Kahne mired in slump
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Kasey Kahne made more trips to victory lane last year than any other NASCAR Nextel Cup driver. Thus far in 2007, he’s buried in a hole so deep he’d need the Hubble Space Telescope to see first place.
Blame much of that, he said, on the suspension of all three Evernham Motorsports crew chiefs prior to the season-opening Daytona 500.
Kasey Kahne’s crew chief, Kenny Francis, was sidelined for a month, fined $50,000 and the team was docked 50 points because a hole in the fenderwell wasn’t blocked off during qualifying. Francis’ cohorts, Josh Browne and Rodney Childers, were each suspended for a month with fines of $25,000 and 25 points for lesser violations.
Roush-Fenway Racing driver Matt Kenseth has fared much better, even though his crew chief was suspended for the same time frame as Francis for a similar infraction. Kenseth is fourth in the points while Kasey Kahne is mired in 34th, with only one top-10 finish in six races this season.
“It was frustrating to lose (Francis) for no reason at all,” Kasey Kahne said Wednesday at a press conference to promote the May 12 Dodge Avenger 500 at Darlington Raceway. “We’ve got him back now and hopefully can take advantage of it.
“Kenny’s a big part of why we won six races (in 2006) and why Evernham Motorsports is as good as it is. We lost all three crew chiefs, so it was a bigger deal to lose all three for two and four weeks where Kenseth still had three other teams to bounce stuff off of and compare notes with.”
But a team minus Francis is only one of the challenges Kasey Kahne’s team has faced. A new nose on the Charger has made a significant aerodynamic difference that all Dodge teams are trying to solve. Add to that the introduction of NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow for 16 races this year, including Darlington’s event, and it’s understandable why the Dodge teams feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment.
“That’s a lot thrown at us,” Kasey Kahne said, “but at some point we’ll be fine and get it rolling — hopefully this weekend at Texas.”
The Texas track is one of six Kasey Kahne conquered last year. He said he would like nothing better than to add the trophy from a Cup race at Darlington to his collection — one that would serve as a bookend to the Craftsman Truck race trophy he earned in 2004.
Darlington’s difficulty is a big part of its allure to drivers young and old, Kasey Kahne said, and he’s risen to the challenge in Cup races at NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway. He has made four Cup starts at the track, and in the three for which qualifying was held, he’s 3-for-3 in capturing the pole position. That’s a feat accomplished only by Hall of Famers Fireball Roberts, Fred Lorenzen and David Pearson.
Kasey Kahne, who turned 27 on Tuesday, has also posted finishes of third and fifth in his four Darlington Cup outings.
“You don’t ever really get comfortable here. When you get comfortable, you need to go a little further and be a little uncomfortable if you want to be faster,” he said.
“I finished third here (in 2005) and the whole right side of my car was gone. I hit the wall probably five times and that’s not very comfortable when you’re doing that. You can miss your marks by just a little bit and your car won’t stop sliding until you’re at the wall.
“It’s difficult,” he said, “but that’s why it’s so fun and a track you want to win at.”
The way 2007’s been going, any track will do.
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