Auto racing: Kahne looks to right ship
Last year Kasey Kahne won six races and six poles in his third year in Nextel Cup racing with Evernham Motorsports.
He was NASCAR’s poster boy, on and off the track.
Although Kahne, 27, didn’t sizzle in the Chase for the Championship, he finished the year eighth in points.
Believe it or not, Kahne is in 28th position after 14 races this season, perhaps the biggest surprise in stock car racing’s premier series.
His best finish is seventh, in the first race of the year, the Daytona 500. Although he has qualified well in most events, he has led just 66 laps this year, 28 of those at Dover a couple of weeks ago.
Kahne will start 36th in today’s Citizens Bank 400 at Brooklyn, Mich., on the outside of Row 18, at Michigan International Speedway. It’s not the place the defending champion of the race wants to take the green flag from, but Kahne is not falling apart, either.
“We’re doing all we can to try to figure out how to run up front again,” Kahne said outside his hauler at MIS. “We’ve made a couple of changes for this week and hope they work.”
Michigan is a big, wide oval where a good driver can find ways to win. Kahne is a special talent and it would be no surprise for him to rebound in the best possible way today – by repeating as the race winner.
While drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. (DEI) and Kyle Busch (Hendrick Motorsports) will be making moves in 2008, Kahne, despite his trying year, remains loyal to Dodge and Evernham Motorsports and its owner, Ray Evernham.
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep up with them and bring Dodge’s stuff up to where they are,” said Kahne of catching up with teams like Hendrick and Richard Childress Racing.
Kahne must make up a lot of ground to win today. But few are faster. “The car is decent,” said Kahne. “I’m looking forward to running up front.”
“Michael Waltrip again juggled his roles as team owner and driver, replacing David Reutimann for next weekend’s race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
P.J. Jones will drive on the road course while Reutimann will concentrate on the Busch Series race in Milwaukee. Reutimann is fourth in the Busch standings.
Busch Series
Stephen Leicht took advantage of Carl Edwards’ late wreck to win for the first time in the Busch Series, passing rookie Brad Coleman with 13 laps left and holding in the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky.
Leicht, whose best finish previous was eighth in the Pepsi 300 in April, beat Coleman by 1.851 seconds.
A year after unsung David Gilliland stunned the field, Leicht repeated the feat at the 1.5-mile oval, a track that has become friendly to first-time winners because of the absence of many Nextel Cup drivers who usually run the series.
Craftsman Truck Series
Travis Kvapil patiently stalked Kyle Busch around Michigan International Speedway, finally passing him with one lap to go at Brooklyn, Mich., to score his first Craftsman Truck Series win since 2004.
Busch led four times for 38 laps, but was struggling to control his Chevrolet when Kvapil closed in on him over the final 10 laps. Kvapil, the 2003 series champion, made several peeks around him, only to scoot back in line behind Busch.
He finally attempted a pass in the fourth turn, sliding ahead of Busch as they closed in on the start/finsh line with the white flag waving above them. Kvapil then pulled away on the final lap.