SONOMA, Calif. -- Even though he likely won't compete for Hendrick Motorsports until the 2012 season, Kasey Kahne and Rick Hendrick still talk once a week. When they chatted Friday morning at Infineon Raceway, the most pressing matter between the two of them -- where Kahne will compete next year -- didn't even come up.

That's how much implicit trust Kahne has in his future car owner.

“

What he loves to do in this sport is win races, and they've done it for a long time, so I just leave it up to him. He said he would, and I stick behind that.

”

-- KASEY KAHNE

"He said he'd take care of it," said Kahne, who signed a multi-year deal to drive Hendrick's No. 5 car beginning in 2012, but as yet has no firm 2011 plans. "He's been an awesome guy, and a great guy to talk to. What he loves to do in this sport is win races, and they've done it for a long time, so I just leave it up to him. He said he would, and I stick behind that. I think it'll be a pretty awesome opportunity whatever it is next year."

Kahne comes to Infineon Raceway as defending champion of the road course event, a year removed from a poignant win that returned car owner Richard Petty to Victory Lane. Twelve months later, so much has changed. His Richard Petty Motorsports team has merged with another organization, switched manufacturer to Ford, and gone winless over the course of 2010. Kahne's No. 9 program has fallen from a championship contender to an outfit 21st in points. And most notably, Kahne chose not to re-sign with RPM, even though his decision to join the Hendrick fold leaves him in limbo for next year.

His 2011 destination remains a mystery. "No news there," Hendrick said Friday, after being inducted into Infineon's Wall of Fame. But the car owner admits that alternatives are coming into focus.

"I've had a lot more options than I thought I would, and a lot of it is just waiting for the right time and the right deal," Hendrick said. "I haven't been in a hurry. I know we've got some good options. There are new deals coming out every day. I get unbelievable calls from people in this garage. So we're just not ready to pull the trigger."

One of those options isn't putting Kahne in the No. 5 car a year early, given Mark Martin's stated desire to remain in that seat through the duration of his current contract, which doesn't expire until after the 2011 campaign. Hendrick indicated that it was still likely that Kahne would be in a Chevrolet, but wouldn't vouch for a recent online report that had Kahne spending 2011 in the No. 09 car of James Finch, who won a Talladega race last season with Brad Keselowski and gets his engines from Hendrick Motorsports. (Continued)