Kasey Kahne crosses the start-finish line during the NASCAR Sprint Cup series UAW-Dodge 400 auto race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas on Sunday. Associated Press Photo.

Shaking off the disappointments of 2007, Dodge is off to a strong start this year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

After the first three races, the Dodge Boys have a win (by Ryan Newman) in the Daytona 500 and head into Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway with three Charger drivers in the top 10 in points and five in the top 15.

Newman is second in the standings, while Kasey Kahne is third. Kahne, considered one of the brightest young stars in NASCAR, won six races and finished eighth in the points in 2006. Last year was a disaster for Kahne and the entire Gillette Evernham Motorsports team as they went without a win and failed to get any of their three cars into the Chase for the championship.

Kahne finished a very disappointing 19th in the standings.

George Gillette, who became majority owner of the GEM team midway through season, is pleased by what he has seen from all the Dodge teams so far in 2008.

“A really, really good start,” he said earlier this week. “I think it’s attributable to some really identifiable kinds of things, one of which is the tremendous support we are getting from Dodge. There really has been a change in the attitude and the relationship.”

He pointed to new Chrysler boss Bob Nardelli showing up at Daytona last month with a strong message of support for the Dodge teams.

“You felt it the morning of (the) Daytona (500) when Bob asked us all to come sit with him an hour before the race,” Gillette said. “The coup de gras was to offer to us a $1 million bonus if any one of the teams won the Daytona 500.

“Of course, (team owner) Roger Penske did and we were all thrilled for him. To have six Dodges in the top-eight finishers at Daytona, it was exciting. It really showed a new commitment on Dodge’s part. This isn’t just a Dodge commercial — I don’t want to sound that way — it really is accurate and having (arrived) new to this sport and saw the end of last year and the beginning of this year — there really is a difference.”

As for his own team, which also has Elliott Sadler ninth in the points, Gillette said, “I am very thrilled. The drivers are driving very well, and they’re driving cautiously. You take a look at Kasey’s finishes — three top-10 finishes — and, frankly, where he finished was about the worst that he could have finished.”

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BUSY WEEK: Following a disappointing 37th-place finish Sunday in Las Vegas — his worst performance of the season — David Reutimann began a very busy week.

He flew to Arizona on Tuesday to take part in the Sprint Cup test at Phoenix International Raceway, then boarded another plane for a one-day road course training session Wednesday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

The road course workout was set up by Reutimann’s Nationwide Series crew chief Jerry Baxter to help the Michael Waltrip Racing driver improve his road racing skills.

Reutimann got behind the wheel of a late-model stock car provided by ShiftIntoGear, Inc., a driver coaching school run by ace road racer Chris Cook. Cook has helped train numerous NASCAR drivers, including Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Elliott Sadler and Dale Jarrett for the rigors of turning left and right.

Last year, Reutimann did finish 12th, ninth and 25th in the Nationwide road races in Mexico City, Montreal and Watkins Glen. But Waltrip hired road racing veteran P.J. Jones to run the Cup road races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen in the No. 00 Toyota.

“I don’t have a lot of road course experience,” Reutimann said before heading to Sonoma. “It will also help me when I go back out to Infineon with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.”

With all the travel, including the rain-extended trip to Fontana, Calif., the week before Las Vegas, Reutimann expected to have less than 10 hours at home before heading for Atlanta on Thursday evening.

“I haven’t been home for almost two weeks,” Reutimann said. “I can’t wait to go home. I haven’t seen my daughter and I really miss her. It’s tough.”

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GRASS ROOTS: Besides racing full time in the Cup series, veteran Ken Schrader is gearing up for the 2008 Camping World East Series by expanding his team to two cars.

Jamie Hayes and former motorcycle star Ricky Carmichael will drive for Ken Schrader Racing full-time in 2008.

Hayes will be returning to the team after an eighth-place finish in the 2007 series standings.

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the seat and trying to build on our 2007 season,” Hayes said. “Now that I have been to all of the tracks and have the experience of racing there, I am excited about the possibilities for 2008.”

Carmichael, who won 10 consecutive AMA national championships, is taking on his first full-time four-wheel ride.

“Everyone here is excited, and getting the chance to really focus on learning these cars makes me look forward to getting the season started,” Carmichael said.

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STAT OF THE WEEK: In Jimmie Johnson’s six full seasons in Cup he has gone into the fourth race of the season lower than 14th in the points just once. That was in 2004, when he came to Atlanta 19th. Johnson went on to finish second in the points that season.

Atlanta has been a great track for the two-time reigning Cup champion. Johnson has three wins on the 1.5-mile oval and, in 2002 and 2004, the only other years he wasn’t in the top five in points going into the fourth race, he got back on track at Atlanta with finishes of third and fourth, respectively.