KASEY KAHNE GOES ON VACATION AND GUESS WHAT HE DID TURKEY NIGHT @ IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY
Kasey Kahne went racing of course. That's what race drivers do even during their time off. In this particular case Kasey Kahne was at the Irwindale Speedway, near Los Angeles, on the evening of November 22nd to participate in the USAC sanctioned Turkey Night Grand Prix. He drove in the USAC National/Western Series feature in his own car prepared by Kasey Kahne Racing with sponsorship from Mopar and Seymour Paints. Like any other driver at the Irwindale Speedway that night Kasey Kahne was there to win the race. But he was also looking for a little fun during some well earned vacation time to take away the stress from what has been a hectic racing season in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.
Kasey Kahne's Irwindale evening began with some unexpected qualifying problems and he found himself having to race his way into the 35 car field via one of the semi mains also known as last chance races. He managed to finish this race to earn a 17th starting spot in the 98 lap feature. Despite having to deal with heavy traffic around him, he began a charge to the front and entered the top five in the race standings for the first time on lap 78. He moved to fourth on lap 84 and took over third five laps later. During the final laps of the race he charged his way to second and was clearly catching eventual race winner Dave Darland when time and laps just simply ran out. Despite having to settle for second, Kasey Kahne had a big smile on his face and said he really had a good time adding "it just took us a long time to get to the front. Dave and his team did a really good job. I'm really happy, this Mopar and Seymour Paints car was really fast tonight. We came to win and if we could have caught just one more yellow flag we would have had a shot at it."
While Kasey Kahne is currently one of the biggest stars in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series he has a major love affair with sprint car racing. Like so many famous drivers in this day and age it is the foundation of his driving career. That foundation was created at the age of 17 when Kasey Kahne began driving sprint cars at the Deming and Skagit Speedways in his native Washington state. It wasn't long before he joined USAC and went to work for famed car owner Steve Lewis. Kasey Kahne had some big shoes to fill here because his Davis Racing predecessors included the likes of Jeff Gordon and the late Kenny Irwin Jr. Kasey Kahne responded to that challenge by winning the USAC Rookie of the Year award and followed that up with a National Midget Series championship.
The open wheel foundation led Kasey Kahne to the NASCAR Busch Series and a ride with Robert Yates Racing. Success in NASCAR's junior series brought Kasey Kahne to the attention of team owner Ray Evernham who signed him to a Nextel Cup ride, sponsored by Dodge, in 2003. Kasey Kahne again responded to the opportunity and it wasn't long before his natural driving talent, combined with his all American good looks, created success and a huge fan base. The Nextel Cup progress was swift and Kasey Kahne finished the 2006 season with a series high six wins. When the 2007 season started at Daytona last February there was a lot of anticipation that said Kasey Kahne and his team were going to turn into NASCAR championship contenders. It never happened.
When NASCAR's 2007 season ended on November 18th the complete collapse of Kasey Kahne and Gillett- Everham Motosports was listed as one of the biggest surprises, not to mention mysteries, of the year. Kasey Kahne spent an entire season dealing with crashes, engine failures and ill handling race cars that created poor finishes. He failed to win a race and only logged one top five and completed the season with a 22.7 average finish. The frustration hit its peak during the next to last race of the season held November 11th at the Phoenix International Raceway. After fighting a car that had the handling characteristics of an Army tank, Kasey Kahne wound up hitting the wall and retired from the race early. During the course of a live television interview an out of character Kasey Kahne said "it's been a terrible year, there's only one more race left in the season and I'll be glad when it's over."
A rejuvinated and smiling Kasey Kahne arrived at the Irwindale Speedway on Thanksgiving Day."It's feels good to have some badly needed time off and have some fun again. I'm really looking forward to this race tonight. It's been a couple of years since I've had the opportunity to race a USAC Sprint Car at the Irwindale Speedway," he said. The Irwindale fans were glad to see him and Kasey Kahne was only too happy to sign autographs and pose for pictures.
He didn't even mind the presence of the racing media although he knew that at least one of them was going to bring up the subject of the recently completed NASCAR season. Kasey Kahne has a lot of reasons to be upbeat regarding 2008 because of some positive business changes in recent months that could likely make his team come back stronger than ever next year. One of those changes was the business merger between team owner Ray Evernham and Canadian businessman George Gillett. This merger will provide more than ample financial resources for research and development projects that will likely create stronger running race cars. The only positive news was the announcement that said Budweiser, one of the most potent racing sponsorships available, had signed a three year contract to become Kasey Kahne's new primary sponsor.
When the subject of 2007 finally did present itself Kasey Kahne said "we now have the opportunity to get our performance levels back up again. I think we're going to be able to race hard, run up front and win races again. I'm especially looking forward to working with Budweiser, Dodge and everything that we have going now . But for right now it's time for a little vacation because it's been a long year."
Later that evening Kasey Kahne returned to Washington to share a belated Thanksgiving with family and friends and officially began his well deserved time off.
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