Kahne giving it his all or running out the string?

It's not always readily apparent, but NASCAR is a team sport, not an individual one. While a driver holds much of the future of a team in his hands, he doesn't hold it all. In fact, it could be argued that he doesn't hold the majority.

The facts are what they are. The brakes in Kahne's No. 9 car have failed in two of the past three races. Last I knew, that wasn't in a driver's control. In fact, Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis, went to his bosses at RPM and lobbied for permission to use a different brake fluid, and was overruled.

Kasey Kahne is an excellent Sprint Cup Series driver. You don't win 11 times on the circuit -- including two Coca-Cola 600 victories -- without being able to drive.

Another indisputable point is that Kahne is the only Richard Petty Motorsports driver to reach Victory Lane for the team. He's done it twice, by the way. Both times were in 2009, including that year's Coca-Cola 600.

In the past two seasons, Kahne has led 585 laps for RPM, more than three times as many as the next productive driver on the team in that regard, A.J. Allmendiger's 181. He also has 14 of his team's 18 top-five finishes and nearly half of RPM's total of top-10s.

In fact, this season, the one that has been labeled a disappointment by some, Kahne still has three times as many top-five finishes than the rest of his team -- combined.

Does that sound like he's not "doing his part"?

When Kasey Kahne decided not to get back in the No. 9 Ford at Charlotte, the writing was on the wall -- mentally, he's already with Hendrick.

And it's hard to blame him. If I knew I was going from a mediocre team to the pinnacle of success, I'd be counting down the days, as well. But I'm also not a professional driver. And Kahne's actions at Charlotte were inexcusable.

This is a man who gets paid a lot of money to represent Richard Petty Motorsports to the best of his ability. By not getting in the car after being disgusted with the brakes, a crew member, whatever -- that's unprofessional.

Kahne said he was too sick to drive, yet less than 12 hours later he was well enough to run a 5K in 22 minutes. That's a hair more than a 7-minute mile, folks. That's sick, but in a good way.

It's clear Kahne has checked out on RPM and, in return, RPM should check out on Kahne. Remove him from the No. 9 car for the final five races. Put A.J. Allmendinger in, Elliott Sadler -- it doesn't matter. But if Kahne has no interest in making the No. 9 team a success, then RPM needs to remove him from the equation.

I'm sure it's not as easy as it sounds, with Budweiser and contracts in the mix. But drivers should not be able to hold teams hostage when said driver knows he is leaving at the end of the season. If Kahne is so unhappy and ready to move to on, I say show him the door.