Charlotte has historically been Kasey Kahne's best track, with three of his 11 career wins coming at the home track for most NASCAR teams.
And Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 looked promising for Kahne, as he was strong in every practice and qualified fourth.
But once the green flag dropped, the No. 9 car was never a factor. Kahne never cracked the top 10 for the last 320 laps of the race and finished 12th.
So what gives?
"I was confused too," he said. "I thought we were going to be really good. We were just out of the racetrack, front and rear, the whole race. We could never get it right, fighting back and forth. Just never got it right. I was surprised."
Kahne said the team tried "everything we could" to adjust the car, but nothing seemed to get the car how it needed to be.
"This type of a track, it's all about the splitter and getting it down but not too hard," he said. "We were just off a little bit there, probably. We'll just keep working on it."
Kahne remained 21st in points, 183 outside a Chase spot.