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Sprint Cup
CUP: Kahne Should Be A Force In 2012
Kasey Kahne had an average finish of 7.9 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup...
Kasey Kahne joins Hendrick Motorsports next season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
It’s been a big year in NASCAR. Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards provided what many believe to be the best Sprint Cup championship battle ever, the Busch brothers kept headline writers working overtime and Jimmie Johnson’s unprecedented streak of five consecutive championships ended.
Mostly lost in all the hoopla was Kasey Kahne’s amazing end-of-season run.
During the season-ending, 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, Kahne posted one victory, five top-five and seven top-10 finishes in the No. 4 Red Bull Racing Toyota. His average finish in the Chase was 7.9, third to only Stewart and Edwards. And Kahne did it with a team that was preparing to shut down. It was a gutty and remarkable performance for the Enumclaw, Wash., native, crew chief Kenny Francis and the entire team.
“The biggest thing for me is how proud I am of the guys that put these cars together,” Francis said after Kahne won the penultimate race of the year at Phoenix International Raceway. “We built all these things in-house, pretty much the whole thing. So to see this team, it's kind of go-their-own-way, do-their-own-thing type of team. We feel like we've been growing all year and getting better and better and better. To finally cap it off with a win, I'm excited for the guys that built these cars and put all the effort into making this happen.”
It was quite an achievement, given the team’s imminent sale or complete demise, which had hung over everyone since it was announced in June that Red Bull was getting out of NASCAR.
For 2012, Kahne and Francis will be running the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, where they will share a garage with Jeff Gordon. Now, both the challenge and the opportunity will ratchet up exponentially.
Given the success Kahne had with Red Bull, a mid-pack team that had only one other race victory in its five-year Cup history, expectations will be sky high next year.
It could be a matter where Kahne and Francis need some time to adjust, because their cars are not the same as the Hendrick ones, or it could be Kahne is a championship contender from the drop of the green flag at Daytona.
“We were able to test the 5 car at Charlotte (in October),” Kahne said. “Some of the feelings and things were definitely different than what we have right now, what I've had in the past. So you have to figure that out. As long as myself and Kenny are communicating well and trying to work together — we go to lunch a lot, try to run through things, think about stuff — hopefully we can figure it out pretty quickly.”
Without question, Kahne’s new Hendrick teammates are excited about having him on board.
“Kenny Francis and Kasey Kahne coming in are going to be a great spark,” said Johnson. “Kenny goes about things a little differently. Kenny’s cars are designed and set up a little differently, so there’s going to be some information going both ways, and the final product should be a better product for 2012.”
“I think it’s always great when you can bring a fresh new set of eyes, especially Kenny Francis, who is really talented,” said Gordon, Kahne’s garage neighbor. “You saw what those guys did at the end of the year. We’re excited to have those resources.
“And when you take Hendrick Motorsports and what we’re capable of doing with our cars and then you add three great crew chiefs and the engineers, and then you add to it somebody like Kenny Francis and then a quality driver like Kasey Kahne, those guys are going to be tough and as a whole we’re going to step up our game.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
Mostly lost in all the hoopla was Kasey Kahne’s amazing end-of-season run.
During the season-ending, 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, Kahne posted one victory, five top-five and seven top-10 finishes in the No. 4 Red Bull Racing Toyota. His average finish in the Chase was 7.9, third to only Stewart and Edwards. And Kahne did it with a team that was preparing to shut down. It was a gutty and remarkable performance for the Enumclaw, Wash., native, crew chief Kenny Francis and the entire team.
“The biggest thing for me is how proud I am of the guys that put these cars together,” Francis said after Kahne won the penultimate race of the year at Phoenix International Raceway. “We built all these things in-house, pretty much the whole thing. So to see this team, it's kind of go-their-own-way, do-their-own-thing type of team. We feel like we've been growing all year and getting better and better and better. To finally cap it off with a win, I'm excited for the guys that built these cars and put all the effort into making this happen.”
It was quite an achievement, given the team’s imminent sale or complete demise, which had hung over everyone since it was announced in June that Red Bull was getting out of NASCAR.
For 2012, Kahne and Francis will be running the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, where they will share a garage with Jeff Gordon. Now, both the challenge and the opportunity will ratchet up exponentially.
Given the success Kahne had with Red Bull, a mid-pack team that had only one other race victory in its five-year Cup history, expectations will be sky high next year.
It could be a matter where Kahne and Francis need some time to adjust, because their cars are not the same as the Hendrick ones, or it could be Kahne is a championship contender from the drop of the green flag at Daytona.
“We were able to test the 5 car at Charlotte (in October),” Kahne said. “Some of the feelings and things were definitely different than what we have right now, what I've had in the past. So you have to figure that out. As long as myself and Kenny are communicating well and trying to work together — we go to lunch a lot, try to run through things, think about stuff — hopefully we can figure it out pretty quickly.”
Without question, Kahne’s new Hendrick teammates are excited about having him on board.
“Kenny Francis and Kasey Kahne coming in are going to be a great spark,” said Johnson. “Kenny goes about things a little differently. Kenny’s cars are designed and set up a little differently, so there’s going to be some information going both ways, and the final product should be a better product for 2012.”
“I think it’s always great when you can bring a fresh new set of eyes, especially Kenny Francis, who is really talented,” said Gordon, Kahne’s garage neighbor. “You saw what those guys did at the end of the year. We’re excited to have those resources.
“And when you take Hendrick Motorsports and what we’re capable of doing with our cars and then you add three great crew chiefs and the engineers, and then you add to it somebody like Kenny Francis and then a quality driver like Kasey Kahne, those guys are going to be tough and as a whole we’re going to step up our game.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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