Kahne still uncertain about future plans

Kasey Kahne

Kasey Kahne talks about his slow start to the 2010 season and uncertainty of his plans past 2010 with RPM:

YOU'VE HAD SOME ISSUES THE FIRST TWO WEEKS.
"The car has been decent. At Daytona and last week I think we've been top 10 cars. We got in a wreck at Daytona and last week I just made a mistake and cost us a lot of points and a top 10. It's disappointing, but those things happen once in a while. Hopefully, we'll get things turned around and have good, strong run this whole weekend."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE IN A HOLE?
"I don't think our season is over, but we're definitely in a hole as of today. We're thirty-something in points, so that's not very good, but we still have plenty of racing to go."

IS IT EASIER TO SWALLOW SINCE YOUR CARS ARE GOOD?
"Our cars are good. I wouldn't say my car is any different than it was last year. I think the Ford engine runs a little better than what we had last year and that's nice, but as far as balance and going and leading laps or running first, second, third, we're not there. Hopefully, we can get there with the group of people that we have and working with everybody from Ford. The Ford engine is better, but that's it. We have a lot of people there. You've seen how well Roush has run in the past and we've run really well at times at RPM, so, hopefully, we can all put it together and figure out how to make some better race cars."

HAD YOU EXPECTED MORE AT THIS POINT?
"I expected the cars to be better, I mean just a little bit. You'd think gaining with that many people in that group and pulling our knowledge and their knowledge together you would think, 'Man, we've got to have a better balance on race cars doing that.' That's not the case, but I think as the season goes, hopefully, it will be the case, but not as of right now."

WHEN DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING NEXT YEAR?
"It's something I want to know during the season for sure, but it's kind of nice to be able to sit back and look and watch the performance of our team, watch the performance of the Chevrolets, the Toyotas, the Fords and the Dodges and just kind of see where everybody is at and make that decision. We have plenty of time to do it, so it's pretty nice to be where we're at right now, I think, with that stuff and give everybody a fair shot and to kind of know the direction. But, like we see, everything is always up and down. One year one team runs really well, and the next year they're not quite as good. It seems like Hendrick has been on a little roll here for a while, but looking at the gains of RCR it's pretty awesome if you ask me. They made more gains than anybody. They went from wherever they were last year to being right in the middle of it. It's pretty cool to see somebody jump like that."

IS RPM IN A TRYOUT PHASE RIGHT NOW? DO YOU HAVE TO SEE SOMETHING FROM THEM?
"Well, I have to feel like we're going in the right direction. This is my seventh year and I've stuck it out with them since day one and done everything I could to drive and done everything to communicate and I'm gonna keep doing that. In the middle of this year or towards the end of this year, when I decide to make my decision of what I'm gonna do, if I don't feel like we're gonna be able to run with the Hendrick cars for the next three or four years, then I've got to make a change. If I feel like we can, then I'm gonna stay right where I'm at."

WILL YOU LOOK AT IT EVERY WEEK TO SEE WHERE YOU ARE IN POINTS?
"I think if we run well it would be kind of exciting to see that I jumped five spots or three spots or how that works, so I'll look forward to running well, hopefully, and jumping up that list to see how many spots we can pick up a weekend. I saw Johnson picked up a bunch. Early in the year you can pick up a lot if you have a good race." Ford Notes/RFR