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Kasey Kahne's quest to win NASCAR's Chase For The Cup couldn't have gotten off to a worse start. Kahne started the Chase in great shape, racing his way into the 5th Chase spot. But a blown engine on lap 66 at Loudon dropped Kasey and the No. 9 Budweiser team all the way to the bottom of the Chase standings.
With only nine races remaining, 12th in the standings isn't where any Chase driver wants to be. Jimmie Johnson fell to 12th in 2006 after a bad run at Loudon and went on to win the championship, but let's face it, Kahne isn't working with the same equipment Johnson had. Especially after least week's developments at Richard Petty Motorsports.
Turmoil in the engine shop at Richard Petty Motorsports could have been directly responsible for Kahne's engine problems last Sunday. After RPM announced it would be closing its engine shop once the merge with Yates Racing is complete several employees left the operation. It's hard to believe that didn't have an effect on Sunday's outcome.
Kahne needs a strong run at Dover this weekend to get back into contention. That may not be an easy task. Dover hasn't been one of kahne's best tracks. In 11 career starts at Dover in the Sprint Cup Series Kahne's average finish is 24.1 and he has only 2 top-ten finishes. Obviously Kasey will need to do much better at Dover than he has in the past to have any hope of getting back into the championship hunt.
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