ESPN Sprint Cup

ESPN.com preseason rank: No. 16

2009 Outlook

Will this be the Kasey Kahne of 2006 who won a series-high six races, collected a career-high 19 top-10s and made the Chase? Or the one of 2007 who had no wins, only eight top-10s and finished 19th in points? Nobody knows for sure, particularly given all the uncertainty after the merger of Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises into Richard Petty Motorsports.

Kahne's problem throughout his career has been consistency. One moment, he'll show the flash that draws comparison to the best in the series. Then he'll disappear for weeks, sometimes months at a time.

"The top of the list is more consistency," crew chief Kenny Francis said when asked in what areas the team needed to improve. "We had a lot of good runs in 2008. We had wins and ran up front a lot. What we didn't have was consistency."

Said Kahne: "Be more consistent, not just for good finishes, but on the bad days when we miss the setup. On the bad days, we need to finish in the top 25. Last year we were in the 35s and 40s. We can't have days like that."

2008 Review

In late May and early June, Kahne was as good as anybody. He won the all-star race and the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, then won again two weeks later at Pocono, followed by a second at Michigan to improve to seventh in points.

Then came a 33rd at Sonoma and 30th at New Hampshire, and he wasn't heard from again.

"We had a few reliability problems or weird stuff that happened to us that didn't seem to happen to everyone," Francis said. "We just had too many below-30th-place finishes for flat tires and other things happening to the car. We had an engine problem and an electrical problem one week."

Kahne had nine finishes of 30th or worse, finishing 14th in points. Champion Jimmie Johnson had three.

"So that's what we need to improve on," Francis said.

He has a shot at the title if: He can post more victories than DNFs. Last year's total was two wins and four DNFs. Kahne has 31 DNFs over the past five seasons. That's 13 more than the driver who has won the past three titles.

He won't win the title because: The Dodge engines won't give him the power he needs to compete for one, and because he simply hasn't learned how to salvage good finishes from bad days.