Crashes at Daytona affect battle for Chase position

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- How intense is the Race to the Chase for the Sprint Cup?

Despite nine of the 16 drivers that are in contention for one of the 12 playoff spots being involved in incidents of varying degrees Saturday evening in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, only five of those drivers changed positions.

Martin out early

Mark Martin's distaste with plate racing continued when the No. 5 moved up the race track and into Matt Kenseth, sending Martin spinning.

• Martin is first caution
• Big wreck involves 13
• Reutimann smacks wall
• Burton cuts down a tire
• Final Laps: Crazy finish

Just how crazy the night was for the point chasers was pointed out by Kasey Kahne's fortunes. He came into Daytona in 13th position -- one point behind 12th -- but left the in the final Chase spot despite being involved in two major accidents and finishing the race in a totally wrecked race car.

"To get a 15th-place finish and gain in the driver point standings is pretty cool," Kahne said after leaving the infield care center. "It could have been a lot worse."

Indeed it could have been. Kahne was involved in starting what was called a 13-car accident on the backstretch just before halfway, which caused little damage but knocked his No. 9 Dodge back to 29th in the running order.

Kahne's Charger was so good he was running 12th on the final restart with four laps remaining. But with 90 percent of the final lap run, Kahne ended up with Kyle Busch's No. 18 rear end planted in his windshield, with his car pushing Busch's across the line in 15th spot.

Kahne had mixed feelings about his night.

"I'm not sure we survived the big wreck," Kahne said. "We finished the race, but it was an awful hard hit for a stock car that I took when I got caught up in that [last] wreck.

"It was a decent day for our Budweiser Dodge [Saturday]. We just struggled a bit with speed on the straightaway, but were fast in the corners, which made it tough to race all night. It's what we had."

The best part about Kahne's night, which was his sixth top-15 finish in his last seven starts, was that it placed him unofficially 65 points ahead of 13th-place Mark Martin in the standings.

Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis, said the best thing his team had on the horizon was that it would have Dodge's new R6 engine package in the car for next weekend's race at Chicagoland Speedway, where he was 15th a year ago. (Continued)