TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway

Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest

• After suffering two DNFs in the 2009 Chase, Kasey Kahne broke into the top 10 in the point standings following his third-place finish last weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
• With five races remaining before the NASCAR champion is determined Kahne sits in the ninth position, 154 points outside of the fifth position.
• This weekend will mark Kahne’s 11th start at Martinsville Speedway.
• Kahne earned a runner-up finish at Martinsville in the spring of 2005.
• In addition to the second-place finish at Martinsville, Kahne has one other top-10 finish. He finished seventh during the fall of 2006.
• In 11 starts at Martinsville, Kahne has an average start of 21st and an average finish of 18th.
• Kahne will be available for interviews with the motorsports media on Friday at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET in the infield media center.

Kahne discusses the Chase and racing at Martinsville Speedway
Do you think drivers have a natural feel for Martinsville? Either you get it or you don’t?  “I think that it’s both. As a driver, I’ve learned a lot about racing here. But I also think that my car has gotten better at this track. The first time I was here, I could barely go around it. I wasn’t even close to qualifying well here. The next year, I was better and the car drove ten times better than the year before and we ran second. It’s a tough track and I think that some people pick this track up quicker than others, but I also think that you need a car with a good set up to win a race here.”

Does patience play a large role at Martinsville? “I think it does, but hopefully not as much because you’re not worried about aero here. It’s more about handling and getting the car to turn and trying to get as much forward drive off the corner as you can. That’s the good thing about Martinsville, there’s no real aero tight here. If you’re tight, you’re tight – your car just isn’t turning that day.” 

You gained some ground in the point standings this past weekend. That has to be a little bit of a relief? "It is, but it is still frustrating to think about where we could be. Since the Chase started, we’ve had two finishes in the 30s, where we would have been fifth or sixth in both of those races, and we'd be third or fourth in points. It's disappointing but that's racing. Moving forward we just need to continue doing what we’ve been doing and getting as many points possible each race and try and gain a few more positions before this is all over.”