Kahne brings a thrill
by Steve Waid
Kasey Kahne recently did a stint in the ticket office at Richmond International Raceway, which was interesting considering the upcoming Nextel Cup race at the track is sold out.
Kahne, however, did take orders from fans that hadn’t bought tickets for qualifying and the accompanying Busch Series race. One report said some of them had been waiting patiently since 6 a.m. to meet Kahne, who started selling tickets at 8:30 a.m.
Oh, I can believe that. And while I wasn’t there, I’d be willing to bet most of them were women.
A photo that ran along with the report of Kahne’s Richmond duties showed him assisting a young blond lady. Aha! There’s my evidence right there.
I don’t think it’s a secret that many women are attracted to Kahne. He’s a young, successful, good-looking guy in an exciting, lucrative profession.
Marketers have capitalized on this. No doubt you’ve seen the funny Allstate TV commercials in which three love-struck women spot Kahne and fantasize about being with him (there’s even a marriage proposal). They are driving at the time and, of course, disaster follows.
While I realize there were all types of folks that came to see Kahne at Richmond, it still wouldn’t surprise me if the majority were female. Who knows? Maybe some of them were love-struck, too.
Maybe these types had dialogue, or inner thoughts that went something like this:
“When I get up there, I’m gonna pick him up and carry him off!”
“Ooooooo…those eyes!”
“Do I dare ask him to take me to the school dance?”
“Daughter, shmaughter. He’s mine!”
“He’s just … just … a walking, talking teddy bear. And I hug my teddy bear all the time.”
“I hope he turns around. I wanna see his butt.”
“That evil woman is spending too much time up there with him. I’d like to pull her hair out by its dark roots!”
“I’ve got to remember to slip him my phone number when I hand over my money.”
“Damn. I’m in the wrong line. My name is Fred.”
Fred left very quickly.
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Last winter marked a turning point in Kasey Kahne's Nextel Cup career. It led him to a series high six wins in 2006, and he's my choice as the comeback driver of the year on NASCAR's top circuit.
A change in Kahne
Kahne told me that he was so bummed out after the 2005 season that he sat down and did a lot of soul searching. He had a miserable year in which he won only one race, experienced a lot of misfortune, and never got a good handle on the Dodge Charger.
Kahne said he gave a lot of thought to what he had to do to become a better driver. His cars were fast enough, but he felt he wasn't getting it done as a driver.
He determined his problem was that his mindset wasn't locked in to running Cup-length races. Instead, he was approaching these races as he did when running sprint events in the late 1990s. In other words, if Kahne was running sixth, he was consumed by trying to pass the car running fifth.
That mentality was the result of his sprint background where the races were 50 laps or less, and drivers forced the action and tried to pass right from the start.
In Cup racing Kahne was too aggressive, and sooner or later that would backfire on him and he would find himself in wrecks. He wasn't taking what the race was giving him, he was trying to force things. He lacked patience on the track.
So after his soul searching, Kahne came to the conclusion he would have to change his ways and he did. It dawned on him that in a 400 or 500 mile race, the car ahead of him might drop back out of contention in a few laps. He didn't have to force passes. He could let the race come to him, and make his moves wisely impetuously.
The race Kahne won in Atlanta last March was a perfect example of his new approach to competing. He sat on the pole, but his car was not right from the start. He faded back in the race, but his crew chief and his team kept making adjustments on the car, he kept his patience, and in the last 100 miles of the race no one could touch him.
The difference in Kahne as a driver is perhaps no more evident than in how he's cut down on getting into trouble on the track. In 2005, he wrecked in 16 of the 36 races. In 2006, he wrecked in only five events.
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Last edited by mrsmopar12 : 12-15-2006 at 05:39 PM.
YAY for Kasey Kahne!! It would seem that he is racing smarter and that it paid off for him this year. I was so happy when he made the Chase, the only Dodge to do so. I hope and pray that the 2007 season is even better for him, he is a very talented driver and one of my Sweet Girl's favorites!
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NOTE: Third fastest in morning testing session at 183.144 mph. The pole speed for the 2006 Cup race at LVMS was 172.403 mph.
COMMENT ON THE NEW LVMS TRACK
“I actually think it’s pretty good. I like these types of tracks. It felt good, the transition getting from the straightaways to the corners is actually something we battled with this morning. We’re trying to figure that out. It can make the back of the car pretty loose. It’s rough in spots, so we have to get through the bumps. I imagine it’s going to slowly keep getting rougher as time goes on. It was nice. I like the old Vegas. I like the new Vegas. It should make for a good race once everybody gets out there and the groove starts moving around some. It’ll be top, middle, low. I think it’ll be everywhere, so it should be pretty good.”
COMMENT ON THE SPEED AT LVMS
“You’re going fast. We go fast at Charlotte, Texas and Atlanta.There’s a lot of tracks we go fast at. To me the speed is good, and Tony (Stewart) is probably the same way. When you start thinking about racing and you get to a certain point, the speed and what it does to racing and the track is not really wide and the speed is really fast like it is at nighttime at a lot of tracks, it’s hard to pass. It’s hard to get going. I don’t know. Once you get to a certain speed in these cars, it seems like it hurts the racing a little bit. When we come back here, it’s 80-85 degrees, it’ll slow down the cars some. It’ll just make for a slippery track, and that’ll help the racing.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS VEGAS TEST?
“I always look at Vegas as the test you look forward to all winter long. To me it’s the biggest test of the year. It’s the test that kinda shows where we’re at and shows where other teams are. We went to Kentucky. We tested at Nashville. We’ve done a lot of testing in the off season. Daytona is a huge test for the 500, but other than that it doesn’t mean much for the rest of the year. Vegas means a lot for 23-24 of the races we go to this year. Vegas has a lot to do with that, so iout’s a good test. I think it’s always a lot of fun to come out here and test.”
WHAT WERE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR OFF SEASON?
“We went to Australia for two weeks, myself, my sister, cousins, brothers, friends. We had a good trip over there and had a lot of fun. We did a couple of sprint car races, which was probably one of the best parts of the whole trip. We did a couple of sprint car races on dirt. I think that was probably the best part of my off season. Just recently we’ve been working a lot on commercials, appearances, photo shoots, getting ready for the season. We’ve been just relaxing, trying to get ready and pumped up for the season. I feel pretty good about it. I’m looking forward to getting started pretty soon.”
COMMENT ON THE CHANGES IN THE CHASE
“I think it’s going to be good. You can win races and be consistent. In the past I feel it’s been a lot more about consistency. This year it’s going to be a little bit more about winning. In order to win the championship you’re going to have to do both, and that’s what Jimmie Johnson does. He’s the guy to beat as far as I can see. It’ll be exciting. I like the bonus points. I like the extra points for winning the race. You can lose so many points with a bad race, whether it’s a problem or a driver error or just something that happens on the racetrack. It’s nice to be able to make up a few more of those points during the regular season and then the last 10 races you even get more points for
it. As long as you make The Chase it’s like getting 15 more points a race.”
COMMENT LVMS BECOMING A SHOWPLACE AND HAS THERE BEEN TOO MUCH HYPE ABOUT IT?
“I’m pretty happy here. I always enjoy coming to Vegas a couple of times a year. Last year’s track seemed good as a driver because as the sun comes out it gets hot and slippery. I liked that, but the racing is probably not the best ever. Maybe this will create better racing, maybe it won’t. It’s tough to say. I would hope it does. The most fun time to drive is when you’ve got pressure late in the race. You’ve got to pass a car or you’ve got a car catching you and you want to hold him off. Hopefully that’s the kind of racing this track will turn into. It makes for some good drama late in the race.”
WHAT MADE YOU REALIZE YOU HAD TO MOVE EAST TO MAKE IT IN NASCAR?
“I think the racing in Washington is really good. I learned a lot there when I was racing, but there’s more racing in the Midwest, there’s more people kwatching it, more owners, more interest in the Midwest. For me it was the only way to get where I’m at now and things worked out. I went to extra school and got out early. I think that was kinda key to doing what we did in ’99 and then driving for Steve Lewis in the midgets in 2000 was a huge break and that opened up a lot of doors after 2000. Washington is a great place, but if you want to progress sometimes you have to move to make those changes.”
ANOTHER COMMENT ON THE NEW TRACK AND SPEED
“Really the speed is fast, the track is fast, and I think when the track is that fast it makes it tough to pass another car. It definitely makes it tough to run side by side. If a car is close to you on the outside it takes the air off your spoiler, and it’s just hard to drive. That hurts the racing somewhat, but when we come back and we’re racing in the middle of the day and it’s 80-85 degrees out, hopefully, it should slow the track down and make it slippery. From there it’ll be a pretty good race.”
DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE BEARS WIN THE SUPER BOWL?
“I really don’t want to see it. The only reason why is because I went to Soldier Field and cheered the Seahawks on and they played great. The Bears played great, and the Bears beat ‘em. I feel like the Seahawks may be in the Super Bowl if the Bears didn’t take them out. It should be a good game. I feel like Peyton Manning, it’s his time. He’s been so good, so clutch, so on top of it for a long time. He’s going to be tough to beat in the Super Bowl.”
DID YOU WATCH THE 24-HOUR RACE?
“Yeah, I woke up Sunday and watched it a few hours in bed. I flew out here but it seemed like an awesome race. With two hours to go three cars were within 200 yards of each other or something. That’s pretty awesome for a 24-hour race. I was excited to see that. I guess if you’re in the Texaco car you’re going to win the Rolex. That’s how it’s been the past two years. That’s a good thing for Ganassi. It was a good race. I thought it was good.”
HOW MANY LAPS DOES IT TAKE TO GET UP TO SPEED ON A NEW TRACK?
“I think my first lap was a 31.25. I think a 30.88 was the second lap. You need to figure out the bumps and transitions getting into the corners, how our car is setup. It takes a little more time. When we go to Texas to race, our first lap will be a lot closer to the speed. I started at 31.25 (here) and we’re running 29.40s and 50s now. I think by the fifth or sixth lap we were on the top of the board at about a 30 flat or 29.80 or something like that. It took about five or six laps to figure it out and from there it’s just making the car better. We’ve done a good job. My team has done an awesome job this off season to put a new Charger nose on the cars. We were fast right off the bat, and so is Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler. I’m just looking forward to getting started. This test means a lot for a lot of tracks we go to throughout this year. To be good here right off the bat, I think we can only make gains.”
COMMENT ON UPCOMING NBA ALL-STAR GAME IN LAS VEGAS
“I didn’t really know much about the all-star game being here, but I watch a lot of basketball. I think any sporting event, any racing event that can be in Las Vegas is a good thing. It’s fun to come here for the competitors, for the fans, just everything to do with the sport. It makes for a lot of hype around here and it makes it exciting. The all-star game should be the same way. There are some great players. I like the way Nash and the Phoenix Suns are playing this year. They’re pretty tough.”
DO YOU HAVE THE CAR HERE THAT YOU WON SO MANY RACES WITH LAST YEAR?
“That’s actually the car that’s our fastest car. It’s our best car to date. The other car is the car we raced in Vegas last year and finished fourth. Both have the new nose, and we’re just working with different things on each car. 128 (prolific winning Dodge Charger from 2006) seems really fast again. It seems good, and I imagine we’ll race it a lot. We’ll race it here. 131, the car that won the other race, we’ll race it in California. We kept with some of the same cars. I don’t think we built any new mile and a half or two-mile cars. We kept what we had from last year. They’re still in good shape. We put some noses on ‘em and we’re testing them. We’re mainly working on the car of tomorrow, trying to get a little fleet ready for the short tracks coming up.”
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For WV-Kahnefan and NascarSpace (my 2 favorite #9 fans!)
Hey there WV and NS, I thought I would start a thread for you Kasey Kahne fans. When I come upon new articles about Kasey I will be posting them here, so be sure to check in from time to time! For some reason Kasey is one of the hardest drivers to find articles about, they just don't do a lot of press releases...go figure!! Enoy!!!
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NOTE: Kahne announced sponsorship with Open Joist for Kasey Kahne Racing on Friday morning at DIS.
“My World of Outlaw team is going to be all Open Joist. My two USAC teams are all Mopar cars and Open Joist is an associate on those cars, one for Ganassi – Brady Bacon – and Kevin Swindell is the driver for Ray Evernham. It’s an exciting time, and we’re looking forward to it. The Outlaw team has run six races this season and has six top 10s and won a race with Joey Saldana. It’s pretty neat to have Open Joist on board and also to work with Dodge and Mopar and put Open Joist on Chase Miller’s Dodge Ram is very cool, too.”
MIKE DELAHANTY (Senior Manager, Dodge Motorsports programs)
“We’re real proud with what Kasey has done, not only out here in NASCAR but also with the sprint car teams as well. To bring in a great partner like Open Joist along with Ram brings two strong brands together. It’s another great Michigan company. It’s great to bring them together along with Kasey and Bobby Hamilton Racing. It’s a win-win relationship for everybody.”
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)
WHAT’S YOUR REACTION TO JEFF GORDON’S PENALTY?
“I’ve only heard. I wasn’t there during any of it. Personally, I don’t want to get too much into it because I’ve stayed out of it all week long. I think for Kenny Francis to have the record he has had in racing – never crossing lines, never messing around – for the officials to tell him to put a piece of tape over a vent, he put it on, and half the piece of tape blew off. For him to get 50 points and suspended for four weeks is crazy. How big of a deal? How big of a fine that is compared to what all these other teams have gotten so far with their fines and penalties? I feel bad for Kenny because he’s a great guy. He works so many hours and works so hard to make cars fast and do things the right way. It’s such a little deal. It was taped up. It wasn’t like it wasn’t put there. The tape was put there and half of it blew off. That’s disappointing. Jeff Gordon’s deal, I don’t know. It seems like a pretty big deal to me, but that’s the way it goes. It’s up to NASCAR how they do things. You come to Daytona and every single team here is trying as hard as they can to go fast. It’s the Daytona 500. They’re trying as hard as they can to win the race and sit on the pole. Whatever their penalties or their way of going about (handling) things that are wrong, that’s NASCAR’s way. We just have to live with it. I can’t say how they should penalize any team here. I just don’t know.”
COMMENT ON HANDLING AT DAYTONA
“Handling is huge. Even yesterday in the 150, my car was off a little bit on the first run. We got up there and then fell back. The second run we got the car handling pretty good and drove all the way up to fourth or fifth. I’m really happy with the way our Dodge Dealers car was handling and the way we communicated as a team without Kenny this weekend and the way everybody has stepped up so far. I think the guys are doing a great job. I’m pumped for the 500 on Sunday. I think we’re going to have a shot to hopefully win the race. These next two practices are going to be big. They probably mean the most for the whole week. We’ve had the Bud Shootout and the 150s now and we’ve got two more practices before the final. I want to take care of our car, yet make long enough runs to see where our tires are, where the right front is at, what’s going on with tire wear and how the car is handling. If we do that we should be pretty decent on Sunday.”
HOW WELL CAN YOU AND ELLIOTT SADLER WORK TOGETHER?
“It’s tough to say. Yesterday his car and Scott Riggs’ car weren’t as good as mine was. In the Shootout, Elliott had a great car. I think if all three of us keep working as a team – we had about a two-hour team meeting last night and went over a lot of things. Hopefully the three of us can get together and be strong.”
HOW IS ELLIOTT TO WORK WITH AS A TEAMMATE?
“Last year he was great. This year we’re just starting. The off season testing has been awesome with Elliott and Scott. We’ve all come up with great ideas with different things for the teams to change during the offseason. We feel like Daytona could be really good and California and Vegas as time goes on is just going to get better.”
WHAT KIND OF A ROLE HAS RAY EVERNHAM PLAYED AFTER THE SUSPENSIONS?
“Ray just wants us to stay together as a team. That’s what we all want to do. It’s a little disappointing not to have Kenny, but that’s the way it goes. We’ll get him back in a month. He’s going to be right on the side working as hard as he can. The 48 team went without Chad Knauss for awhile last year, and Chad and his guys worked as hard as they could and still won the championship.”
COMMENT ON THE 24 STARTING IN THE BACK
“The 24 is good. I don’t think he has the best car here. I think there are a couple of cars that are better. It just depends on what holes you take and how you choose to get there, but you can go from 42nd to the front in probably six or seven laps if you do the right stuff. I think the 20 is the car everybody is most concerned with. That car is really good. The 38, the 8 showed a lot of strength yesterday driving up through the field. There are definitely some good race cars. I think if we get our car handling good enough…. Our engines have come a long way in the last year, so it should be pretty exciting on Sunday. There’s just a lot going on. It’s Daytona and everybody is trying to get all they can, whether it’s going overboard or not.”
HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT FOR YOU?
“It hasn’t been that bad for me. I’ve been doing the same stuff. I talk to Kenny on the phone at night and in the day after practices. I just think about what the car is doing and we can relay that stuff to Keith our engineer who has taken over the team director’s spot for a few weeks. Other than that it’s just been normal Daytona, hectic with sponsors and exciting.”
WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500?
“Well, I’ve never won it, and I’ve never really been that close to winning it. Handling is what it’s all about here. It’s so tough to go fast if your car is not handling right. You’ve got to be able to hold it wide open. Only a few cars can do that at the end of a run when the tires are old.”
HOW DO YOU DETERMINE WHO YOU DRAFT WITH?
“You just hope that whoever you go with will help you later. You just look for fast cars. If your car is fast you’re going to have people follow you. If your car is slow, you’re not going to have anyone. It’s the same with other guys. If you see a fast car, that’s who you’re going to get behind. If it’s a Dodge or a teammate of mine you might look for them a little more often – a Kurt Busch or a Ryan Newman and definitely my teammates. We’d like to get Dodge in victory lane here at Daytona. From there, you just look for fast cars and try to get to the front.”
COULD IT BE AN ADVANTAGE HAVING FRANCIS AT THE SHOP PREPARING OTHER CARS?
“Our team is pretty caught up. We have a lot of cars ready to go and we’re looking forward to getting started at the two-mile and mile-and-a-half tracks we ran so well at last year. Kenny is working hard on Daytona still. He’s still a big part of what we’re doing down here, and he’s working hard on the next three or four weeks. He’s doing the same stuff he’s always doing. He’s just not standing in the garage right now.”
COMMENT ON THE COT
“We’ve done some good testing with the car of tomorrow, some nice short track tests and feel like we’ve gained a lot. There are different ways to make the car handle right and things you can do to that car that you can’t do to the car we have now. It’s pretty neat. It’s a different ball game for me, but it’s been fun to try to figure that car out, but I’m looking forward to Bristol and Martinsville.”
COMMENT ON THE TIRE SITUATION FOR THE DAYTONA 500
“The tires are a bit harder, so they slide around a little bit more. Handling is more of an issue, more of a factor than it was last year. Always in the 500 it seems like the sun comes out whether it’s 50 degrees or 80 degrees. The sun is out and handling is big. I think you’ll see the same thing this year, and you’ll see a lot of single file after 20 laps.”
DOES PARITY AMONG DRIVERS APPEAL TO THE FANS?
“I like what we have in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. I like the different drivers and teams and the excitement different drivers show. I think fans do, too. They love the sponsors, the colors, everything about it. It’s an exciting sport. There are so many smart people in NASCAR you’re always trying to get that edge on the next guy if you want to win.”
COMMENT ON GOING TO CALIFORNIA AFTER DAYTONA
“It’s not a two-week ordeal. It’s a three-day deal. You work hard to win on Sunday. We won the last race at California, and we’ll go back there feeling like we can win the next one. Our team is very strong, and I’m looking forward to it. I think we’re going to have a good race Sunday, and I think we’ll have another good race at California.”
DOES IT BOTHER YOU THAT PEOPLE THINK YOUR TEAM IS CHEATING?
“You don’t like to have people think that, but personally I wasn’t cheating and I don’t think our team was really cheating. It’s really not that big a deal what happened, and every team in here is trying to get a little bit of an edge. It’s very small what teams are trying and NASCAR is just trying to keep an eye on everything to make sure things don’t get out of control.”
IS IT IMPORTANT THAT PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE IN WHAT THE 9 AND 55 TEAMS DID?
“Yes, everybody knows not to mess with an engine and not to mess with fuel. That’s a ton of speed. It’s like if your car was really low. That’s a ton of speed. Those are the kind of things you don’t mess with and usually you get big fines for it or big point losses. We know not to mess with that.”
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“I was just listening to my spotter. He was telling me low, high, where to go. I was going as fast as I could without hitting cars going through there. I got lucky, that’s all there is to it. We finished seventh. We kind of rode around in the middle of the pack all day, and I was on pins and needles being in that part of the racetrack. We ended up pretty good, and we were excited leaving Daytona with the results we ended up with.”
COMMENT ON COOL WEATHER FOR TODAY’S QUALIFYING
“It’ll make it fast. From what I’ve heard we’ve got a slipperier left-side tire than we had last year, so that will change some things up. The track will be fast. There will be lots of grip. We’ll probably slide around a little bit because of the left-side tire, but we’ll just try to get a good baseline for tomorrow’s practice and Sunday’s race. I’m excited to be back in California. We won the last one here and ran up front in the first one last year. We’re looking forward to it. We’re looking to gain some more points.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUR RACING HERE?
“I like trying to go fast and getting our Dodge Chargers to handle the way we want. I like mile and a half and two-mile tracks. I’ve always been better on those tracks for momentum and keeping my speed up and searching for the best lanes out there. I’m looking forward to working with the team and working on communication and getting a great result. We want to finish in the top five and go for a pole and try to be there at the end of the race to have a shot to win.”
COMMENT ON THE CALIFORNIA DRIVERS
“I definitely think there are some good California drivers. They’ve shown that and they’ve shown they can be there every weekend, but I don’t think about that. Jimmie has won here, Kyle, Jeff, all the Hendrick guys have won here. I think Washington drivers are as good as any of them. I always enjoy racing on the west coast and racing at this track. It’s a fun place. I have some friends around here, and a lot of people from Washington come down because it’s close to home. It’s exciting. There’s good racing at times, and we want to win. We did it last year and we want to do it again.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM LAST YEAR’S VICTORY HERE?
“We learned a lot. I learned some things driving this track. The track usually changes a little during the off season. It’ll be a touch different. We had different tires, and that’ll change things, too. We’ll just have to get all the information we can over the next two days and apply it toward Sunday and see how we end up.”
YOU RAN WELL LAST WEEK WITHOUT TEAM DIRECTOR KENNY FRANCIS. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THE TEAM?
“I think we’re one of the best teams in Cup if not the best team, and I think we just need to keep working together. If we do that we’ll get through these next four races without Kenny just fine. He’s still a big part of what we do and when he comes back we’ll just be stronger.”
COMMENT ON THE LAST LAP OF A RACE
“I’ve always understood it as kind of NASCAR’s call. I hope it works for me when they make their call. It hasn’t before and last weekend at Daytona it worked out great for me and Kevin Harvick. The truck race, he didn’t improve his position because he went under the line. He went under the line, but he didn’t need to. He (Johnny Benson) could have stayed above it and still run second. There are just different ways you look at everything. I think NASCAR looked at that and said it didn’t matter where he was he was still going to run second. I go to the yellow comes out. If they don’t want to throw the yellow then I’m going to keep racing. If they throw the yellow then I’ll slow down. It’s up to NASCAR. Whatever they want to do I’ll do the same thing.”
WHERE WERE YOU ON LAST RESTART AT DAYTONA?
“I was 18th and I was 17th getting into turn three and seventh going across the line. I had a good run, so I think with no crashing I would have finished about 15th or 16th. They started wrecking and I squeezed my way up to seventh. It definitely worked out for us. We gained about eight spots because of that. I was weaving in and out of cars and made it to the finish line. I didn’t know what to think There was no time to think except to just miss cars and slow down and speed up. I was just trying to do whatever I could to get through there. If they want to throw a caution I’ll slow down. If they don’t, I’ll keep going. I’ve been burned before by them throwing a caution two seconds too early, and last week we gained eight spots because they didn’t. I think it all evens out in the long run, and I think NASCAR does what it thinks is the right thing. It’s good for us sometimes and it’s bad for others, but it usually equals out.”
WHERE WERE YOU BURNED BY A CAUTION?
“I never really was burned, but at Talladega if the caution had come out one second later I would have won and Vickers would have finished second. At Daytona the year before I was in 11th place coming off turn four and Biffle spun and I finished 11th. Everybody raced all the way to the start/finish line even with the caution, and I was sixth at the start-finish line, so I was sixth or 11th and I was 11th because the caution came out way behind us. I never got burned, but I’ve lost spots or gained spots and I felt like the other day I gained them all.”
HAVE YOU PUT THE 50-POINT PENALTY BEHIND YOU?
“Knowing how well we run here and what we did at Daytona, we’re not many points away from where we need to be. I’m real happy with what’s been going on so far and where we’re at. I feel like this weekend could get us even some more points. It’s a real good track for Evernham Motorsports. All three teams are going to be strong. This is the second year I’ve worked with this team and Kenny Francis. We’ve learned a lot together. The car of tomorrow is going to be something new for everybody. I think Evernham Motorsports has done a nice job to be prepared with that car, too. We need to be in the top 10. We need to be battling in those final 10 races. If we can do that, then it’ll be a good season as long as we’re still winning races. I think we were one of the best teams in The Chase last year. We just didn’t finish as many races as Jimmie finished, but we were as strong as Jimmie and Stewart at every track. We just didn’t finish as many races as they did. I think we’re definitely one of the teams that can go for the Cup this year and build on what we did last year and take it to the next level.”
IS THERE ANY AREA YOU NEED TO IMPROVE?
“I need to improve on road racing. I qualified in the top five at both races last year, and that was really good, but we didn’t race well. We finished well. We were in the top 10 on the last lap at Watkins Glen, and I screwed up and got off course. I need to get my average finish on those tracks better, but other than that we’re good. We just need to be consistent and have some luck fall our way. That’s what happened at Daytona.”
COMMENT ON COT TEST
“I just want to see how it works at Bristol and how it feels at Bristol and how we compare to the other teams as far as what everybody has done with the COT so far. I think Evernham Motorsports has done a lot of testing, and we should be prepared for it. I hope we’re more prepared than everybody else. I think I’ve driven it about three times. Scott Riggs has driven it a lot more and Elliott has driven it about the same as I have.”
WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO ON THE OFF WEEK?
“I’m in a wedding. My cousin (team spotter Kole Kahne) is getting married. I’m going back to Enumclaw, Wash., and spend four days there and enjoy his wedding and enjoy some family and have a good time.”
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California Policeman Selected as Kasey Kahne’s Assistant for a Week
The selection process was tough and the interviews were intense, but the winner of the Kasey Kahne Dream Job contest was up to the challenge – and took home the top prize for his efforts.
David Metzger from Fremont, Calif., was named the winner after final interviews at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 9. Metzger, a policeman with the Atherton Police Department and a member of the San Mateo Narcotics Task Force, was one of three finalists who traveled to Las Vegas for the judging and the weekend’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race. Metzger was selected for his problem-solving skills, commitment to improving performance, creative thinking and ability to deal with pressure on the job.
“This is a dream come true,” said Metzger after learning of his selection on Sunday morning. “I can’t wait until Darlington.
I worked really hard to get the word out and get folks voting for me. I reached out to all the police on the force and had my family campaigning in their offices.
The contest, sponsored by Dodge Motorsports, offered contestants an opportunity to be Kahne’s assistant at the Dodge Avenger 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race on May 12 at Darlington Raceway. More than 20,000 fans entered the contest, held online at kaseykahnedreamjob.com. Almost 116,000 people voted for the nine semifinalists. The top three finalists were Kelli Quattlebaum of Greenville, S.C., received the most votes with 33,251. David Metzger from Fremont, Calif., received 20,891 votes and Erin Coates of Dubuque, Iowa., received 13,028 votes.
Metzger said he wants to help make Kasey Kahne’s life easier and keep him looking good. On the track, Metzger said he would tell Kahne to drive fast and keep all four wheels on the ground.
Fans completed a questionnaire to show why they would be the best candidate to assist Kahne at Darlington. A panel of judges reviewed the applications and selected the best nine for the No. 9. Those nine semifinalists responded to questions submitted by Dodge on video and the video was used on the official website. Fans then voted online for the best contestants.
“I’m looking forward to working with David at Darlington,” Kahne said. “He’s got great skills and experience, and I think we’ll have fun together. And, it will be great to have a policeman around. Darlington is a race that I’d like to win. It’s a tough track, and you almost need a perfect day to win the Dodge Avenger 500. I’m sure my assistant will be ready for the challenge.”
Metzger will spend four days at the Evernham Motorsports headquarters in Statesville and work with the Marketing Department scheduling Kahne’s at-track activities for the Dodge Avenger 500 at Darlington Raceway. Duties will also include working with the marketing and public relations team to get Kahne to all the appearances, media interviews, on-track and NASCAR-mandated responsibilities on his schedule that weekend.
Additional awards for the grand prize winner include:
One year supply of vitaminwater
Kasey Kahne Tool Chest filled with Stanley Tools
Dell Notebook Laptop Computer
37” Dell TV with LCD Technology
BlackBerry from Sprint
$300 Trackside Trailer shopping spree from Checkered Flag
Kasey Kahne 1:24 scale diecast car set plus a Kasey Kahne hat and T-shirt from Motorsports Authentics
Dodge Interlocking Floor Tiles from On The Edge
Multiple Dodge or Kasey Kahne licensed accessories from Motorhead
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Kasey brings a thrill
I was so happy when he made the Chase, the only Dodge to do so. I hope and pray that the 2007 season is even better for him, he is a very talented driver and one of my Sweet Girl's favorites! 
Q&A With Kasey Kahne
Q&A With Kasey Kahne
kasey kahne
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