Kahne, Junior taking different routes to same Chase destination

After struggling through the entire month of April, Kasey Kahne has stormed back over the last month into the thick of the Chase. Robert LeSieur/Reuters

Five things we learned on a long, hot afternoon of racing at Pocono (Pa.) Speedway:

1. Race winner Kasey Kahne is looking more and more like a safe bet to make the Chase.

Heading into Sunday's race, Kahne sat in 12th place in the points. After struggling the entire month of April -- he didn't finish higher than 23rd in the three starts in the month -- he's now won two of the last three races. He dominance of Pocono was total: he captured the pole and led 69 laps in taking the checkered flag. His No. 9 Budweiser Chevy was so much faster than the rest of the field that he even overcame a flubbed pit stop -- a few of his lug nuts were loose, forcing him to come back down pit road -- to win his ninth career Cup race.

"I've never had a car that dominant before," said Kahne. "Never ... It's been a huge turnaround."

Indeed it has. Now ninth in the standings, Kahne's rise reflects the overall improvement of Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Last season no driver from the Gillett stable made the Chase, but the organization made wholesale changes in the offseason -- new blood was brought into the engine department and many personnel were assigned new tasks -- and clearly those moves over the winter are now paying dividends. The No. 9 team still needs to show more consistency on short tracks and intermediate tracks, but over the last three weeks no driver in the series has been hotter than Kahne.

2. Kyle Busch may have had an historic weekend, but it wasn't memorable.

Yes, Busch became the first driver in history to compete in three different NASCAR races on the same weekend when the events were held at different tracks, but it didn't go well. After finishing second in the Craftsman Truck Series on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch was 20th in the Nationwide race in Nashville on Saturday and he came in dead last, 43rd, in the Sprint Cup race at Pocono on Sunday. In the Cup race he crashed into Jamie McMurray early and slammed into the wall, essentially ending his day. Busch still is still the leader in the overall standings, but his points lead over Jeff Burton was shaved by 121 points.

So did all of the travel have a negative impact on Busch's performance this weekend? Judging from his performance, the answer seems obvious.

3. The Pocono race needs to be shortened.

One word sums up the action on the track on Sunday: boring. Drivers complained about their inability to pass under the green flag, because of the dreaded aero-push that the cars experienced on the track. What's more, this snoozer lasted more than four hours. The best remedy would be to shorten the race by 100 miles or even 200 miles, an idea that every driver I talked to strongly endorses.

"If you put a 300-mile race, you raise the intensity level up," said Jeff Burton. The race gets the most intense at the end. The sooner you can start that intensity level up, the better the action, the more chances people take. The more things happen, not that I advocate wrecks, but cautions do create exciting racing. The more we can do to compact those things on a bigger race track, the better opportunity for a high-quality race."

4. Brian Vickers is starting to come alive.

Though Vickers, who finished second on Sunday, hasn't won a race this season, he led 61 laps at Charlotte three weeks ago and 18 at Pocono. He won't qualify for the Chase -- he's currently 17th in the points -- but his recent success bodes well for the future for his Red Bull team. Aligned with Toyota, Red Bull was a startup operation last year, and they experienced plenty of growing pains in '07, as it was a weekly struggle for them to simply qualify for races. But this team is starting to come on, thanks largely to the vast resources of Toyota Racing Development and the help they're receiving from Joe Gibbs Racing, another Toyota team. Vickers has always been considered a top-ten talent in the garage, and it would surprise no one if he wins a race before this season is over.

5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is quietly having a stellar season.

Though Little E still hasn't won a race in over two years, he's authoring a season to remember. Currently third in the standings, Junior finished fourth on Sunday, which was his third top-five run in the last month. Earnhardt's season resembles what Matt Kenseth did back in '03, when Kenseth won the championship by wracking up one top-five run after another. Junior is going to be a serious player in the Chase, no question. Who knows? He may well win the championship without ever taking a single checkered flag.