On Friday afternoon Kasey Kahne's road course luck seemed to be changing. The driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge used his surge of mid-summer momentum to carry him to his second pole in the last three events.

In four previous attempts at Infineon, Kahne could only muster a best finish of 23rd-spot. Hoping to improve on that stat, Kahne led the field to the green flag and maintained the top-spot for four laps. Once Jimmie Johnson made the pass for the lead going into Turn 11, Kahne's day never rebounded.

Plummeting through the field, Kahne struggled to find the handle on his Budweiser Dodge. Just twelve laps into the race, Kahne had fallen to the 10th-spot. Twelve laps later and he was outside the top-15.

Bringing the car to the attention of his crew on Lap 70, Kahne was caught on pit road when the second caution of the day came out. Still on pit road, NASCAR held the No. 9 at the exit until the entire field went by, leaving Kahne a lap down to the leader and well outside the top-25.

Despite a variety of adjustments, Kahne was never able to make up what he had lost in the early stages of the event. When the checkered flag fell, Kahne crossed the line in 33rd-spot, one lap down.

The disappointing finish was his third finish outside of the top-30 this year - second in four weeks - and dropped him two spots in the series standings to ninth.

"It just wasn't our day," Kahne explained. "The car was extremely loose. I was pretty much spinning my tires everywhere on the track. It's just unfortunate given the fact that we started on the pole. I really can't explain what happened today."

While the beginning of the weekend looked to be a continuation of momentum for Kahne and the No. 9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports team, the disastrous run in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 proved that starting up front does not always mean that's where you'll end up.