Rookie Kahne in second again

Monday, March 8, 2004 | 10:03 a.m.

Once he figured out what fenders were for, the rest came pretty easy for Kasey Kahne.

Kahne, who followed Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman from the USAC short track ranks to NASCAR Nextel Cup, is making the big stockers look as easy to master as those guys did.

After putting his No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge on the pole during Friday qualifying, Kahne posted his second consecutive runner-up finish to Matt Kenseth at Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The consistent run capped a big weekend which also saw him finish second to Kevin Harvick by a whisker in Saturday's Sam's Town 300 Busch Series stop.

"It was definitely mission accomplished," said Kahne, a native of Enumclaw, Wash., who will turn 24 next month. "To run second both days and to qualify third and first, that's all you can ask for. It's a great team effort and a great weekend. It was exciting."

Exciting weekends have become the norm just three races into his Nextel Cup career, as Kahne two weeks ago lost a side-by-side duel to Kenseth at Rockingham by about 3 feet. The margin of victory -- .010 -- was the fourth-closest finish since the advent of electric timing in NASCAR.

"We need a few more laps," said Kahne, who finished 41st in his rookie debut at Daytona last month upon taking over for semi-retired Bill Elliott but has been greased lightning ever since. "We keep getting down to the end of these races and NASCAR needs to put a couple of more miles at the end."

Kenseth was so strong Sunday that Kahne might have needed a few more hundred miles to catch him. Kenseth's margin of victory was 3.426 seconds -- nearly an eternity in NASCAR.

Any hope Kahne might have had of reeling in the winner was curtailed by a fuel conservation run during the last green flag segment. But at least he was able to chase down and pass Stewart on Lap 260 of 267, ending their spirited duel for third. Kahne inherited second place when Kevin Harvick ran out of gas two laps later.

"That was the first time I've ever had anybody say 'save fuel,' " Kahne said of the orders he received from crew chief Tommy Baldwin.

In sprint and midget car racing, where main events seldom run longer than a couple of dozen laps, fuel conservation is not an issue.

"I was like, 'How do I save fuel? Lift early?' " Kahne said. "Then I remembered hearing Ryan Newman talking about saving fuel. I did some of the stuff I heard him talking about. Obviously, we saved enough."

Kahne said swapping positions with Stewart, one his heroes growing up, was a major thrill at the end of the day.

"We had a close battle with Tony Stewart. He's a good competitor, and he's helped me out a lot," said Kahne, who climbed to eighth in points after setting a track record in qualifying with a lap of 174.904 mph. "It's fun to race with him. He got me a little loose getting into turn 3 with three or four to go, but I was able to save it and kept on racing."