With five races remaining before the cutoff for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship, Enumclaw’s Kasey Kahne maintained his standing in the Top 12 with a fifth-place finish Monday, Aug. 3, in the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 on the 2.5-mile track at Pocono Raceway.

“It was good,” Kahne said of the crazy, final 10-lap shootout to the finish that came after a debris caution. “We were in the top five all day with our Budweiser Dodge. That final restart was pretty wild. I was getting pushed and kind of blew Turn 1. I passed (Sam) Hornish and ran into (Juan Pablo) Montoya. He saved it, we kept going and the fastest car won, I think.”

Denny Hamlin picked up his first victory of the 2009 season with Montoya finishing second.

With qualifying rained out Friday, July 31, and the starting grid passed on drivers’ points, Kahne started eighth, his 10th straight top-15 start at Pocono, the longest current streak. Kahne has one win, coming in 2008, three top-five and four top-10 finishes in 10 Pocono starts. He also holds the track qualifying record of 172.533 mph (52.164 seconds), set in June 2004.

“The team does an awesome job,” Kahne said of his fourth top 5 finish this season. “The cars have been great. Kenny Francis (crew chief) and Keith Rodden (car engineer), everybody behind the scenes have been doing a really good job. Our pit stops are flawless. The guys do a great job…in and off pit road really quick…so thanks to them, we keep rolling and we just need to keep it up each week and get into the Chase.”

Kahne moved up one spot to seventh in Sprint Cup drivers’ standings. Tony Stewart continues to lead. The top 12 drivers after the Sept. 12 Richmond, Va., race are eligible to vie for the Sprint Cup title. With five races to the cutoff point, Kahne is feeling good about his chances.

“I feel that a lot of things can happen in the Chase; obviously, they do each year,” he said. “I’m real happy with where our team is right now. We’ve been really consistent. They’ve been giving me really good race cars each weekend. Our communication has been good. Our pit crew has been awesome. I think they’ve been as good as anyone on pit road. That kind of stuff you just keep building on and preparing and hopefully, you don’t make any mistakes and get into the Chase and then keep building from there. I think that we have a really good shot (making the Chase) just doing what we’re doing right now. We need a couple more things to go our way, to figure out before the Chase if we want to win races and be really competitive. I think that we have a top-10 team right now. We just need to keep building on it.”

Sprint Cup racing continues Sunday from the road course at Watkins Glen in New York. Kahne won the series’ earlier road course race in Sonoma, Calif., this season. Television coverage begins locally at 10 a.m. on ESPN.