Credit: Turner Sports Interactive

Kahne still struggling, still puzzled after wreck

One race after Fontana accident, No. 9 Dodge posts DNF at Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- This time last year, Kasey Kahne was on top of the world.

He'd just finished second to Matt Kenseth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the second of five runner-up finishes he tallied en route to winning rookie of the year honors.

A year later, he's just trying to finish races.

	Still searching Kasey Kahne's 2005 Cup stats Race Start Finish Daytona 37 22 Fontana 17 40 Las Vegas 7 38 Avg. 20 33 Kasey Kahne's day takes a turn for the worse Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Following a second self-enduced accident in as many races, Kahne is mired deep in the Nextel Cup Series point standings with no idea how to stop the proverbial bleeding.

"Just a terrible race car," a visibly upset Kahne said after crashing out and finishing 38th in Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. "I tried not to crash the whole race, finally crashed. I was running at least two seconds off the pace and still couldn't hang on to it.

"So we've got to figure out how to get our Dodges better than this before Atlanta, or we'll have another big wreck there."

Kahne was running 27th just after a pit stop when he got loose and backed the No. 9 Dodge into the Turn 4 wall on Lap 101.

Two weeks ago in Fontana, Calif., Kahne got loose in Turn 1 on Lap 160 and wrecked. He finished 40th, dropping him from 23rd to 34th in the series standings.

After Sunday, he's 38th in points.

"Same type of deal [as California], other than I was worse [Sunday]," Kahne said. "At Fontana, we weren't very good at all, and here we were just terrible."

Some drivers voiced concern with the slickness of the LVMS surface under Sunday's hot conditions, but Kahne said it was very similar to last year. He did, however, question NASCAR's new aerodynamic package for the second week in a row.

"The spoilers don't help. The tires don't help. What they have going, I don't think it helps the racing at all," Kahne said. "But there's cars making it work, and we haven't found out how to make it work yet.

"I'm discouraged [Sunday], discouraged with the first three races. This isn't the way we wanted to start the season. There's still plenty of time to do good, have a good season, but this isn't the way to start the season."