Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion
Race Recap for the Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest

• Kasey Kahne battled an ill-handling car in the early stages of the Shelby American, but major chassis adjustments by the No. 9 Budweiser Ford team allowed him to battle his way up to finish ninth and score his first top 10 of the 2010 season.
• Kahne started the race in 19th position, but fell back early as he battled a loose-handling race car.
• The No. 9 Budweiser team pitted for the first time on lap 48 and made extensive chassis adjustments. Kahne restarted 25th after that stop and quickly gained several positions, but radioed to the crew that he was still unhappy with the car’s handling. The team pitted again on lap 90 for another round of adjustments. Kahne restarted in 24th position on lap 93 and began working his way up through the field. He moved into the 15th position by lap 114 and took over the 10th spot just 11 laps later.
• Kahne ran as high as fourth while teams cycled through green-flag stops less than 60 laps from the finish. After everyone pitted, the No. 9 Budweiser Ford was running in seventh position. However, crew chief Kenny Francis told Kahne the team was one lap shy of the finish on fuel.
• The caution flag waved for the seventh and final time on lap 229. Francis called Kahne to pit road on lap 231 for right-side tires, additional chassis adjustments and fuel. Kahne ran over a hose exiting his pit stall and had to come back down pit road to serve a penalty. The Budweiser Ford was running in 11th position when the field took the green flag on lap 234 and gained two spots in the final laps to finish ninth.
• Kahne jumped 10 spots, from 33rd to 23rd, in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings after scoring a top-10 finish. He sits 31 points outside of 20th and is 98 points back from the 12th position.
• Jimmie Johnson took home the checkered flag in Sunday’s Shelby American. Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.
• Kevin Harvick leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings by 47 points over his teammate Clint Bowyer.
• Become a fan of Budweiser on Facebook. Exclusive information on Kasey and the No. 9 Budweiser Ford Team can be found on the Budweiser Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/Budweiser.

Kahne on his ninth-place run in the Shelby American: “We were a little bit off at the start and then we made a lot of adjustments to our Budweiser Ford. As we got further to the front and the weather changed a little bit, it was doing the opposite of what was going on earlier. It was kind of a different setup than what we’ve run in the past, so we just need to work on that a little more and figure out exactly what happened there, but I was pleased. From where we were the first 100 laps, we made big gains.”

Kahne on moving up in the point standings: “Yeah, we should be out of the thirties now. We had cars that could run in the top 10 in the first three races. We had a situation at Daytona and driver error at California and we finally got a top 10 here, so I think we’re where we should have been in the other races. Now we just have to keep working hard to try and get those points back.”

The following is the finish position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in the Shelby American:

• Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 DuPont/Pepsi Max Chevrolet team finished third.
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford team finished fifth.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 AMP Energy Juice/National Guard Chevrolet team finished 16th.
• Scott Speed, driver of the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota, finished 22nd.
• Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota, finished 31st.
• Robby Gordon, driver of the No. 7 Monster Energy Toyota, finished 32nd.
• Kurt Busch and the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team finished 35th.

The following is the finish position of the other Richard Petty Motorsports teams participating in the Shelby American:

• Paul Menard and the No. 98 Energizer/Menards Ford team finished 17th.
• A.J. Allmendinger and the No. 43 Best Buy Ford finished 25th.
• Elliott Sadler and the No. 19 Stanley Tools Ford finished 27th.

Next up is the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 7. The first practice session on Friday, March 5, is scheduled to air live on SPEED Channel at 2:30 p.m. EST and qualifying will air at 6 p.m. EST. FOX will provide live television coverage of the race on Sunday starting with the pre-race show at 12 p.m. EST. The Performance Racing Network (PRN) will provide the live radio broadcast.