Kahne startles with lap that leads Dodge camp

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Kasey Kahne came to Daytona International Speedway last month and was Slow - notice that was with a capital "S"?

	Kasey Kahne Credit: AP

His "best" lap during NASCAR Preseason Thunder was way down the speed chart, as the No. 9 Dodge barely broke the 185 mph mark.

And during Saturday's practices, Kahne wasn't much better, going 186.008 for 33rd-fastest in the first session and then going 187.258 for 25th-fastest in the second.

But when the green flag dropped for qualifying, Kahne moved into the top 10. The rookie's 187.766 mph lap was seventh-best Sunday and much better than he'd done previously. And when you consider the speed was reached in heavy wind, that makes it all the more impressive.

Or maybe Kahne and crew chief Tommy Baldwin were a little sneaky.

"It played out well for our lap," Kahne said. "The wind died down a little bit when we went out. We made a lot of changes from (Saturday). They were holding back more than I expected. It was a really good lap. To run in the 47s is pretty cool."

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Holding back? Can you say sandbagging? That's an old Daytona trick, where you don't run as fast as you can until you need to. Sure seems like Kahne's No. 9 team did just that.

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"You always try to hold back two or three tenths for qualifying because you don't want to show everybody what you have," Baldwin said. "Your goal is to always go faster than what you practiced, here and everywhere. We accomplished that."

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Baldwin, the winning crew chief of the 2002 Daytona 500, joined Evernham Motorsports last year as Ray Evernham teamed him with the young Kahne. The No. 9 team underwent a lot of changes, as both driver Bill Elliott and crew chief Mike Ford have been replaced.

When Baldwin got there, the team already had a couple superspeedway cars built. Those were the slow ones used in testing. Baldwin, though, helped build a new car. That's the one Kahne drove this week.

"We felt we were pretty decent," Baldwin said.

The sneak.

	Ray Evernham

"I know that they pull back brakes and do some different stuff," Kahne said. "I don't think anybody knew how much we held back. Ray was in the same boat I was.

"I thought we'd be somewhere from 15th to 20th. That's pretty good in the wind. To actually gain a tenth from (Saturday) in the win was exceptional."

Exceptionally sneaky.

"We just threw everything at it we could," Baldwin said. "Probably if we could do it all over again I'd probably look at a little bit different gearing from what we did. We'll take it."

Kahne was easily the quickest of the acclaimed rookie class of 2004. Brendan Gaughan was 19th at 187.071, Brian Vickers 26th at 186.505, Scott Riggs 29th at 186.397 and Scott Wimmer 34th at 185.575.

Kahne was also the fastest of the Dodge drivers in Sunday's qualifying, but he doesn't expect any of them to come ask him for advice.

Nor will Kahne talk any smack, especially at some of the veterans he outran.

"No," Kahne said. "That'll probably get you in trouble. You know they'll be the guys next week who are with you or not with you on Sunday."