Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
Kasey Kahne will make his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 driving the No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion. With six races at the historic track already under his belt, he has scored two top-five and four top-10 finishes. Kahne’s average start there is 6.2 and his average finish is 16th. He’s also led 40 laps around the 2.5-mile track.
Kahne’s return to Indy this weekend is also a trip back to a town he called home early in his driving career. As a teenager, Kahne moved from Enumclaw, Wash., to Indianapolis with his sister, Shanon, to pursue his racing dreams. Kahne spent several years competing in sprint cars, USAC Midgets and Silver Crown cars, and even tested with Indy Car and CART teams before making the transition to stock cars in 2002 with starts in what was then the NASCAR Busch Series.
Kahne has an average finish of 10th in the last five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. That stretch includes three top fives, four top 10s and a 36th-place finish after an engine failure at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS). He led 110 laps in the race at NHMS and was running second when the No. 9 Budweiser Ford’s engine expired.
Just past the midpoint of the 2010 season, Kahne has scored five top fives, seven top 10s and one pole award this year. His average start is 11.2 and his average finish is 18.1.
Kahne is 17th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings and 120 points out of the 12th-place cut-off point for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with seven races to go before the Chase begins.
Kasey Kahne discusses racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:
On racing at Indy:
“We’ve come close at Indy. It’s definitely one of the races I look forward to each year. It’s a neat track. To me it’s just tough because all four corners are different, so you have to get your car to handle in each of them and get down the straightaway. If you can win at that place in any type of race car it’d be a great day.”
What would winning at Indy mean to you?
”Winning at the Brickyard and the Daytona 500 are on the top of my list. I think it depends on what type of racing background you have which one is more important to you. For me, coming up in the sprint car ranks, I raced in the Indianapolis area a lot and learned early on how significant winning at the Brickyard was. When you think about the drivers that have won at Indy throughout the years, it would mean a lot to be able to add my name to that list. We’ve been close a few times and it’s certainly a victory I’d love to pull off.”
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