Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
· This weekend will mark Kasey Kahne’s ninth career start at Dover International Speedway.
· In eight starts at Dover, Kahne has one top-10 finish.
· Kahne has an average start of 14th and an average finish of 25th at the Monster Mile.
· In the last two weekends, Kahne has earned over $1.4 million in race winnings.
· Following last weekend’s win, Kahne returned to the top 12 in the driver point standings. He is now 32 points outside of 10th.
· Kahne will be available for interviews with motorsports media members at Dover this Friday, May 30th at approximately 10:50 am at the No. 9 Budweiser transporter.
Kahne Discusses Racing in the Best Buy 400 at Dover
How much do you think the last two weeks have changed other teams’ perception of you and your team?
“It has to change it a lot. I mean, you race with them each week and you race each other a certain way, and you race each other for the speed of your car, the way that each guy drives. When your speed gets up, I think that makes other people race you a little bit different. It makes them think a little bit different. How that is, I don’t know. I know that when I’m racing with Tony (Stewart) or certain people, you just think different on each guy and how fast they are, what you need to do to pass them. I think it changes the mindset on a lot of people and says, ‘Hey, this Gillett Evernham team is stepping up and they’re getting to where we want to be.’”
You are back in the top 12 in the standings. Do you consider yourself a chase contender?
“Yeah, I definitely see myself and our whole Budweiser team in the Chase. We have the team to do it, that’s for sure. These guys, they work as hard as any team. They’re as good and as smart as any team out there. We just need to keep working together and communicating, focusing on each track that we come to. So, yeah, I mean, last weekend was great for points. I’m glad to hear I’m back in the top 12. That was the goal at the start of the year. I mean, obviously, we want to win races, but the main goal is to be in the top 12 with 10 races to go. That’s what every team out here wants to do. We definitely want that too. We just have to keep working hard on finishing races and making sure we get points every single week.”
What are the keys to success at Dover?
“We’ve had some good runs at Dover along with a few disappointments. Dover is a tough, demanding track. It’s extremely fast and challenging and tires can make a world of difference here.”
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