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Sprint Cup
CUP: The Kahne Train Wreck Was Inevitable
Kasey Kahne joined Red Bull earlier than expected...
Kasey Kahne has won just four races in the past four seasons. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
In other sports it’s called “tampering” and it carries stiff penalties.
One team isn’t allowed to try to lure away a member of another team who is under contract, especially while the season is under way.
Maybe NASCAR needs to consider a similar rule in the wake of the turmoil created by Hendrick Motorsports. The season-long debacle was climaxed last week by the bailout of Kasey Kahne from Richard Petty Motorsports with five races left in the season.
The amazing thing is that Kahne lasted as long as he did at Petty.
The relationship was doomed when, back in the spring, he announced he was leaving RPM to join Hendrick Motorsports – in 2012! His ride wouldn’t be ready until then unless Mark Martin could be nudged out the back door, and Mark made it clear he wouldn’t let that happen.
The obvious question was what would Kasey do next year? Twiddle his thumbs?
When asked, he shrugged and said he didn’t know.
How’s that for crushing a team’s morale? Its driver is so anxious to leave that he takes a job with another team two years down the road, not knowing what he’ll do until then.
Since then it has been announced that Kahne will be put on ice next season at Red Bull Racing while waiting for the Hendrick ride in 2012.
It was obvious from the start that being a lame-duck driver wouldn’t work. And it didn’t. The situation boiled over a couple of weeks ago at Charlotte when Kasey said someone on the team suggested he wasn’t trying. After he crashed – a crash he blamed on his team’s poor preparation – Kahne stormed off and abandoned his repaired car.
With the relationship – unlike Kasey’s car – damaged beyond repair, they decided to split. Kahne joined Red Bull for the season wrap-up while Aric Almirola will mop up at RPM. The switch went into effect last Sunday at Martinsville and there are four to go, heading into Talladega this weekend.
Kahne is a talented racer who has – or had – a bright future in the sport. How much this fiasco will ding his image or disrupt his career remains to be seen. Meanwhile RPM is left in tatters. The organization was already struggling, and having to deal with the Kahne mutiny destroyed what chance it might have had at a decent season.
And it was all unnecessary.
Nobody can fault Rick Hendrick for wanting to add a bright young talent like Kahne to his stable of superstars, and nobody can fault Kasey for wanting to join the best operation in NASCAR.
The fault was their terrible timing. Since Kahne can’t join Hendrick until 2012, why make the announcement early in 2010 and create such havoc? It spoiled the season for both Kasey and RPM and it made Hendrick appear greedy and meddlesome. Mark Martin was even drawn into the morass by an absurd suggestion that he step aside for Kasey next year. It was a lose-lose situation for everybody involved.
That’s why you don’t tamper with another team’s players.
Larry Woody is a veteran, award-winning sports journalist. Woody began working at the Nashville Tennessean in the 1960s and took over the auto racing beat full time in the early 1970s. Larry can be reached at lwoody@racintoday.com
One team isn’t allowed to try to lure away a member of another team who is under contract, especially while the season is under way.
Maybe NASCAR needs to consider a similar rule in the wake of the turmoil created by Hendrick Motorsports. The season-long debacle was climaxed last week by the bailout of Kasey Kahne from Richard Petty Motorsports with five races left in the season.
The amazing thing is that Kahne lasted as long as he did at Petty.
The relationship was doomed when, back in the spring, he announced he was leaving RPM to join Hendrick Motorsports – in 2012! His ride wouldn’t be ready until then unless Mark Martin could be nudged out the back door, and Mark made it clear he wouldn’t let that happen.
The obvious question was what would Kasey do next year? Twiddle his thumbs?
When asked, he shrugged and said he didn’t know.
How’s that for crushing a team’s morale? Its driver is so anxious to leave that he takes a job with another team two years down the road, not knowing what he’ll do until then.
Since then it has been announced that Kahne will be put on ice next season at Red Bull Racing while waiting for the Hendrick ride in 2012.
It was obvious from the start that being a lame-duck driver wouldn’t work. And it didn’t. The situation boiled over a couple of weeks ago at Charlotte when Kasey said someone on the team suggested he wasn’t trying. After he crashed – a crash he blamed on his team’s poor preparation – Kahne stormed off and abandoned his repaired car.
With the relationship – unlike Kasey’s car – damaged beyond repair, they decided to split. Kahne joined Red Bull for the season wrap-up while Aric Almirola will mop up at RPM. The switch went into effect last Sunday at Martinsville and there are four to go, heading into Talladega this weekend.
Kahne is a talented racer who has – or had – a bright future in the sport. How much this fiasco will ding his image or disrupt his career remains to be seen. Meanwhile RPM is left in tatters. The organization was already struggling, and having to deal with the Kahne mutiny destroyed what chance it might have had at a decent season.
And it was all unnecessary.
Nobody can fault Rick Hendrick for wanting to add a bright young talent like Kahne to his stable of superstars, and nobody can fault Kasey for wanting to join the best operation in NASCAR.
The fault was their terrible timing. Since Kahne can’t join Hendrick until 2012, why make the announcement early in 2010 and create such havoc? It spoiled the season for both Kasey and RPM and it made Hendrick appear greedy and meddlesome. Mark Martin was even drawn into the morass by an absurd suggestion that he step aside for Kasey next year. It was a lose-lose situation for everybody involved.
That’s why you don’t tamper with another team’s players.
Larry Woody is a veteran, award-winning sports journalist. Woody began working at the Nashville Tennessean in the 1960s and took over the auto racing beat full time in the early 1970s. Larry can be reached at lwoody@racintoday.com
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