Kahne trying to shake off stormy start to year at TMS (cont'd)

That's why the team is glad to be in Texas this weekend. Sort of.

Kahne's 22.6 average finish at Texas Motor Speedway is skewed due to three blown engines in five starts. The two times Kahne did finish he was second in 2004 and he won this race last year.

When he returned in the fall, however, he battled with Tony Stewart to determine who had the car to beat. Turns out it was Stewart when Kahne, running second with 12 laps to go, pulled onto pit road with another blown engine.

No doubt the heat is on Kahne to turn his season around in a hurry. It's just not hot enough to turn it around in one race.

"Just pressure to run well, start running up front, gain some points, get back inside the top 20 and top 30," Kahne said. "That's where more of the pressure is. The part of running well here last year gives you some confidence. We were first and second in both races if we don't have a problem. So it definitely feels good to be here."

Evernham agreed, to some extent, as long as his squad keeps Texas part of the big picture.

"Right now they've got to stop worrying about how they've got to win, about how they've got to make the Chase," Evernham said. "We've got to get what we're capable of getting this weekend and move on.

"We've got to make sure that what we don't do is make mistakes. If we get out here and we've got an eight- or 10th-place car, that's what we should do -- get eighth or 10th. If we have an eighth- or 10th-place car and wreck it or blow it up or run 30th with it then we haven't done our job."

Yet the owner said just because the team isn't heading into this weekend with a win-at-all-costs attitude doesn't diminish the fact that it's on everyone's mind.

"Those guys will tell you that it's not, but it's there," Evernham said. "Some days we screw up an eighth-place car worrying about winning. It's because we're really competitive. We feel like we should win, but some days you've got to take what you've got and build on it."

And that's what Kahne wants to do to get his hauler parked back on the right side of the garage.

"I've been over here before. And I'll probably be over here again some other times," Kahne said. "It's the way things go. It's tough, but we have to take advantage of really good tracks for us, and this is one of them."