Standings keep shuffling as Kahne, Martin jump big

JOLIET, Ill. -- Back in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings after a brief absence, Mark Martin, winner of the LifeLock.com 400, used a roller coaster to describe Sprint Cup Series points racing.

You have to wonder what adjective Kyle Busch would use after nearly dropping out of the Chase standings when the No. 18 team finished 33rd due to engine problems Saturday night. The team dropped two positions in the standings, and only four points make the difference between Busch in 10th, Martin in 11th and Matt Kenseth in 12th.

Press Pass

Mark Martin talks about his fourth win of the season and how he's mentally handling his battle to earn a Chase berth.

• Press Pass: Martin
• Press: Pass: Kahne

For what seemed to be a fairly smooth race at Chicagoland Speedway, its results still managed to have a major impact on the standings.

Kasey Kahne was the night's big winner as his third-place finish propelled him four spots to the eighth in the standings. Kahne is still in championship contention despite being caught up in a last-lap crash at Daytona last week, which resulted in a 15th-place finish.

"Races like these, nights like this where you can get those points and try to stay in that top 12, that's what it's all about and making the Chase," Kahne said. "The guys had good stops all night. They've been on a roll with that. The car was good from the drop of the green."

Prior to Saturday night's third-place finish, Kahne's best showing at Chicagoland was 15th in five starts. He attributed his success to Dodge's new R6 engine, good pit stops and keeping up with the car's changes throughout the night, but he admitted he struggled a bit on the restarts.

"Those restarts at the end were tough," he said. "There were a lot of good cars. I think we got as far back as sixth on the restarts and worked back to second and then third with Jeff [Gordon]. I lost some and I made some again. Same every week -- I lose three of the restarts and win three of the restarts. I don't know, 50 percent is not too bad."

Regarding the engine, Kahne said it's a work in progress but that early signs are showing how competitive it is making his team.

"Well the engine, I mean, we got to compare it to the best [Saturday]," he said. "We raced with Hendrick and the Gibbs, the 11 [Denny Hamlin], throughout the race. Every restart, every pass for position was against one of those guys. We still have some work to do. I think it was decent, but we still have some work to do with those guys."

What's clear is that the Roush Fenway Racing drivers have more work to do. The operation remains winless at Chicagoland after all five drivers posted sub-par performances.

Greg Biffle, who finished 31st, dropped four spots and is now out of the Chase standings in 13th, and Carl Edwards slipped one spot to sixth in the standings.

"It was frustrating. We were real good. I got tangled up with the 24 car [Gordon] there and that kind of put us back a little bit, but at the end it was really my decision not to pit that hurt us," said Edwards, who finished 14th. "I think if we would have pitted with those guys, we were as good as a lot of them all night but we just couldn't make it back up there. It wasn't a disaster, though."

Kenseth finished Saturday night's race in 23rd, dropping two spots and hanging on to the 12th Chase spot by 10 points ahead of Biffle.

On the up side, Juan Montoya is still going strong and finished 10th Saturday, climbing two positions in the standings to ninth. It gave Montoya four consecutive weeks of being inside the coveted top 12 in points.

Point's leader Tony Stewart finished fourth to maintain his place at the top of the standings, and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Ryan Newman brought home a sixth-place finish to remain seventh in the Chase standings.

"Well, we seemed to be a 10th- to 14th-place car, depending on the run, with the exception of the first run when we were about a 20th-place car," Newman said. "We just kept working with the U.S. Army Chevrolet and the guys did a great job, especially on pit road. We struggled a little bit down the straightaways, but I can't complain a whole lot because the guys that run up in front of me were the same horsepower."

Newman said it was a great rebound for the team after a string of unfavorable finishes dating back to Michigan.

"We took advantage of a couple of guys beating each other's fenders and got a good points day for us," he said.