With skid over, Kahne now turns to nemesis in Chase (cont'd)

"We're right on the verge," said Kahne, who despite 10 career wins has made the Chase just once in his Sprint Cup career. "It's been like that a couple years now, and we need to make it. We need to figure out how to make the Chase and just be consistent. We've ran strong for the last six races, top-five, top-10 material. We haven't finished there, but we've been there ... We're still that close to the top 12. I think we have a great opportunity if we keep showing up and working as hard as we have been to make the Chase."

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Clearly, there's work still to be done on that front. Kahne raves about Dodge's new R06 engine, which powered him to victory at Sonoma, and which he'll have under the hood of his No. 9 car again this weekend at New Hampshire. Although Kahne doesn't have a career average finish better than 13th at any of the 10 remaining regular-season tracks, he has won on four of them -- Pocono, Michigan, California and Richmond.

"The engine has more power, we just need to work on better fuel mileage when it comes to fuel mileage races," Kahne said. "We've been working hard on making that better and still having the power that we need. In the past couple of years, I'd say that we've been close with all that stuff, but we're always on the edge of making it or not making it. We have to be strong here the next five races and get more solidly in there than being right on the edge."

But when it comes to the Chase, Kahne quite literally lives on the edge. Good thing he has such a calm, unruffled demeanor. Strangely, he doesn't seem to mind all the stress and pressure that goes along with his annual quest to crash NASCAR's playoff round. If anything, he seems to feed on it.

"I'm excited. I enjoy it," Kahne said. "That may be one of the reasons that I enjoy racing so much, because of the pressure and the excitement of trying to beat cars around you, pass the car in front of you. I look forward to that. Whether we're right in the middle of that or not, hopefully we're in position to win a Sprint Cup. I enjoy the pressure and trying to perform under pressure."