Racing

Kasey Kahne and the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Team scored a respectable 12th-place finish Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, earning the Budweiser Team a position in the 2009 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

Richmond was the final race before the 10-race Chase for the Championship begins. The 12 drivers that advanced to the Chase had their point total reset and are now seeded based on wins this season.

The Chase driver's point totals were reset to 5000 following Saturday night's race and each driver was awarded 10 bonus points based on their number of wins this season. Mark Martin became the top seeded driver heading into New Hampshire next weekend with 5040 points. Kahne's two wins in 2009 scored him a fifth-place seed as the Chase kicks off next weekend in New Hampshire.

Kahne started the Rock & Roll 400 from fifth and maintained a top-15 running position for the majority of the race, complaining only of a loose-in and loose-off condition.

Crew Chief Kenny Francis made several chassis adjustments to help alleviate Kahne's handling concerns. At one point in the race, Kahne fell as low as 18th, but was never in jeopardy of falling out of the Chase.

Kahne maneuvered his way from 18th-12th during the final 100 laps to bring home a 12th-place finish.

The Budweiser pit crew turned in another strong performance on pit road, earning Kahne several positions on each stop.

This is the second time that Kahne has qualified for the Chase. He also qualified in 2006.

Denny Hamlin led the most laps and scored the victory at his hometown track on Saturday night.

Brian Vickers raced his way into the final spot of the 2009 Chase. He beat Kyle Busch by eight points for the coveted position.

Quotes from Kahne on his Richmond finish and making the 2009 Chase:
"It feels great to make it in the Chase. We wanted to run a little better tonight, but we did enough to make it into the Chase. I'm proud of everyone on this Budweiser Dodge team. Kenny (Francis, crew chief) called a great race and put us in position to stay up front and not get caught up in someone else's mess. I'm happy for all the guys that work so hard to put our Budweiser Dodge in a position to make the Chase. It's a great feeling."

NOW THAT YOU'RE IN THE CHASE, HOW DO YOU KEEP EVERYONE FOCUSED WITH ALL THE EXTRA HAPPENINGS SURROUNDING RPM? "It's definitely something that I've thought about and have asked that question. The timing seems to be a little off and why are we doing this now when we're looking to start the Chase and hopefully be as competitive as we've ever been in the Chase. I'm going to do the things that I've always done and work with the guys. They've always taken care of me. They've given me great cars. They've put out a huge effort. It doesn't matter if we haven't made the Chase or made the Chase, those guys have worked hard each year and we have a great group of guys. Just stand behind them and they stand behind me and hopefully, it will take us through the year and then we'll go on from there. But yeah, there's definitely some people probably wondering and hopefully, we can make it through this whole situation."

WHAT TRACKS DO YOU THINK THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON DURING THE CHASE? "I think that there are some tracks out there...you know... the mile-and-a-half tracks we've been running good at here the last half of this year. Charlotte, we ran great at the beginning. There are some good tracks for us, there's a few other ones... Talladega you never know...New Hampshire...some of the shorter tracks we still have some work to do. Tonight we weren't as good as we needed to be, we ran 12th and probably could have been 10th by the end of it. There are just a few tracks that we need to keep working hard at and we know what they are and hopefully we can hit on some things if we want to have a chance at a championship. We're going to do all we can to win races, get the most points we can and hopefully have a shot late in the season."

KENNY FRANCIS (Crew Chief, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
"The Budweiser Dodge was a handful tonight. We were just too loose off the corner all night. We could never get it to where we liked it, but we kept chasing it and got it to the point where we were about a top-10 car. We made some gains on it, but more importantly, we did what we had to do to make the Chase."

"We're in the Chase. It's a real relief for everyone to make it. It's big for the whole organization at RPM and Dodge and Budweiser and all our partners. We're just looking forward to putting together some good runs the next 10 races and give them all we got."