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Updated March 3
After three races there's only one driver who has posted top 10 finishes in every event. And the shocker is he doesn't drive for Hendrick, Gibbs or Roush.
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| Kasey Kahne is 3-for-3 in top 10 finishes. (US Presswire) |
It's quite a turnaround for the organization, which finds Kahne fourth in points and his teammate Elliott Sadler ninth.
"This team is back to where it was," said Kahne ahead of Sunday's race at Las Vegas, referring to 2006, when he won six times and captured 19 tops 10s. "Our cars weren't right last year, something was wrong with them. It showed."
Kahne said being able to focus solely on the CoT now that it's full time in 2008 has been a boon.
"Once your car starts handling, all the communication stuff comes back," Kahne said. "(Team director Kenny Francis and I) communicate well. I've never had a problem with him; he hasn't had a problem with me. We'll race great if we have good race cars and they (the team) work really hard to give us good race cars."
Kahne pulled through with a sixth-place run at Vegas, following finishes of ninth (California) and seventh (Daytona).
"It's a good start for us," said Kahne. "The guys did a really good job. The car was a little tight. It may have been my own fault on one of the adjustments. I thought it would help. It did at times, but throughout the last half of the race it didn't. I think we could have been a little better if I hadn't made the suggestion."
The next stop for Kahne and the rest of the Sprint Cup Series is Atlanta, where he should have a good shot to make it four consecutive top 10s, if not win.
In eight starts at Atlanta, Kahne has five top 10s and four top fives, including a victory in March of 2006.
Power Rankings after Las Vegas:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Carl Edwards | 2 |
| Did you know that only twice this decade has the driver with the season's most wins captured the Cup title? Jeff Gordon did it in 2001 and Jimmie Johnson last season. | ||
| 2 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Perhaps next year he can rebound to win his third Power Rankings title in a four-year span. Johnson did trump Edwards in at least one major statistical category: 1,959 laps led to 1,282 for Edwards. | ||
| 3 | Greg Biffle | 3 |
| He came on like gangbusters at the start of the Chase and then was just sort of average the rest of the way. Much like his season as a whole, there was no consistency with the 16 team. | ||
| 4 | Kyle Busch | 4 |
| It's hard to figure what happened to the 18 team down the stretch. Sure there was a little bit of tough luck involved, but Busch and his crew completely lost their way during the Chase after dominating the regular season. | ||
| 5 | Jeff Gordon | 5 |
| He hasn't won in more than a year, a span of 41 races. I'm wondering whether an offseason crew chief swap with Dale Earnhardt Jr. could be in the works. | ||
| 6 | Kevin Harvick | 6 |
| The 29 team found another gear the second half of the season with 14 of Harvick's 19 top 10s coming in the final 18 races. With just a little more muscle under the hood, Harvick can give the Hendrick Motorsports and Roush-Fenway Racing boys a run for their money. | ||
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | 9 |
| He has been a very good driver since he landed on the scene in 2005, but I'm beginning to wonder if he and the 11 team are going to take the next step and become great. | ||
| 8 | David Ragan | 8 |
| I was completely wrong about this kid. After a dismal rookie season and a wreck in this year's Daytona 500 that took out teammate Matt Kenseth, I questioned how he still had a ride. But he has turned things around and appears to be one of the young up-and-comers of the sport. | ||
| 9 | Jeff Burton | 7 |
| After winning Race 5 of the Chase, putting him in the thick of the title hunt, the 31 team fell apart. And that's the problem. Whenever it looks like they're ready to become a contender and start receiving praise, they suddenly fall into funk. | ||
| 10 | Clint Bowyer | 10 |
| Though still with RCR, he'll have a new crew chief and pit crew next season as he gives up the 07 car to Casey Mears. | ||
| 11 | Matt Kenseth | 11 |
| While he rallied to make the Chase after a subpar start, his first season without Robbie Reiser as crew chief was a rough one. He went winless for the first time since 2001, with his last victory coming in the 2007 season finale at Homestead. Don't be surprised if 2009 is his last at Roush-Fenway Racing. | ||
| 12 | Jamie McMurray | 14 |
| Jack Roush has been waiting for McMurray to show up since he signed him away from Chip Ganassi Racing. After more than 2½ seasons, it appears he might have finally arrived. | ||
| 13 | Tony Stewart | 13 |
| For a minute there, it looked like he was going to end his Joe Gibbs Racing tenure with one last victory. Statistically, 2008 was the worst season of his career with just one win, 10 top fives and 16 top 10s. | ||
| 14 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 12 |
| Easily my most disappointing driver. The season started with such promise and then, for some strange reason, disintegrated after his victory at Michigan. In the 21 races that followed that win, Earnhardt had only five top 10s. | ||
| 15 | Martin Truex Jr. | 15 |
| His first season as the lead dog at Dale Earnhardt Inc. wasn't a good one. He sunk from one win, seven top fives and 14 top 10s in 2007 to zero wins, three top fives and 11 top 10s in 2008. | ||
| 16 | Casey Mears | 16 |
| Though his performance was much steadier over the final months, he did nothing to make Rick Hendrick believe he was making a mistake in letting him go. It's off to RCR next season. | ||
| 17 | Mark Martin | 17 |
| He had 11 top 10s in 24 races, the same amount as his DEI teammate Truex had in 36. He also finished with more top fives (4-3). Next season, he's back full time with Hendrick Motorsports. Should be interesting. | ||
| 18 | Kurt Busch | 18 |
| A roller-coaster ride down the stretch. The new Dodge power plant had its moments but struggled at the 1.5-milers, which doesn't bode well for 2009. I wonder if he ever regrets jumping ship from Roush. | ||
| 19 | Brian Vickers | 19 |
| The first half of the season, Vickers and Red Bull Racing looked to be making significant strides. But over the final three months, he failed to snag a top 10 and finished outside the top 30 six times. Last season, when he failed to qualifying for 13 races he had five top 10s. He made all 36 races and had just six top 10s. | ||
| 20 | David Reutimann | 20 |
| Last season, he missed 10 races as rookie driver on a start-up team and finished 39th in points. He ended his second season 22nd in points with four top 10s and captured the first pole of his career in the season finale at Homestead. | ||