Gain for Kahne

Kasey Kahne and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team are doing their best to finish off an up-and-down season strongly.

Kahne’s performance in the Chase has been, to say the least, erratic. Even after posting his second straight top-five finish Sunday at Phoenix, where he ran second to Kevin Harvick, Kahne is 12th in the Chase standings.

But with Sunday’s success, the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet already is pointing to 2014.

“I get down once in a while and feel pretty bad about what’s going on,” Kahne said. “We’ve had a lot of things happen to us this year, but we’ve battled back the last two weeks. We ran pretty good, fifth and second, so I’m happy about that.

“We’ll try to finish off strong at Homestead with another top five and maybe prepare a little better for next year and try to have a little more consistent, stronger year from start to finish.