Kahne's hopes are running on fumes

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- What a roller-coaster year its been for Ray Evernham, the car owner who hoped to use the Chase for the championship as a springboard to lift him from this season of strife, struggle and, yes, scandal.

Instead, he found himself in that same old rut Monday, a day after Kasey Kahne's 38th-place finish pretty much eliminated him from Nextel Cup contention. After a frantic push to even make the 10-race Chase, Evernham Motorsports never even got a clean shot to run for the title.

A ho-hum run in New Hampshire, followed by a classic case of wrong place, wrong time on Sunday in Dover, Del., has Kahne a distant ninth place in the standings with eight races to go.

"No more championship," Kahne shrugged. "We all thought we had a shot to win the Nextel Cup, but you can't have two rough weeks."

Slow down, driver, your car owner isn't throwing in the towel just yet.

Especially not when these final eight weeks of the season provide an opportunity to erase a lot of what happened in the first 26.

"It doesn't mean we are done," Everham said. "We've got a chance. It's not over until it's over."

Evernham makes a convincing argument, but few outside his camp will buy into it.

Kahne is in a tremendous hole and there's too many terrific points racers ahead of Kahne in the standings who will need to falter. Still, it could happen.

After all, Kahne needed just two races to erase a 90-point deficit to earn a berth in the Chase. But this hole is twice as deep.

After all, Kahne needed just two races to erase a 90-point deficit to earn a berth in the Chase. But this hole is twice as deep, and the stakes are so much higher -- for both the driver and the car owner.

Evernham fully expected 2006 to be his year. He expanded from two cars to three, a growth that required him to make tough personnel moves that were certain to leave someone unhappy.

That someone was Jeremy Mayfield, a two-time Chase qualifier who saw key team members taken away and given to Kahne and new teammate Scott Riggs. Mayfield didn't like it, and when his team began to stumble, he put the blame squarely on Evernham.

Their relationship steadily -- and publicly -- deteriorated until Mayfield was fired in August.