NASCAR: Kahne buoyed by fourth-place finish

By finishing fourth on Sunday at Richmond, Kasey Kahne and crew chief Keith Rodden believe they have finally pieced together all the elements needed to transform their team into Sprint Cup contenders.

Despite high expectations, Kahne hasn't enjoyed much success since getting paired with Rodden prior to 2015. They failed to make the Chase for the Championship last season, and this was just their fourth top-5 in 44 races together.

But Kahne believes his No. 5 crew has started to communicate better, resulting in an eighth-place finish at Texas and fourth-place showing at Richmond.

"That's basically what we've been doing," Kahne said. "I feel like I want every guy on my team to be on my team. I think they're the best at what they do and I feel like we can really do a lot together. Now, I feel like they're really starting to feel the same thing about me, that I'm the driver they want. ... When you have each other's backs, you work together as a team, you keep getting better. That's where we've been and that's where we've been excelling at."

Rodden credited his over-the-wall crew for keeping Kahne inside the top five on Sunday despite several late cautions and pit stops.

"I think the biggest takeaway from me is that our team can do this," Rodden told RACER after the race. "Our pit crew performed excellently under pressure. It's one thing when you're not running as well, but we came in top-5 and were leaving top-5. They weren't rattled by the pressure."

Rodden said the car is better than the 15th place it has averaged this season, but circumstances have prevented Kahne from routinely finishing inside the top 10.

He expects that to change.

"We've been sixth to eighth every week but we need to be first to third every week," Rodden said. "The first step to do that is finish where we're running on a given week and now we've done that."

Kahne said he gets the most enthusiasm right now from looking at the scoring pylon during practice and qualifying because it's the surest sign that his team is starting to build chemistry. They've started to rally around each other, and now the results are manifesting.

"Hendrick Motorsports gives us great racecars and it has for a long time," Kahne said. "We haven't performed near where we should have in a lot of these weekends. It's not the car. It's a lot of other things. But it all comes with being a strong team."

Now they have momentum, and several of Kahne's favorite tracks coming up in Talladega, Kansas and Charlotte. Rodden believes this is an opportunity to show they belong in the upper echelon of the sport this season.

"Momentum is a huge part of what we do and with the grind that we have, a day like this is encouraging because we're reminded that our cars are fast," Rodden said. "It's not like we've been slow, but this is a great push for our shop and for our road crew.

"I think we're going to get an extra push from our guys because of this and that's going to show up on the track."