit. He got his first victory for Evernham last September in Richmond, Va., to qualify for the final 10-race, 10-driver title competition.
