FANTASY NASCAR Racin

was a full-time NASCAR driver. He participated in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. In 2001, Kahne made a trip to Pennsylvania where he won the season opener at the historic Williams Grove Speedway. He was hired by Steve Lewis, who had also employed future NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Jason Leffler, Tony Stewart, and Kenny Irwin, Jr. In his first year on the midget car circuit, he was named Rookie of the Year, as well as winning the national midget championship. Kahne made 20 starts in the 2002 Xfinity Series driving the #98 Channellock Ford Taurus for Robert Yates Racing. His best finish was a tenth-place finish at Cabela's 250. In 2003, he moved to the #38 Great Clips Ford for Akins Motorsports. He won his first pole at Michigan International Speedway and his first Xfinity race at the Ford 300. Kahne replaced Bill Elliott in the #9 Dodge at the end of 2003 when Elliott announced a part-time schedule starting with the 2004 season. Kahne scored his first career NASCAR Cup victory in his sophomore season of 2005, after a dominating performance in the Chevy American Revolution 400 at Richmond International Raceway. It was also the first victory for the Dodge

Charger, which returned to NASCAR in 2005. On September 9, 2006, Kahne successfully raced his way into the Chase for The Cup by finishing third in Richmond. He was the 10th and last qualifier for the Chase. He edged defending Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart out by 16 points, but a disappointing crash at Dover made an impact on Kahne's 8th place finish for the season. Kahne also won 2 Busch Series races in '06. With new sponsor Budweiser, Kahne started off the 2008 season strong as he finished in the top 10 in both the Budweiser Shootout and the Gatorade Duel. On May 25, 2008, Kasey Kahne won the Coca-Cola 600 by passing Tony Stewart with 2 laps to go, as Tony had a flat tire going into turn 1. It was Kasey's first points-paying win of the season. He also became the sixth driver to win the race along with the All-Star Race the

previous weekend. Kahne won the pole for the Pocono 500. He would go onto win the race despite being 38th at one point during the race after a miscue in the pits. Kahne's new team for 2009, Richard Petty Motorsports, was the result of a merger between his team's previous incarnation, Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises. Kahne won the Toyota/Save Mart 350 event on June 21, 2009, for his first road course win. He also made "the Chase" but finished tenth in the points. On September 10, 2009, it was announced that Richard Petty Motorsports would merge with Yates Racing. Kasey Kahne would remain as one of four drivers of RPM alongside his

current Sadler, Allmendinger, as well as Yates Racing driver Paul Menard. He failed to win a race that season. On April 13, 2010, Kahne announced that he would be leaving Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of the 2010 season. On August 10, 2010, the Red Bull Racing Team officially announced that Kahne would drive one of their cars for the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Season, a tenure that would start in the 2010 season after Kahne was released from RPM. That was a one year deal as Kahne will be driving the #5 for Hendrick Motorsports starting in 2012. Kahne managed to post a win in 2011; as he won the race held at Phoenix; one race before the season ended. In 2012 after moving to Hendrick Motorsports Kasey had a good season; getting wins at Charlotte and New Hampshire and finishing fourth in the points. But since then it's been a rocky road. In 2013 Kahne won twice; but could only

manage a 12th place finish in the Chase. In 2014 he had to win at the next to last race to earn a spot in the Chase; but still just finished 15th at years end. In 2015; Kahne didn't get a win at all and finished 18th in the points standings. After a miserable 2015 season, Kahne saw more of the same in 2016. Ten of the races he finished at least one lap down and only posted 13 top ten finishes. He had a best finish of third at Charlotte in October. In 2017 he pulled off a surprise win at Indianapolis to qualify him for the Chase. You can see Kahne in victory lane in the photo below. You'll notice that both Kahne and Hendrick have the caps turned backwards. Rick's son Ricky did this when he or his team won; and the HMS drivers still do it in honor and in

memory of Ricky. Still except for that one race, Kahne under performed, as he posted only three top Fives all season. Before the season came to an end Hendrick notified Kahne that he was going to drop him as a driver and he wouldn't have a ride at HMS in 2018. Mr Hendrick did say he would help make sure he had a ride someplace in the Cup Series. He was able to get Kahne a ride in the #95 car owned by Leavine Family Racing. In August of that year Kahne announced that he would retire from NASCAR racing at the end of the season. He expressed an interest to spend more time with his family. He began having serious health issues when his body could not regulate the amount of fluids and he would get extremely dehydrated during Cup races. Regan Smith started filling in for Kahne after the Southern 500 at Darlington. Smith ran five races and doctors admitted they were perplexed they could not find out why Kahne had these issues; nor

did they know how to combat it. Shortly after that it was announced that Kahne would not race the rest of the season and in effect was retired. Kahne still has plans to race in sprint and outlaw sprint car races. He has no problems in these series because the cars are open cockpit and much shorter races. For his career Kahne made 529 Cup starts, and won 18 times; the last being the Brickyard 400 at Indy in 2017. He has posted 93 top five finishes. He also has eight Xfinity wins, and five Truck series wins. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

KASEY KENNETH KAHNE - 04/10/1980