Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
· Kasey Kahne is set to make his 11th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) this weekend.
· With three races remaining until the season finale, Kahne is currently ninth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings, 12 points behind eighth-place driver Ryan Newman.
· Kahne scored a win at TMS during the spring race in 2006 after starting from the pole. He led 63 laps en route to the victory.
· In 10 starts at TMS, Kahne has accrued one win, two top-five and two top-10 finishes.
· Kahne has an average start of 14th and an average finish of 23rd at TMS.
· In nine starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Kahne has posted four top-five starting positions.
· In addition to Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event, Kahne will also be participating in the Saturday’s Nationwide Series race piloting the No. 38 entry for Braun Racing.
Kahne discusses racing at Texas Motor Speedway:
What are your thoughts on this weekend’s race at Texas?
“Texas is actually a really neat track. I’ve always liked Texas. It’s fast. The banking is awesome. It’s a little bit rough too. There are some spots that are rough, so you have that side where your car is bouncing around and you have to slide the back around. I enjoy racing there.”
What makes Texas different than other 1.5-mile tracks?
“Getting into Turn One can be tricky. It is real flat and then as you are coming into the corner, you get into the banking. It’s almost like you fall into the corner at 190 miles per hour. Turn Three is similar but it is not as drastic. It is a difficult place to get your car to handle the way you want. It is a great track, but you really need your car to handle well on entry to be competitive.”
What makes a car good at Texas?
“The biggest thing is the front end. You have to get the left front working. You have to make sure that your front two tires are cutting real well. You need your back (of the car) to be in the track real well. The biggest thing for me is the front tires. That’s usually what we struggle with here – the front tires aren’t working as good as they need to work. The couple times that they have worked really well, we’ve either been first of second. This should be a good track for us.”
