Sunoco Pit Move: Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Both of Kasey Kahne's top-10 finishes this season have come at Daytona International Speedway, but the second was more a matter of perseverance than power.

When qualifying was wiped out by rain Friday night, Kahne was stuck with a 27th-place starting position in Saturday night's Pepsi 400. That proved to be a bad omen, as four laps from the start, Kahne was involved in a two-car accident with Jeff Green.

Running in the lane closest to the wall, Kahne had nowhere to go when Green's car touched his left-front fender heading into Turns 1 and 2. The No. 9 Dodge suffered heavy damage along the entire right side of the car and where Green's car made contact with Kahne.

Despite Kahne having to make multiple stops for repairs during the ensuing caution, team director Kenny Francis and the crew were able to keep Kahne on the lead lap during that time, a critical move that would pay dividends later in the race.

"The crew did a tremendous job repairing the car," Kahne said. "We didn't lose a lap for the initial repairs and when we made stops later, they continued to work on it.

"It just kept getting better and better. It's a shame we were caught up in that incident that early in the race."

Restarting 42nd, Kahne bided his time and avoided a series of accidents that sidelined some of the top cars, including Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick. By Lap 40, Kahne was 30th. Sixty laps later, he cracked the top 20.

When Sterling Marlin blew a tire and crashed on Lap 115, Kahne came in for service, a smart decision that gave Francis the opportunity to gamble 16 laps later, when David Reutimann's spin touched off another multi-car accident.

As most of the lead-lap cars came down pit lane for tires, Francis had Kahne stay out behind leader Casey Mears. Now with track position -- and a car that was as good as it had been all night -- Kahne found himself in a position to contend when the green came out on Lap 138.

Two laps later, Kahne wound up in the middle lane with no drafting help and slipped back to 11th. However, he fought his way back into the top 10, passing Jimmie Johnson and David Gilliland in the closing laps for ninth, his best finish since an eighth-place effort in the season-opening Daytona 500.

"A pair of top-10s at Daytona this year," Kahne said. "This was good for our team and a great way to start the second half of the season.

"We overcame adversity [Saturday] and battled back to finish ninth. That's the mark of a good team. It says a lot about this No. 9 crew."