NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: AdvoCare 500

Topics:  AdvoCare 500

Kasey Kahne
November 10, 2013

AVONDALE, ARIZONA

KASEY KAHNE: I felt pretty good. I had a lot better car, a lot more grip than what I had yesterday in practice, so I thank the guys, Kenny and Keith, they came up with some good stuff for today. We were close with our Farmers Insurance car, and we were on a little bit longer strategy. We stayed out longer so our tires were‑‑ Harvick was on a lot fresher tires, I guess. He was able to stay out longer and came out there at the end and was pretty quick on that restart, got by us. Carl short pitted. That's how he got so far out front. It was interesting, the strategy plays such a big factor here. You have half the field doing one thing and half the field doing the other, and everybody is pitting five, six laps difference on those strategies, as well.
It's kind of a crazy race, but worked out pretty good, and I thought the track got a little bit better as it went. I just keep hoping we could get a little bit softer tires so we could race around a little more.

Q. It's definitely been an up‑and‑down season for you, but over the past couple races you've had a couple solid top 5s. Over the course of the season has there been any point where you began to wonder if things were going to get better? Did you lose any confidence?
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, I think you lose a little confidence. I get down once in a while and feel pretty bad about what's going on. I thought just‑‑ we've had a lot of things happen to us this year, but we've battled back the last two weeks. We ran pretty good, fifth and second, so I'm happy about that. We'll try to finish off strong at Homestead with another top 5 and maybe prepare a little better for next year and try to have a little more consistent, stronger year from start to finish.