Kasey Kenneth Kahne (born April 10, 1980 in Enumclaw, Washington) is a race car driver in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. For the 2009 season, he drives the #9 Budweiser Dodge Charger for Richard Petty Motorsports with teammates Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson, and AJ Allmendinger. Off the track, Kahne is active in charitable work and is a member of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. He also owns his own race team, Kasey Kahne Racing, that competes in the World of Outlaws series fielding two cars one for Joey Saldana, and the other for Craig Dollansky in the USAC Sprint Car Series for Brady Bacon, and in USAC midgets for Brad Sweet. Kahne is also a three-time Skagit Speedway winner of the Annual Jim Raper memorial Dirt Cup, and holds the current record for fastest lap at Skagit.
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Racing career
Early career
Kahne began racing open wheel sprint cars at Deming Speedway at 17 in Deming, Washington, before moving up to Skagit speedway in Alger, Washington, then he moved to USAC. He was hired by Steve Lewis, who had also employed future NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Jason Leffler, Tony Stewart, and Kenny Irwin, Jr. In his first year on the circuit, he was named Rookie of the Year, as well winning the national midget championship. After that season, he continued to run USAC, as well as the Toyota Atlantic Series and the World of Outlaws.
Kasey Kahne made 20 starts in the Nationwide Series driving the #98 Channellock Ford Taurus for Robert Yates Racing. His best finish was a tenth-place finish at Cabela's 250. In 2003, he moved to the #38 Great Clips Ford for Akins Motorsports. He won his first pole at Michigan International Speedway and his first Nationwide race at the Ford 300. In 2004 he also made a pair of starts in the Craftsman Truck Series at Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving the #2 Team ASE Racing Dodge Ram for Ultra Motorsports, winning both races.
Sprint Cup career
Kahne replaced Bill Elliott in the #9 Dodge at the end of 2003 when Elliott announced a part-time schedule starting with the 2004 season. Due to the fact that Kahne was still under contract with Ford, a lawsuit began when Kahne decided to go to Evernham, driving a car that was being sponsored by Dodge. Ford eventually got money from Kahne, allowing him to go to Dodge. In 2004, Kahne surprised many by nearly winning several races (including five second-place finishes and 13 top-fives), winning four poles and captured the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award. He drove 30 races for Akins in the Busch Series, finishing thirteenth in points.
2005
He scored his first career Sprint Cup victory in his sophomore season of 2005, after a dominating performance in the Chevy American Revolution 400 at Richmond International Raceway. It was also the first victory for the Dodge Charger, which returned to NASCAR in 2005. He also scored two poles in back-to-back weeks at Darlington and Richmond during the same year. He made 22 starts in the Busch Series, splitting time with Akins and Evernham's new #6 team. He won the O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, and the United Way 300 at Kansas Speedway.
2006
On Monday, March 20, 2006, Kahne won the rain delayed Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Nearly three weeks later, he won the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas. He won four races after that, among them a season sweep at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600 and the Bank of America 500, holding off Jimmie Johnson, who would go on to finish second in both events. He also won at California and Michigan.
On September 9, 2006, Kahne successfully raced his way into the Chase for The Cup by finishing third in Richmond. He was the 10th and last qualifier for the Chase. He edged defending Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart out by 16 points, but a disappointing crash at Dover made an impact on Kahne's 8th place finish for the season. Kahne also won 2 Busch Series races in '06.
On November 27, 2006 Kahne was honored by being invited to raise the traditional 12th Man flag prior to the Seattle Seahawks Monday Night Football game against the Green Bay Packers at Qwest Field in Seattle. The ceremony has been ongoing since 2003, and involves a different Seattle-area sports hero and/or beloved member of the community kicking things off before every Seahawks home game. The Seahawks beat the Packers 34-24.
2007
During the qualifying for the 2007 Daytona 500, officials found holes in the wheel-wells of his Dodge Charger. A crew member said it was just tape that had fallen off of a hole in the tire. Officials said that the tape had been cut. He was one of the four drivers among Matt Kenseth and his two teammates, Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler whose cars had been found with aerodynamic-improving modifications. His team was one of the six teams found with illegal modifications in the Daytona festivities.
On May 26, 2007 Kahne won the Busch Series CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway scoring his first win of 2007.
On August 24, 2007 Kahne won the pole for the Sharpie 500 at Bristol, his second pole of the 2007 Nextel Cup Series. Later that night, during the Busch Series Food City 250, Kahne passed Ryan Newman on the top side in a 3-wide pass that included Jason Leffler on the bottom. He held off the hard charging Leffler to win the Food City 250 for his 7th career Busch Series win and his 2nd of 2007.
The next day during the Sharpie 500, Kahne dominated most of the race leading 305 of 500 laps and finished 2nd to Carl Edwards. This was his best finish of the 2007 season.
On November 16, 2007 at Homestead-Miami Speedway Kahne was going to the motorhome lot at the track after Friday's practice was over. He was stopped by Archibald Hutchinson a 62 year old track security guard who refused to let him into the lot without credentials (Kahne did not have his credentials at the time since he had just got out of his car and was still in his driver's suit). Kahne tried to go around the guard to his motorhome on his golf cart when he was stopped by Hutchinson. When Kasey was asked for credentials he became agitated and told Hutchinson he didn't need them since he was a driver. The guard blocked him again, Kahne then pushed Hutchinson to the ground, according to a report by the Homestead Police Department. Kahne was then taken into custody shortly but released on the condition he would later appear for his criminal hearing. Hutchinson claims to have major back injuries following the incident. On December 17, 2007, Hutchinson sued Kasey Kahne, who is now charged with one count of misdemeanor battery.[1]
After a disappointing 2007 season Kahne finished 19th in points with no wins, 1 top 5, 8 top 10s and an average finish of 22.2.
2008
With new sponsor Budweiser, Kahne started off the 2008 season strong as he finished in the top 10 in both the Budweiser Shootout and the Gatorade Duel.
As a result of a 4th place finish in his duel, Kahne started 10th in the 50th running of the Daytona 500 on February 17, 2008. Kahne finished 7th behind teammate Elliott Sadler in the 2008 Daytona 500, this was a repeat of the 2007 race where Sadler and Kahne also finished 6th and 7th respectively.
During the early laps of the Auto Club 500 Kahne worked his way from 20th to 14th, but brushed the wall on lap 7. He however went on to finish a strong 9th after the long rain delay the race suffered. Kahne had to start in the back due to an engine change at the UAW-Dodge 400. He wound up 6th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
On May 17, 2008, Kahne was voted into the 2008 Sprint All-Star Race XXIV by his fans via cell phone text messaging and online voting. After performing a required stop-and-go pit stop, Kahne began the fourth segment in second place on old tires. He went on to win the race and win $1,012,975. Kahne became the first driver to win the race from the fan vote and the third driver to race in the Sprint Showdown and go on to win the All-Star race.
On May 25, 2008, Kasey Kahne won the Coca-Cola 600 by passing Tony Stewart with 2 laps to go, as Tony had a flat tire going into turn 1. It was Kasey's first points-paying win of the season. He also became the sixth driver to win the race along with the All-Star Race the previous weekend.
On June 6, 2008, Kahne won the pole for the Pocono 500. He would go onto win the race despite being 38th at one point during the race after a miscue in the pits.
On June 20, 2008, Kasey Kahne won the pole for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, marking his second pole in three races. However, after handling issues early in the race, Kahne fell victim to pit road, went a lap down, and finished 33rd.
Following two 40th place finishes in a row (a Bristol Motor Speedway wreck, caused by miscommunications between Casey Mears and his spotter, and a Michigan International Speedway engine failure), Kahne found himself sitting outside of the top 12, out of contention for the Chase. At the start of the last regular season race, at Richmond International Raceway, Kahne, David Ragan, and Clint Bowyer were vying for that 12th spot. Unfortunately for Kahne, he was unable to make up enough points to put him into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Kahne missed the 2008 Chase by 69 points.
Promotional Activities
Kahne has been a spokesperson for Allstate. He is featured in commercials with three women, all of whom are distracted by Kahne's good looks, thus resulting in accidents (knocking over a scoreboard tower, running into a sign with a giant tire which falls off and crushes another car, and in a twist, when Kahne notices them and remembers their accident prone history, he knocks over a utility pole into a fireworks stand, causing it to set off the fireworks inside).
Races won
Sprint Cup
2008
2006
- Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway - March 19, 2006
- Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway - April 9, 2006
- Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway - May 28, 2006
- 3M Performance 400 Presented by Post-It Picture Paper at Michigan International Speedway - June 18, 2006
- Sony HD 500 at California Speedway - September 3, 2006
- Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway - October 14, 2006
2005
Nationwide Series
2007
- Carquest Auto Parts 300 - at Charlotte Motor Speedway - May 26, 2007
- Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway - August 24, 2007
2006
- Sam's Town 300 - at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - March 11, 2006
- Ameriquest 300 - at California Speedway - September 2, 2006
2005
- O'Reilly 300 - at Texas Motor Speedway - April 16, 2005
- United Way 300 Presented by Yellow Transportation & Sprint - at Kansas Speedway - October 8, 2005
2003
Camping World Truck Series
2004
- Darlington 200 at Darlington Raceway - November 13, 2004
- Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway - November 19, 2004
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series statistics
| Year | Races | Wins | Poles | Top 5 | Top 10 | DNF | Avg. Start | Avg. Finish | Winnings | Season Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 36 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 4 | 16.1 | 18.1 | $6,272,460 | 14th |
| 2007 | 36 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 14.3 | 22.2 | $5,148,470 | 19th |
| 2006 | 36 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 19 | 6 | 12.8 | 15.5 | $6,204,220 | 8th |
| 2005 | 36 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 14.8 | 21.9 | $4,874,840 | 23rd |
| 2004 | 36 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 13.6 | 16.7 | $4,759,020 | 13th |
| Totals | 180 | 9 | 16 | 35 | 63 | 28 | 14.3 | 18.8 | $27,259,010 | 15.4 |
Statistics as of November 16th, 2008, provided by NASCAR.com.[2]
References
External links
- Kasey Kahne's NASCAR Statistics
- Kasey Kahne's Official Web Site
- Kasey Kahne Racing
- Kasey Kahne on FoxSports
- Kasey Kahne at The Internet Movie Database
- Evernham Racing's Website for More Info on Kasey Kahne
- Interview with Kasey Kahne about his charitable work
- Kasey Kahne Video on FoxSports Video Archive
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| Preceded by Jamie McMurray | NASCAR Rookie of the year 2004 | Succeeded by Kyle Busch |
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