With his first top 10 finish of the 2009 season at Atlanta Sunday, it looks like Enumclaw NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne is getting the jump on the consistency he wants from the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge team.

“We had a really good top five-ish car all day, which was really nice,” Kahne said in post-race comments. “It was great to have a Dodge Charger that good, but then we got behind on that pit stop. There was too much confusion and we didn’t get it figured out. But we fought back and we finally got our lap back. It took a long time. We finally got it back and ended up with a good run. I wish it had been a little better, but a top-10 is good. It was nice to see Kurt (Busch) win in a Dodge. That’s good.”

Kahne, who started 13th, came from a lap down to finish seventh after a green-white-checker overtime period.

After four races, the finish catapults him to ninth in Sprint Cup drivers’ standings. Jeff Gordon leads the series followed by Clint Bowyer and Sunday’s winner Kurt Busch.

Sprint Cup drivers take a week off and resume racing March 22 at the half-mile short track in Bristol, Tenn. Plateau area television coverage begins at 10:30 a.m. on FOX.