After three days of Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona, Kasey Kahne might not be sure the 2006 Dodge will be appreciably better than the '05 Charger -- but at least he's comfortable with his surroundings.

Kahne, the 2004 Nextel Cup Rookie of the Year, has a total of one race with his new crew chief -- or "team director" in the parlance of Evernham Motorsports -- but he's got a lot of enthusiasm and resolve for the coming season.

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Despite his first career Cup victory at Richmond last spring, Kahne had a dismal 2005 on his way to finishing 23rd in the standings.

But while at Daytona, Kahne said he didn't feel like his former crew chief, Tommy Baldwin, had lost any of his ability, offering instead that he was perhaps a victim of owner Ray Evernham's system, as well as the challenges every Dodge team faced with the 2005 Charger.

"I think there were some different things," Kahne said of his departed team boss, Baldwin. "One thing, we lost some things we had the year before with the balance of the racecar."

Kahne had four Bud Poles and five second-place finishes in his rookie season, and, despite the win, was nowhere near that performance level in 2005.

"When you run better, everything is better and all the people are happier," Kahne said. "There were some things that Tommy wasn't getting to do that he was the year before.

"There were some things with the team structure, the way Ray wanted to structure the team [and] Tommy didn't really like it as much, but that's the way it was going to be, so he needed to either like it or figure out a different position.

"It kind of got on Tommy and it kind of got on Ray and our engineers. We went through a couple of different engineers because people just weren't happy. The first year everybody was happy -- that was the biggest thing.

Kasey Kahne has most of Jeremy Mayfield's crew this season. Credit: Autostock

"People weren't happy at different races, and when that starts happening your performance goes down [because] all the people on the team aren't as happy."

Prior to the 2005 Homestead finale, Evernham switched the team management of Kahne and teammate Jeremy Mayfield, with Francis leading Kahne's team, starting with that race and continuing into this season.

"With what Ray's done, I think it's definitely going to help," Kahne said. "So far, I'm excited with the guys I have. We get along good, and working with Kenny Francis has been good.

"Our team is great. It's pretty much Jeremy's team from last year with a couple more people added in. They've made the Chase the past two years [so] I feel like we can do a lot with that.

"It's a little confusing and it keeps changing with the roles. Some people have left, and we've got some new people, too. Ray keeps looking for people who want to make a commitment, and that's what they want to focus on.

"We've got a great team. The 19's [Mayfield] got a great team and the 10 [Scott Riggs] is building a good team. It should be fun to work with both of those guys all year; Scott and Jeremy [and] I look forward to working with them."

Carter eyeing career decision

Crew chief Larry Carter, who led Rusty Wallace into the Chase for the Nextel Cup in Wallace's final year in Cup racing, was a victim of a reorganization at Penske Racing South after Kurt Busch was named driver of the team's No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge at the end of last year.

This week at Daytona, Carter was in Daytona helping driver Mike Skinner test a pair of No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Dodges. He said he hoped to have his next career step in place shortly.

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"I don't really know yet what I'm doing but I've got a couple opportunities that I'm looking at, and I'm probably going to be making a decision this week," Carter said. "There's nothing official yet, and I'm just down here helping Bill Davis with a couple of his cars, so we'll see what happens by the end of this week and into next week."

Kinser gets truck deal

A multi-year partnership between MB2 Motorsports and Morgan-Dollar Motorsports will put Kraig Kinser behind the wheel of the No. 47 Chevrolet Silverado in the 2006 Craftsman Truck Series. The 21-year-old Indiana native will run for rookie of the year honors under the tutelage of championship-winning crew chief Randy Goss.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for me," Kinser said. "Morgan-Dollar Motorsports is clearly the class of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Some great drivers have driven the No. 47 the past two seasons and have had great races and finishes. I know I will be in the best equipment out there.

"Having Dennis Setzer as a teammate and working with a crew chief like Randy Goss is the perfect situation for me as a rookie. I am looking forward to having their experience to learn from throughout the season."

Kinser, son of legendary Sprint Car racer Steve Kinser, has seven World of Outlaws feature wins to his credit, including the 2005 Knoxville Nationals. He made two starts for MB2 in the 2005 ARCA RE/MAX Series, including a victory from the pole in his second career start.

Junior says his plate might not be too full for more races. Credit: Autostock

Earnhardt Jr. considers more Busch

Dale Earnhardt Jr. arguably has one of the busier schedules in motorsports, as part owner of the Dale Earnhardt Incorporated conglomerate, owner of his own JR Motorsports Busch team and obviously a full-time Nextel Cup Series driver for DEI.

He tipped while at Daytona testing he might like to do more, however.

"I think that I would like to run more Busch races," Earnhardt said. "Normally we run like four or five a year. I would like to run 10 if I could [because] I think that it's really fun to run the Busch races.

"But at the same time, it was a great idea when you planned it six months ago, but when it comes time to do it, you kind of think 'Man, I already got a lot of things going on this weekend' -- especially, like Richmond races, when you're practicing both cars all day long and you qualify and you race and you qualify; by Friday you're slammed if you're going to run both shows.

"So I don't really think it sounds like a whole lot of fun to me and not really a blast."

But Earnhardt admitted he's nothing if not a realist, so he was still at least considering it, though he made no definite commitment.

"I do know, for sure, running more Busch races is better for your performance and your knowledge and preparation toward your Cup car on Sunday," he said. "And also, with tires changing every year -- every race, for that matter -- you got to be out there as much as you can.

"So that would be cool to do more of that. I've talked to Budweiser, and they understand that viewpoint, and we're working toward doing that, maybe putting together more races