Notebook: Kahne leaps into top 35 by salvaging finish

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- It wasn't pretty. It wasn't the way Kasey Kahne wanted it. But in the end, Kahne finished well enough in Sunday's Food City 500 to move to 34th in owner points, ensuring he will race in Martinsville next week.

Kahne had a top-five car for the first half of the race, but he blew a left-rear tire on Lap 283, ending any chance for him to win his first race in 2007.

Lap-by-Lap

Kyle Busch moved past Denny Hamlin on Lap 485 and held his position through two restarts for fourth career victory.

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"We had a left-rear tire going down before the contact with the 07 [Clint Bowyer]," Kahne said. "The splitter on the 07 apparently cut down the tire and I brushed the wall with the right-rear. We lost three laps making the repairs."

Although he lost the laps, Kahne was able to salvage a 19th-place finish.

"Despite the damage, it was fast when we returned to the track after the accident, we just couldn't overcome the three-lap deficit," Kahne said. "We still picked up a lot of positions to finish in the top 20."

Johnny Sauter is tied with Kahne at 365 owner points although he missed the race at Bristol.

As for guys who will have to qualify their way in at Martinsville, Ward Burton's 18th-place finish wasn't enough to move him into the top 35 as he sits 36th. Following Burton is a trio of Toyotas: Dave Blaney (37th), Brian Vickers (38th) and Dale Jarrett (39th), who crashed out of the race early.

Jarrett was furious after the accident, blaming Matt Kenseth for his spin.

"I was trying to pass Kyle Petty and get in under him and then Matt Kenseth just turned me going into the corner," Jarrett said. "This is not the first time that he's done something like this.

"Everybody has this great vision that Matt Kenseth is this nice guy on the racetrack. He is a nice guy away from the track, but he's a rough driver on the racetrack when he doesn't have to be. We'll have a discussion."

Trouble for the 16 car

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's director of competition, announced after Sunday's race that Greg Biffle's No. 16 Ford was too low in post-race inspection.

"The No. 16 due to its post-race potential infraction is going back to the R&D Center," Pemberton said.

Biffle's fifth-place finish was his best of the season, but possible penalties could be coming to the Roush Fenway Racing team.

NASCAR will take the car back to the Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., and do a more thorough inspection to see if it is, in fact, below the minimum height requirement.

"The rear of the car was low. We give a quarter-inch on the low side and the car was out of tolerance," Pemberton said. "It didn't meet it, and we want to take a closer look at it. We'll get back where we have better equipment to measure and we want to do everything to make the right call. That's why we said potential penalties may come."

After all the inspection that cars went through this weekend at Bristol, Pemberton was surprised one failed.

"We were surprised it was low," he said. "It was the only car out of the eight that we ran through that came up intolerant."

Smith relieved this one is over

Now he can just focus on being a racecar driver.

All week, the hoopla surrounding the No. 01 team of Regan Smith was how the youngster was going to handle taking over the car for Mark Martin while it had the points lead. A mistake from Smith on pit road hurt the team, but he was able to salvage a 25th-place finish and get out of Bristol third in owner points.

"Anytime you feel you have a better car than the driver, you leave the track disappointed," Smith said. "I was learning a lot out there [Sunday]. I made a mistake on pit road early and that pretty much killed our day from then on."

The mistake he refered to happened during the team's first pit stop on Lap 49. Smith was penalized for being over the pit-box line, dropping him from 18th to 39th and a lap down.

"Sometimes the officials are lenient but he wasn't [Sunday]," Smith said.

For the rookie, it's time to move past Bristol and on to Martinsville, which he is all too happy to do.

"I'm glad this is over -- all the hoopla about my Cup debut," he said. "The U.S. Army Chevrolet was quick at times so that's promising and it was a huge accomplishment to finish the race at Bristol.

"I am looking forward to Martinsville next week."

No. 66 no longer seeing red with Green's finish

It's been a while since Jeff Green has had a top-five finish -- 2002 to be exact -- but on Sunday, Green drove hard and clean all day long and was rewarded with a sixth-place finish, his highest at the .533-mile track.

"I like Bristol and this car and all these guys, they did me such a good job [Sunday]," Green said. "We stayed out of trouble."

This has been a tough season for the No. 66 Haas Racing team. Through the first four races, the team has yet to finish on the lead lap, with its top finish coming at Las Vegas, where Green was 25th.

A sixth at Bristol is just what the team needed, according to Green, and he said he can feel a shift in the team's luck.

"It's momentum for sure," he said. "We know we can do this. We just have to get out and do it and not get down on each other, and I think we have the last couple weeks. This is a momentum builder for sure and a pride builder.

"[Crew chief] Harold [Holly] and those guys did a great job, and I'm not going to give up on them and I know they're not going to give up on me."

Dodge in sport to stay

Mike Accavitti, senior manager of Dodge Motorsports, said that his company is in NASCAR "for the long haul" and that he doesn't expect that position to change even if Dodge's parent company, DaimlerChrysler AG, is sold, as is being rumored.

The Chicago Tribune reported Saturday that shares in DaimlerChrysler AG jumped 6 percent to their highest level since 1999 after an investment analyst reported that a major supplier and a private-equity partner have bid for the Chrysler group.

"We don't intend on going anywhere," Accavitti said. "We have contracts with our teams; we have contracts with NASCAR. We believe in the sport as a marketing tool to help us get the message across about the performance and the durability of the Dodge brand. And so whether we're sold or we stay with Daimler or we're part of a strategic partnership, we intend to remain involved in NASCAR. That's certainly our intention. We don't expect any changes."