CONCORD, N.C. – For Kasey Kahne, the past three race weekends have shown him what the No. 5 team is capable of.
It began at Texas with an eighth-place finish. Last weekend at Bristol, Kahne was running inside the top-five before late restarts shuffled him back outside of the top 10, but he knew the team was headed in the right direction.
Then came Richmond.
"It was a strong weekend for our team," Kahne said. "Communications side with (No. 5 team crew cheif) Keith (Rodden) and the engineers, just kind of what we worked on, the direction we went was really solid all weekend, similar to Bristol. We just finished it off today."
His fourth-place result was the highest finish of the season for Kahne and tied his highest finish from the 2015 campaign when he finished fourth on three occasions.
His first top-five finish of the year gave him confidence that the team is putting it all together.
“We haven't had a lot of these in the last year, two years,” he said. “So it was nice to run up front, nice to be competitive.”
And it all comes from teamwork, which he said helps breed consistency.
“When you have each other's backs, you work together as a team, you keep getting better,” he said. “That's where we've been. That's where we've been excelling at.”
The driver noted that it’s been encouraging that when he glances at the scoring pylon – whether in practice, qualifying or the race – “I’m at the top half rather than the bottom half” as of late.
That consistency throughout the entire race weekend – and even during preparations at the Hendrick Motorsports campus before heading to the track – has pointed the No. 5 team in the right direction.
“I think it's more being together, being a group, a solid team,” Kahne said. “As we do that, we've been getting better each week. To me, that started three, four weeks ago. Each week it seems to get better from the previous week.
“We're going to keep heading in that direction, I know that, and hopefully the performance stays the same.”