Originally published Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 12:00 AM

Auto racing | Kasey Kahne tries for Chase berth today

Entering today's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Kahne is 14th in the standings. The race is the final event before the field is set for the 10-race Chase.

By McClatchy Newspapers and The Associated Press

Latest NASCAR results

RICHMOND, Va. — Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw will need good luck today to make NASCAR's 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Entering today's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Kahne is 14th in the standings. The race is the final event before the field is set for the 10-race Chase.

Leader Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton have clinched berths in the Chase. Sixth-place Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., and seventh-place Kevin Harvick will make the Chase merely by starting today's race.

Kahne is 48 points behind 12th-place Clint Bowyer and 31 points behind 13th-place David Ragan.

"I'll race as hard as I can every single lap," Kahne said. "That's what I did last weekend [in Fontana, Calif.]. I raced 250 laps like they were the last laps, and we ended up finishing eighth. That's the best that we could do. It was just a hard-fought race, and that's the way it's going to be [in Richmond]."

Kahne has two victories this season.

"If I don't make it in [the Chase], I'm going to be really disappointed on how things ended up this season," Kahne said. "I feel like we've been a top-10 team all year long. We had two bad races [last month], and now we're battling for 12th in points.

"I feel like we're better than that."

Notes

• Scott Dixon leads second-place Helio Castroneves by 30 points entering today's PEAK Indy 300, an IndyCar Series event at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. Dixon will start second in the field of 28 in the season's final points event.

Castroneves, who apparently qualified in fourth, must start from the rear of the field as a penalty for driving under the white out-of-bounds line at the bottom of the banked track "numerous times," IndyCar spokesman John Griffin said.

• Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton has the pole for today's Belgian Grand Prix.

• Defending series champion Ron Hornaday won the Camping World 200, a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event in Madison, Ill.

Hornaday has four truck victories this season and a record 37 in his career.

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