With skid over, Kahne now turns to nemesis in Chase

Oh, what he would give for a stress-free weekend in Richmond. How nice it would be to cruise into that 26th event of the Sprint Cup season with no pressure, able to go all-out for the win. What a relief it would be to have his playoff berth guaranteed before he even arrived in the Virginia capital, liberated from the stress and anxiety that have always accompanied such a trip.

Video Highlights

• Around the Track: Kahne's win
• Race Chatter: Kasey Kahne
• Sights and Sounsd: Sonoma
• Press Pass: Kahne at Sonoma

Not for Kasey Kahne. When it comes to the Chase, he's the bubble boy -- the one driver, it seems, destined to find himself squarely on that cutoff line year in and year out. This season appears no different; after his victory last weekend at Sonoma, Calif., Kahne finds himself 13th in the standings, three points out of the final Chase berth with 10 events remaining until the championship field is decided.

It's not the most reassuring position. But by now, he's used to it.

"We're always in that 10th to 14th [position]. That's a tough spot when it's coming down to Richmond with the things that can happen," said Kahne, who snapped a 37-race winless skid with his victory on the road circuit. "People can crash you, or you can do things yourself. We've been through it all. So I just want to start performing every week, and hopefully not be so close when it comes down to Richmond. And if we are close, we'll do everything we can to make it, and that's all that we can do."

Kahne is well familiar with close. Three times he's arrived at Richmond's September race with a chance to qualify for the Chase, and all three times he's been through the wringer. As a rookie vying for a berth in the inaugural 10-man Chase in 2004, he came to Richmond in ninth place. He finished 24th and plummeted to 12th in the standings, missing the playoff by 28 points. Two years later he was on the outside, 30 points back of the 10th and final spot, but placed third at Richmond to make it by 16 points.

And then there was last year, when Kahne went to Richmond in 14th place and 48 points out of the 12th and final Chase spot. He finished 19th on the .75-mile oval, and missed out on the final playoff berth by 69 points. No surprise, then, that even in the immediate aftermath of a victory loaded with subplots -- Kahne's first win on a road course, his first win of any kind in over a year, and car owner Richard Petty's first trip to Victory Lane in a decade -- the driver's thoughts quickly turned to the bigger picture.

"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."