Great story on Kasey Kahne

Quick revival is Kahne aim
By Jim Bentonemail bio

March 14, 2007

Kasey Kahne finds himself in a worrisome place in the points standings, but he's not concerned about his slow start.
Kahne, who won a series-high six Nextel Cup races in 2006 and finished eighth in the standings, is 36th in points after three races this season.
He lost 50 points before the season started as part of the fines levied by NASCAR for rules infractions after qualifying inspections at Daytona. Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis, was suspended for the first four races.
"At this point, I could care less what I did last year," Kahne said Tuesday. "Yeah, we won six races, but it's time to start winning this year. The points are a huge deal. I was looking at them myself, kind of trying to see where we are at and how far we're out of getting back in the top 20.
"I feel like we could have three top 10s. I made a mistake (an accident at Las Vegas). I had an engine problem (at California). We're in a little hole, but we can dig ourselves out of that pretty quickly. We've got speed. We've been up front every single race so far. I'm not worried."
One of Kahne's victories last season came in the spring race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
"Atlanta is a good track for us," he said. "We've always seemed to run pretty solid at it, and we're making some adjustments with our car this week and I'm going to make some adjustments hopefully to finish the race."
The slow start isn't as baffling to the Enumclaw, Wash., native as the opposition of fans and Washington state politicians to a racetrack that International Speedway Corp. proposes to build in the Seattle area.
"They've kind of made it sound differently than what it really would be to the taxpayer," Kahne said. "So I am surprised what it's turned into.
"Come to Vegas and look at what (a track) does down there, or go to Atlanta or go to Texas or go to Kansas. There's so much stuff going on. Look at all the hotels and the malls, and everything is packed full of people. Go look somewhere else and see what it's like. If you do, there's no way you wouldn't want one (track) where you're living."