Johnny Benson

Kasey Kahne and his team have hit on something of late and that puts them in position to surprise many and get to Victory Lane on Saturday night in the Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Working in Kahne’s favor
His recent performances have for the most part been stout and it looks like he has reversed the direction of his season, which for most of March and April seemed to be headed more towards a repeat of last year’s dismal showing than towards another stellar campaign like the one he produced two years ago.

The Gillett Evernham Motorsports driver led the Cup series with six wins in 2006, making the Chase for the Championship and finishing eighth in the 10-race, season-ending playoff to determine a series champion. But 2007 was a completely different story as Kahne missed the Chase, went winless and posted only one top-5 and just eight top-10s.

The first sign that Kahne was finally getting untracked this season came on May 17 when he won the Sprint All-Star race. One week later on the same Charlotte track he won the Coca-Cola 600. Since then among Kahne’s results have been another win (at Pocono) and a runner-up result at Michigan. Last week after starting 41st at Daytona he raced his way to a seventh-place finish and climbed two spots in the standings up to eighth.

At Chicagoland Kahne has had some real solid qualifying efforts (second in 2004 and third in 2006) but he hasn’t had any impressive finishes. Now that things are clicking with the team of the No. 9 Dodge and Kahne and his crew chief Kenny Francis are in sync, a win could come his way on Saturday night.

Other drivers to watch
Tony Stewart is one of two drivers – Kevin Harvick is the other – to have multiple wins at Chicagoland. Stewart won this event last year and also in 2004. Harvick won it the first two years it was run, 2001 and 2002.

Stewart’s winless this year but that’s due more to circumstances than anything else as he has run well. Not only is he overdue for a win but he has a solid Cup resume at Chicagoland where only twice in seven races has he finished out of the top five. And this is the part of the season when Stewart usually gets on a roll.

It’s been a big week for Stewart, who has been released from driving for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2009 – the final season of a multi-year deal – that release coming after the two-time Cup champion announced his intention to leave JGR and become a driver and a part owner of the current Haas CNC Racing team. While this could be a distraction, I don’t expect that to happen knowing the type of competitor Stewart is and his hunger to win races, make the Chase and compete for the championship.

Special feature LifeLock.com 400 Loop data, track and season stats for some favorites at Chicagoland.

Kyle Busch’s year just keeps getting better. Last week at Daytona he picked up his Cup-Series sixth win of the season. He’s a good bet to stay hot at Chicagoland where in three Cup starts he has never crossed the checkers lower than 14th with his best Windy-City finish being third two years ago.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won at Chicagoland in 2005 and he had even a better set-up in 2006 when he started 25th, worked his way through the field, led for 27 laps, and wound up fifth. Last year he qualified fifth but wound up 19th. Besides his win two years ago, Junior has two top-fives and three top-10s in seven Cup starts at Chicagoland.

Since 2005 Matt Kenseth has been dominating at this venue. He was runner-up last year and in 2006 the Roush Fenway Racing driver led the most laps (112) and was in front with 27 laps remaining. But he got spun out with only four laps to go and then ran out of fuel, dropping to a finish of 22nd.

In 2005 Kenseth came up just short of a win. He started fourth and led for 176 laps but on his final pit stop he took four tires while other teams took two. He had to play catch up and ran out of time in his attempt to get in front and he finished second.

There has been a lot to get pumped up over for Brian Vickers of late. He’s coming off an 11th-place finish at Daytona and at 15th in the standings he’s just 112 points from the No. 12 spot – which is the cutoff for making the Chase. Over its last half dozen races, the No. 83 Toyota of Team Red Bull has collected the third-most points among Cup cars. Vickers likes running Chicagoland where he has not come home outside the top 15 in his three Cup starts.