Auto Club Speedway: Preview

Kasey Kahne At Auto Club Speedway
Starts	Poles	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Led	AVG ST	AVG FN	DNF
11	1	1	3	7	268	9.36	13.00	2
Stats By Racing News Digest

• Kasey Kahne gained one position in the point standings after his sixth-place finish at Kansas Speedway last weekend. He moved into the 11th position and gained ground on the top-10 drivers. In the next two weeks, Kahne will compete at his two strongest racetracks looking to crack the top 10 in the standings.
• In 11 starts at California, Kahne has one win, three top-five and seven top-10 finishes.
• In 2006, Kahne led 130 laps at California en route to his sixth career NSCS victory.
• Kahne has finished no worse than 13th at Auto Club Speedway during the races in which he has finished. He has two DNFs at California as a result of an engine failure (spring 2007) and an accident (spring 2005).
• In 11 starts at California, Kahne has an average start of ninth and an average finish of 12th.
• Kahne will be available for interviews with the motorsports media on Friday at approximately 1:30 p.m. in the infield press conference room.


Do you feel like you still have a shot to win the Championship? “We’re definitely in a hole, that’s part of it. Hopefully everybody has a bad race and if not, if some of them do and we gain some points back and just do the best job that we can. At this point, all that we can do is try hard; keep working hard on our cars and engines. I’ll keep working on my driving. I think that we’ll be alright. We’ll gain some spots back.”

You’ve mentioned recently that you lean on Kenny Francis for support. “Kenny is a great leader, he takes care of everyone on the 9 team and the entire team leans on him. When you have that type of leadership it makes everything run so much smoother. Kenny is one of the most focused guys I have ever met and he makes you want to work that much harder.”

Statistically, the next two tracks (Fontana and Charlotte) are two of your best. “I think we run pretty well in these upcoming Chase races. We have as good a shot as anybody at these tracks because they’re tracks I enjoy and we’ve always raced pretty well at. If you have an issue, you lose points. If I didn’t have an issue (in New Hampshire), I think that I would have run in the top 10 and these upcoming races we can do the same thing. We have a great package for most of these tracks. I think we'll do it; we just need to keep pulling it together and get these points back. I think we have a shot at getting a lot of them back.”

Do you compare the racing at California to any other tracks?"It's hard to compare tracks to each other. I think California was built to be like Michigan but they're pretty different tracks. California doesn't have a lot of banking but it is a pretty fast track. I think, like every track, getting the car to handle in the corners is the biggest thing. It's a two-mile track and the front and back stretches are pretty long.”

Kansas Review

Kasey Kahne finished sixth in Sunday's Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway, but he actually lost a point in NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup.

Kasey moved up to 11th in Sprint Cup Series points, but fell back to 190 points behind current leader Mark Martin.

Despite those two things Kahne had a very strong run Sunday, running in the top 5 for the second half in the race. Kasey really didn't have an ill handling car all day, but did have to make some minor adjustments here and there.

"We got off a little bit, but the last two runs, last 100 laps, we were a top-three or -four car," he said. "The two tires didn’t help us at the end. We thought more would take two. It seemed to work for some earlier in the race. Looking back, we probably should have taken four. Maybe we could have been in the top five with four. We decided on that together."

Kasey struggled on restarts so the late race cautions didn't favor the #9 Budweiser team.

"Kasey worked hard driving the car," crew chief Kenny Francis said. "It came down to strategy there at the end. It’s tough to know what to do. Two tires had worked good for a lot of guys all day. We hadn’t tried it all day, but thought, 'Well, let’s go ahead and try it even though there were a lot of laps left.' It got us up front track-position wise. We had been running third to fourth and that moved us up to second. Too many of the others took four and they just overtook us. Sixth place is a real good finish."

The next stop for the Sprint Cup Series is Fontana (Auto Club Speedway). Kasey has a good record there with: 1 win, 11 top tens, and he has led 268 laps.

"I think we should be good in the final seven races," he said. "We’re definitely a ways back, but we gained a little today."

It's pretty clear his title chances are basically gone. Hendrick is just kicking everyones butt, but despite that Kasey isn't ready to give up yet. He's a fighter and he's not going to go down easy. Anything could happen. Maybe he does have a shot at it after all. Only time will tell. It's going to be difficult, but if anything that's Kasey's strong point... proving people wrong. Before we even reached mid-season people were doubting he'd make the Chase and he went on to do that. A lot of people doubted he'd win. He went on to do it twice and something tells me he's not done proving the critics wrong just yet.

Kansas Preview

Kasey Kahne At Kansas Speedway
Starts	Poles	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Led	AVG ST	AVG FN	DNF
5	1	0	0	1	50	16.40	18.80	0
Stats By Racing News Digest

Kasey Kahne realizes that he will need to visit victory lane if he wants a shot at gaining ground in the Championship battle. With eight races remaining until the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion is crowned, Kahne points out that top-10 finishes won’t be enough to win the Cup.

“You can’t be conservative and win a championship,” Kahne said. “The bonus points come when you win races. The only shot that you’ve got is to drive your heart out and have your team step up and do their part, otherwise Jimmie Johnson is going to walk all over us.”


Kahne discusses the Chase and racing at Kansas Speedway:
Talk about this weekend’s race at Kansas. “I've qualified well and led laps at Kansas, but I haven't been able to turn it into a good finish. Every time that we go back to Kansas, the racing improves. It’s getting older and the pavement has aged pretty well. There’s lots of racing room. The track lost some grip which is a good thing because we can slide the cars around the corners a little bit easier. I think the fans are going to see a good race. We ran well at Chicagoland this year and that track is pretty similar to Kansas so hopefully we can have that same success this weekend.”

Do you feel like you still have a shot to win the Championship? “We’re definitely in a hole, that’s part of it. Hopefully everybody has a bad race and if not, if some of them do and we gain some points back and just do the best job that we can. At this point, all that we can do is try hard; keep working hard on our cars and engines. I’ll keep working on my driving. I think that we’ll be alright. We’ll gain some spots back.”

You’ve mentioned recently that you lean on Kenny Francis for support. “Kenny is a great leader, he takes care of everyone on the 9 team and the entire team leans on him. When you have that type of leadership it makes everything run so much smoother. Kenny is one of the most focused guys I have ever met and he makes you want to work that much harder.”


Kasey will be running the R5 Dodge Engine for this weekends race at Kansas Speedway strictly because it's more reliable and at this point in the year they simply cannot afford another finish like they did at New Hampshire.

"I think it will be all off the reliability," he said of making the decision on which engine to use. "If they feel they get it back to where it is really reliable like the R5, then I would think we would probably go back to it. What I told them was at the end of the day, we have some points we need to make up and if we have any more issues where we finish outside the top 35 … we have no chance.

"The very little power that you gain with the R6, it's not nearly enough power for me to say, 'Let's take a chance.' We definitely want to be reliable. Maybe we're down a couple of horsepower or something, but that's it, so at the end of the day it's not a big deal."

Dover

Richard Petty Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne admitted that he was “definitely in a hole"
after last weekend’s engine failure that dropped him to last place among the
12 drivers in NASCAR’s Chase For The Sprint Cup.



NASCAR Sprint Cup Series action kicked off Friday morning around Lunch time.
Kasey and the #9 Budweiser team decided to work on race-trim for the entire
first practice session which explains why he was 40th fastest if you were watching.
After last weeks mishap Kenny Francis wanted to focus on the Race-Setup knowing they needed the best possible finish to regain as many points as possible. "We worked on some race things. I think we made some good progress." Kahne said after 1st practice had ended.

For Qualifying Kasey drew to go out 26th which is a very good thing. The later you go out
the better because it gives the track a chance to cool down and produce a faster lap time.
"We have a good draw and I think the car will be fast so I'm looking forward to it." Kahne said.

When it finally became Kasey's turn to take a shot at the "Monster Mile" he put down
a pretty darn good lap and qualified 6th. Kasey had this to say after climbing out of his machine.
"A pretty good run for our Budweiser Dodge. It felt a little bit loose, but decent. We gained sixth-tenths from practice which is a nice jump for us. I feel pretty good about it. Our car is pretty fast in race trim."

Final practice was looking a lot better for the 9 Team as they were #1 on the Speed Charts
for pretty much the entire session.

As for last weeks engine woes at New Hampshire Kasey said he had put it all behind him.
In fact he had barely thought of it all week. "I spent all week with my Sprint Car team
and just hanging out with buddies. You can't let stuff like that stick in your head anyway.
There's nothing you can do to change it and it will only mess with your mentality going into
the next race and that's something we don't need. I'm looking forward to going to Dover and
getting back on the right track"

The green flag dropped at 2:15pm and the #9 machine took off like lighting. The car was very good at the beginning of the race with the car only being a little loose. After the competition caution on lap 25 due to rain the 9 Team took 2 right side tires and fuel and a minor air pressure adjustment.

By lap 160 Kahne pitted under caution and said he was pretty happy with the car just needed
the front end to stop hitting the track so Kenny ordered a 'packer' to be put in the right front
to try and help the problem.

Kasey pitting again after Kyle Busch brought out a caution on lap 207 and reported the car was "CRAZY loose" so bad the splitter was hitting the track so Kenny Francis put another packer in the car this time in the Left Front and made a slight wedge adjustment. Despite Kasey not being very happy with the car it was very fast all day and he never fell out of the Top 15.

With 50 to go Kahne's car wasn't handling the way he wanted and the crew had made a few mistakes through-out the day costing him spots on pit road. It didn't look good as all the other
Chase drivers were having strong runs while Kasey was back in 18th after being strong for
most of the day.

By the time there was 20 laps to go Kasey's car came to life and shot up to 8th spot. Despite
his efforts he was not able to pass teammate A.J Allmendinger before the checkered flag
flew. Overall a pretty good day considering the struggles they had. Kasey didn't move up
a spot in points, but he's that much closer to 11th. Hopefully Kansas will go well for him.
Anything can happen. He's not out of this yet.

(I apologize for the way the sentences are lol. Blogger is
just separating them automatically and I can't fix it. I'll try and have
it fixed so next weeks doesn't looked all jacked up.)

New Hampshire

Richard Petty Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne was the first Chase For The Sprint Cup driver to have trouble in the final 10 races, blowing an engine in Sunday’s Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Kahne said on Lap 65 the engine started to act funny and sound different. One lap later the engine let go and smoke poured out of the back of the #9 Budweiser Dodge.

"It's upsetting" Kahne said in the garage area.
"Had it happened last week we wouldn't even be in the Chase right now, so better it happen this week than last." Kasey is remaining positive about the whole deal going on to say "We just have to work a little harder now. We can still pull this off. It just won't be easy."

Now onto something else about RPM. A lot of people are saying the engine guys "sabotaged" Kasey. Those engines are built weeks ahead of time. There was no possible way of knowing that the Yates/Petty merger was going to happen and lay off 60 people. It was just a freak coincidence.

Another thing that boils my blood is people saying RPM isn't a good team for Kasey. Now I'm not a fan of Dodge by far so don't get the idea I'm defending them, but they have lost what 2 engines this year? Ford has lost about 6 or 7. Maybe a little bit more. Yes Dodge has ALWAYS lacked Horsepower, but their engines are very reliable and what happened at New Hampshire was unpredictable. I am however happy to see Kahne moving to Ford next year. My only hope is their engines are as reliable as Dodge's are and have a little more Horsepower. Besides if your a Kasey Kahne fan what does it matter what he drives? Your supposed to be a fan of the driver. Not the model or make of the car. As long as Kasey is happy I'm happy.