Kansas City ? After further review, Kasey Kahne figures he still has a shot at the championship.

But he knows it’s a long shot.

The third-year driver was caught up in Tony Stewart’s spinout at Dover International Speedway last weekend, and heads into the race Sunday at Kansas Speedway ninth in the Nextel Cup standings – 182 points behind leader Jeff Burton.

To get back in the race, Kahne will have to do more than just drive hard and avoid trouble. He’ll also need several of his rivals to find their own bad luck.

“I think we’re a long ways from winning the championship,” Kahne said. “I think that, you know, with the right breaks and the performance that we’re capable of doing, we can get right back in it.”

Kahne was more upbeat about his championship chances this week than he was in the immediate aftermath of the Dover incident, which caused him to declare, “No more championship.”

But the short history of NASCAR’s postseason-style championship format would suggest that Kahne’s first reaction was the correct one.

Yes, Kurt Busch had a 42nd-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway during his championship run in 2004. But Busch held the points lead going into that race and didn’t lose it afterward.

And last year, Stewart’s worst finish in the final 10 races was 25th. That’s why Stewart expressed what seemed to be legitimate remorse after his spinout took Kahne out.

“Wrecking is one thing, but when you take out somebody that’s in the Chase, you’ve screwed up a whole team’s year by one race,” Stewart said after the race. “And of all people, it’s one of my good friends.”

Stewart and Kahne have tangled on the track in the past, but share similar open-wheel short track racing roots – and the same agent.

Stewart knows it’s unlikely that Kahne can rebound to win the title.

“Kasey can go out and win the rest of the races and not win the championship still,” Stewart said. “It’s not about who’s going to win the championship based on good finishes, it’s going to be about guys who just don’t have a bad day.”

Kahne said he doesn’t harbor any resentment toward Stewart, who called Kahne this week.

“He just feels bad that, you know, that I was there when he spun out,” Kahne said. “I mean, that’s just a racing thing.”

Kahne received encouragement from team owner Ray Evernham.

“He just said, ‘Nothing you could do about that. That was just racing, things happen, and disappointing, but, you know, we’re going to still give it a shot and do everything we can to get back in the middle of this thing,”‘ Kahne said.

One thing in Kahne’s favor is his stellar record at intermediate-length tracks this season. All five of Kahne’s victories this year have come at medium-banked tracks of 1.5 or 2 miles: Atlanta, Texas, Charlotte, Michigan and California.

While Kahne’s best finish in two races at Kansas is 12th, he has shown speed there and won the Busch Series race at Kansas Speedway last year. “(Kansas is) similar to some of the other tracks we’ve won at this year, and I don’t see why we can’t run up front and make the right adjustments and do the right thing in the race and put ourselves in the right spot at the end to win,” Kahne said.