Kasey Kahne struggled with blinding glare from the late-afternoon sun on his way to a seventh-place finish at Phoenix. (Photo: Getty Images/Jonathan Ferrey) » More Photos

GLARING MISTAKE Kasey Kahne had an OK seventh-place finish at Phoenix Sunday, but afterwards was upset about the blinding glare in Turns 1 and 2, which contributed to a spate of late-race cautions. "It was a top-10 car and we had a better race than we expected," Kahne said. "I couldn't see anything. The sun is straight in your eyes all the way until you have to brake. You just guess and make sure you don't hit the guy in front of you on restarts. He gasses first, and then you go. That's just the way it is. I think they should start the race an hour earlier. That causes wrecks."

BUSCH LEAGUE One of the ongoing debates in NASCAR is what to do with the Busch Series, the sanctioning body's AAA division. The Busch Series used to be the launching pad for young drivers, but the influx of Nextel Cup regulars such as 2006 Busch champ Kevin Harvick is making opportunities for young guys harder to come by. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who both owns a Busch team and drives in the series occasionally, thinks he knows how to improve things. "The only real way to fix it is to tell Kevin (Harvick) and those Nextel regulars in the top 30 in points that they can only run 15 races," Earnhardt said. "That way the team owners like (Richard) Childress and those guys get back to bringing in the Clint Bowyers and those guys into their cars in 15 races … and see some young guys come into the sport with some potential. … On the other side of the coin, it's amazing to have a guy dedicating his entire year to running both series. It's really, really hard to run those races. Kevin (Harvick) did it the entire year. That's amazing."

MONTOYA MAY RACE HOMESTEAD Car owner Chip Ganassi has entered a Nextel Cup car for Juan Pablo Montoya in next week's season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but remains undecided as to whether or not Montoya will actually race. Ganassi said Sunday he likes what he's seen so far of the Colombian in his first venture into NASCAR's Busch Series. "I think he's been doing a great job," Ganassi said of Montoya. "We had five of the fastest laps in the (Busch) race yesterday on the good side. On the bad side, he came in and pinched the guys against the wall one time. We had a slow, slow stop. It's just another learning curve. Trying to avoid an accident, he glanced off the wall again. In some sense, that's four races and four scrapes against the wall. You can look at it that way, too. He understands we're trying to find the limits of these cars. We're very happy with his awareness and what's going on around him and what's going on with the cars. Quite frankly, I think he's being too nice when these guys come down on him in the corner. He backs out of it and hits the wall. You just can't do that."