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Sprint Cup
CUP: Kahne Must Battle Through Frustration Says Loomis
Kasey Kahne is leaving Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of the season...
Kasey Kahne has been critical of his team's performance at times this season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
A Richard Petty Motorsports official said Monday that driver Kasey Kahne's frustration with his Richard Petty Motorsports team at Charlotte was understandable but that Kahne needs to be a team leader and battle through it.
Kahne was frustrated over brake issues he has had in recent weeks and after wrecking Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the 30-year-old driver got sick to his stomach and told the team he did not feel well enough to return to the car after it took more than 100 laps to make repairs.
J.J. Yeley finished the race in place of Kahne.
Kahne, who will drive for Red Bull Racing in 2011 before going to Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, said Sunday that he was sick but also angry, especially with one team member who told him he had to do his part.
“Anytime you’re in the competitive stage, everybody is fired up and do all they can do,” RPM Vice President of Competition Robbie Loomis said Monday. “Considering the circumstances that we’re under, when everything is going good, then everybody is putting out 100 percent.
“It’s those times when you have bad times, it’s hard to fight through those bad times because you know there’s going to be something different you’re doing next year. Probably the hardest part is to keep your focus and attention on it.”
It’s been an up-and-down year for Kahne, who won twice and made the Chase For The Sprint Cup last season but has gone winless this year and is 21st in the standings. Kahne, who announced in April he would leave RPM at the end of the year, has seven top-five finishes this season, the same number he had last year.
“When you know that [you’re leaving and it’s] in the back of your mind, it gets harder and harder when you’re having adversity to fight through it,” Loomis said. “The real champions in life learn how to fight through those things even on the bad days. It’s all part of a growing process for us all.
“When he gets over there [at Hendrick], with being around Jeff [Gordon] and Jimmie [Johnson], he’ll get to learn a lot through them and how they deal and fight with adversity, too. It was disheartening for all of us. We felt so good going into the race.”
Kahne was coming off a fourth-place finish at California while RPM teammate AJ Allmendigner was starting third at Charlotte and had finished in the top 10 in three of his last five races. And teammate Paul Menard, who announced in August he was leaving for Richard Childress Racing in 2011, had top-10s in two of his last three events.
“I’m just really, really excited about the job AJ Allmendinger has been doing, and Paul – I think having his dad’s name on the car [as the sponsor], he’s handled this thing like a true champion all the way,” Loomis said.
“We’ve got five races to go, but he’s really still performing and digging in there real hard to get good results each week. … Whenever that [frustration] happens, you like to put it behind you and look forward to the next week.”
Loomis said he expects Kahne to remain in the No. 9 car the rest of the year.
“It’s our full intention for him to finish the season in the 9 with Budweiser, but the sport is ever-changing and you never know,” Loomis said. “In this day and age, nothing surprises me. … We still want to get a win with him and do the best job we can.”
While crew chief Kenny Francis is following Kahne to Red Bull, some members of the No. 9 team will return to RPM next year, Loomis said. Even if a deal could be worked out for 2011 driver Marcos Ambrose to join the team for the last month of 2010, he wouldn’t get to work with the crew that will be put together for him for 2011, Loomis said.
For Kahne to win, the team needs to solve the brake issues that he said he has had in two of the last three weeks. Kahne believes the team needs to change brake fluids.
“There are about 12 guys around the car, including guys with AP [brakes], all trying to look at the master cylinders and all that,” Loomis said. “Sometimes, you just, I don’t know, it seems like it’s been one of those years. We’ve just had a lot of the troubles fall on him and that car.
“It’s real, real hard to keep everybody focused … on the job, and the leader of these teams – whenever you look at the paychecks – has always been the driver and I think it’s just really, really hard when they know they’re going in a different direction to still be the motivator and fire everybody up and keep everybody focused on the job at hand.
“Part of my job is to do that. Hopefully we’re going to have good brakes the rest of the year for him and be in good shape.”
The rest of the year would mark the end of Kahne’s relationship with an organization that began as Evernham Motorsports, then had a change in majority ownership in 2007 to become Gillett Evernham Motorsports and then had a merger in 2009 to become Richard Petty Motorsports. RPM merged again this past offseason with Yates Racing but kept the RPM name.
The team is winless this year with Allmendinger 20th in the standings, Kahne 21st, Menard 23rd and Elliott Sadler 27th.
“We all go out there to win the race, and anything short of that, you’re disappointed,” Loomis said. “Throughout this season and through the merger, this team has endured a lot and had some really strong runs. Sometimes I thought we were on the brink of winning, and we weren’t able to seal the deal.
“Charlotte is such a good place for Kasey, he’s so good there and we didn’t run that good there in the fall and to come back this race, we were really practicing good on Friday and then when we got in the race and started having some issues with the brakes, it was a pretty big letdown obviously to him. You could tell on the radio the frustration had set in. It’s the nature of the business.”
SceneDaily.com • Bristol Motor Speedway President Jeff Byrd dies after long illness
Kahne was frustrated over brake issues he has had in recent weeks and after wrecking Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the 30-year-old driver got sick to his stomach and told the team he did not feel well enough to return to the car after it took more than 100 laps to make repairs.
J.J. Yeley finished the race in place of Kahne.
Kahne, who will drive for Red Bull Racing in 2011 before going to Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, said Sunday that he was sick but also angry, especially with one team member who told him he had to do his part.
“Anytime you’re in the competitive stage, everybody is fired up and do all they can do,” RPM Vice President of Competition Robbie Loomis said Monday. “Considering the circumstances that we’re under, when everything is going good, then everybody is putting out 100 percent.
“It’s those times when you have bad times, it’s hard to fight through those bad times because you know there’s going to be something different you’re doing next year. Probably the hardest part is to keep your focus and attention on it.”
It’s been an up-and-down year for Kahne, who won twice and made the Chase For The Sprint Cup last season but has gone winless this year and is 21st in the standings. Kahne, who announced in April he would leave RPM at the end of the year, has seven top-five finishes this season, the same number he had last year.
“When you know that [you’re leaving and it’s] in the back of your mind, it gets harder and harder when you’re having adversity to fight through it,” Loomis said. “The real champions in life learn how to fight through those things even on the bad days. It’s all part of a growing process for us all.
“When he gets over there [at Hendrick], with being around Jeff [Gordon] and Jimmie [Johnson], he’ll get to learn a lot through them and how they deal and fight with adversity, too. It was disheartening for all of us. We felt so good going into the race.”
Kahne was coming off a fourth-place finish at California while RPM teammate AJ Allmendigner was starting third at Charlotte and had finished in the top 10 in three of his last five races. And teammate Paul Menard, who announced in August he was leaving for Richard Childress Racing in 2011, had top-10s in two of his last three events.
“I’m just really, really excited about the job AJ Allmendinger has been doing, and Paul – I think having his dad’s name on the car [as the sponsor], he’s handled this thing like a true champion all the way,” Loomis said.
“We’ve got five races to go, but he’s really still performing and digging in there real hard to get good results each week. … Whenever that [frustration] happens, you like to put it behind you and look forward to the next week.”
Loomis said he expects Kahne to remain in the No. 9 car the rest of the year.
“It’s our full intention for him to finish the season in the 9 with Budweiser, but the sport is ever-changing and you never know,” Loomis said. “In this day and age, nothing surprises me. … We still want to get a win with him and do the best job we can.”
While crew chief Kenny Francis is following Kahne to Red Bull, some members of the No. 9 team will return to RPM next year, Loomis said. Even if a deal could be worked out for 2011 driver Marcos Ambrose to join the team for the last month of 2010, he wouldn’t get to work with the crew that will be put together for him for 2011, Loomis said.
For Kahne to win, the team needs to solve the brake issues that he said he has had in two of the last three weeks. Kahne believes the team needs to change brake fluids.
“There are about 12 guys around the car, including guys with AP [brakes], all trying to look at the master cylinders and all that,” Loomis said. “Sometimes, you just, I don’t know, it seems like it’s been one of those years. We’ve just had a lot of the troubles fall on him and that car.
“It’s real, real hard to keep everybody focused … on the job, and the leader of these teams – whenever you look at the paychecks – has always been the driver and I think it’s just really, really hard when they know they’re going in a different direction to still be the motivator and fire everybody up and keep everybody focused on the job at hand.
“Part of my job is to do that. Hopefully we’re going to have good brakes the rest of the year for him and be in good shape.”
The rest of the year would mark the end of Kahne’s relationship with an organization that began as Evernham Motorsports, then had a change in majority ownership in 2007 to become Gillett Evernham Motorsports and then had a merger in 2009 to become Richard Petty Motorsports. RPM merged again this past offseason with Yates Racing but kept the RPM name.
The team is winless this year with Allmendinger 20th in the standings, Kahne 21st, Menard 23rd and Elliott Sadler 27th.
“We all go out there to win the race, and anything short of that, you’re disappointed,” Loomis said. “Throughout this season and through the merger, this team has endured a lot and had some really strong runs. Sometimes I thought we were on the brink of winning, and we weren’t able to seal the deal.
“Charlotte is such a good place for Kasey, he’s so good there and we didn’t run that good there in the fall and to come back this race, we were really practicing good on Friday and then when we got in the race and started having some issues with the brakes, it was a pretty big letdown obviously to him. You could tell on the radio the frustration had set in. It’s the nature of the business.”
SceneDaily.com • Bristol Motor Speedway President Jeff Byrd dies after long illness
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