CUP: Kahne Upset About Brake Problems At CMS

Sprint Cup

CUP: Kahne Upset About Brake Problems At CMS

Kasey Kahne isn't happy with his recurring brake problems, and voiced his displeasure after more brake issues at Charlotte Motor Speedway...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted October 18, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Kasey Kahne had a miserable outing in the Bank of America 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Kasey Kahne was sick to his stomach, literally by throwing up and figuratively by brake issues that he called a “mess” and a “joke” in the Bank of America 500 on Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Brake issues that have plagued him periodically throughout the year cropped up again Saturday, leaving him with no brakes and having to lift off the gas and coast through the corners. Eventually he wrecked while two laps down on lap 124. The team fixed the car, but Kahne, who had thrown up, didn’t want to continue driving a car more than 100 laps down, he said.

J.J. Yeley drove the car to finish the race for Kahne, who will be leaving RPM at the end of the season for Red Bull Racing for 2011 and then Hendrick Motorsports in 2012.

Kahne indicated that he could have returned but was angry over the brake issue as well as a Richard Petty Motorsports employee – he wouldn’t name who it was – who criticized him.

“I was told that I needed to start doing my part, is what one guy told me last night after the race,” Kahne said Sunday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the site of the finish of the Kasey Kahne Foundation 5-kilometer run in the morning. “I told him he needed to start doing his part.

“I’m not going to say names. But I was told that I need to start doing my part. I can’t control the issues I’ve had this year. I don’t know how many parts I’ve broke, how many shifter handles, control arms, blowers, brakes. If I really thought about it, I could come up with all kinds of stuff. You can’t control that as a driver. I’m doing my part. I just need the car. I work as hard as anybody out there.”

Kahne ran in his road race and said it was his slowest 5-kilometer run, which he attributed at least in part to the sour stomach. But when talking about being sick, Kahne couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t hide his frustration with his team, and admitted he was about as mad as ever in a car.

“I lost it,” Kahne said. “I was just mad. I came into the race thinking we had a shot to win, thinking we had a good car in practice, we had a good shot. It went green. We were a little bit tight but still actually passed cars and really felt good and then boom, my brakes are gone.

“It’s not like you have half-brakes, like you can pump them. Your foot goes to the floor. It bottoms out. It’s a joke.”

What bothered Kahne most is that he believes the brake fluid the team is using is causing the problems. He said crew chief Kenny Francis wants to change but the organization, which has a technical alliance with Roush Fenway Racing, doesn’t want to change the fluid just for Kahne.

“I guess it has something to do with fluid, and basically we run stuff that’s not very good compared to some of the other teams,” Kahne said. “So once you lose your brakes, you can’t get them back. With that fluid, you can’t get them back. There are other fluids that you can, but with ours you can’t.

“Their point is that we have eight teams and I’m the only one that’s had this issue, and that’s a good point. But I’ve never had any issues in my past six years. If you look at brakes after a race, my brake pads are better than any one of the other seven or the same as the best ones that don’t use much brake. So it’s just a mess, really.”

Kahne said he lost his brakes about 30-40 laps into the race Saturday. It was not having the brakes that eventually led to the wreck.

‘I completely lost my brakes for the third time this year and the second time in three weeks,” Kahne said. “You just can’t race. You do everything you can and you try to get just a little bit more and you just about wreck and then you just slow yourself down and then you try to get a little more and you about wreck and then I wrecked.”

VIDEO: Cup - Charlotte Jamie McMurray Wins at CMS (Image: SPEED)

After fixing the car, the team put Yeley in the car and he picked up two spots to finish 38th, which was worth six points for Kahne and the team, which is 21 points outside the top 20 in the driver and owner standings.

“I want to thank J.J. for [getting in],” Kahne said. “I appreciate him doing that. I just didn’t feel good enough to get back in the car.”

The obvious frustration certainly raises the question on whether Kahne could go over to Red Bull for any of the final five races this year. Red Bull still hasn’t announced a driver for its No. 83 car this weekend at Martinsville as Brian Vickers substitute driver Reed Sorenson will be competing in the Nationwide Series race at Gateway.

“I don’t know,” Kahne said after a long pause on whether he could be in a Red Bull car by the end of the year. “I really don’t know if that will happen or not.”

When Kahne drives the Red Bull car next year, he will have Francis going with him. Kahne said that Francis isn’t necessarily signed to go to Hendrick in 2012.

“His [contract] is pretty open as far as his decisions on Red Bull or Hendrick or kind of where it goes,” Kahne said. “They’ll all figure that together. … Me and Kenny understand each other so hopefully we can go fast a little bit quicker that way.”

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