NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Kahne, Harvick Not Telling
Kasey Kahne is in the final year of his contract...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 24, 2010   Charlotte, NC
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne is currently 23rd in the points standings. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick are both in the final year of their driving contracts and as such are considered the prize free agents in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Silly Season class.

Kahne has said that how Richard Petty Motorsports performs in the early races this season will go a long way towards determining whether he re-signs with the team or moves elsewhere in 2011. Harvick has made similar hints about his relationship with car owner Richard Childress.

Asked by SPEEDtv.com Tuesday if he had come to a decision about whether to stay at RPM or move on, Kahne said, “Not yet. ... I feel like we’ve had a pretty good five races – seven if you count the other two (Budweiser Shootout and Gatorade Duel) to start the year – so I feel pretty good about where we’re at and where we can still go this year.”

And despite being 23rd in points, Kahne said he was optimistic that his team could rebound and he could qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“We’ve had just a few things go on, but that’s racing and things happen,” said Kahne. “I think we can recover from that and gain some of those points back pretty quick, and get in the top 12 and win races.”

Although he is leading the Sprint Cup points standings at the moment, Harvick has not won a points race since the 2007 Daytona 500, and he wants to see his Richard Childress Racing team make some more improvements before he decides what he might do in the future.

“The most important thing to me is that we take that next step – like making the cars better, making the engines better, making everything better,” Harvick said. “We need to keep the competitiveness of the team at the level where it needs to be because everybody is going to continuously get better. You can’t always play catch-up; at some point you have to be ahead to win a championship.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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