Dodge with another strong performance at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Once again, the Dodge cars put on a good show at the beach, coming close to repeating the manufacturer's performance in the season-opening Daytona 500.

Penske Racing's Kurt Busch was a strong pusher up front while Gillett Evernham Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne likely made the biggest improvement of the race, pulling up from the rear of the field; and Robby Gordon carried the torch for all under-funded and unsponsored Sprint Cup teams everywhere with a surprisingly strong finish.

Gordon, a single-car team owner and Dodge driver, finished sixth making him one of three Dodge cars to finish in the top 10, along with Busch and Kahne.

Kurt Busch

Coke Zero 400

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Carl Edwards	Ford
3.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
4.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
5.	David Ragan	Ford
6.	Robby Gordon	Dodge
7.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
8.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet
9.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
10.	Mark Martin	Chevrolet

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"I know everybody is out to win this thing. I definitely think if we had some help there at the end, we had a shot at the win," Gordon said. "For us to come back after getting shuffled out, getting stuck in the middle and still finish sixth, it shows how strong our little team is getting in this world that everybody tells us single-car teams can't compete. We have been very fast lately. We seem to mess it up when it comes to race time, but we're been eliminating those mistakes lately. We didn't mess up tonight."

Although he was faced with the uncertainties of a back-up car and a poor starting position, Busch came through with a fourth-place finish in Saturday night's race.

"It was a hard fought day," said Busch, who crashed in practice this weekend after blowing a tire. "We came into the pits and changed a right front shock which you don't normally do. We changed the left side track bar and that takes wrenches out of your tool box. You normally don't do that. We just fought all day with making changes trying to make our car better. It was about the same setup that we had here in February and [the setup] showed up right there at the end."

Busch said his Dodge really came alive near the end of the race.

"Our car pushed well and got pushed well. It was a good day for us," he said.

From the green flag to the checkered flag, Kahne arguably made the biggest gain of the race as his No. 9 Dodge started 41st in the field but finished in the seventh spot. Kahne gained 17 positions in the final 10 laps.

"I was having a blast. On the last 20 laps, guys got pretty aggressive. It stinks when you get hit like we did, but we survived a real bad crash and were able to come in with a decent finish," said Kahne of taking a hit during a restart on Lap 143 while running in fourth. The contact caused his fender to push in creating a tire rub.

Several laps later, a caution was thrown allowing the No. 9 to pit and change left-side tires.

"We probably had the best racecar on the entire track with a mediocre engine in it and still finished seventh. Our Dodge handled perfect all night long," he said.

Kahne moved up two spots to the eighth in the Sprint Cup point standings.

GEM teammate Patrick Carpentier found a career-best finish of 14th.

"I had a great engine, maybe the best I've had all year," Carpentier said.

And Terry Labonte proved he still knew how to handle a Dodge around Daytona as the retired driver. Driving the No. 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge for Kyle Petty who is in the TNT broadcast booth, Labonte finished 16th.

In the season-opening Daytona 500, Dodge finished first and second with Ryan Newman as the race winner and Kurt Busch behind him; the drivers were two of six to finish in the top 10.