This weekend, Kasey Kahne returned to the NASCAR circuit after an unceremonious retirement in 2018 due to dehydration health issues. The return came at Rockingham Speedway, a track that, while he’s only had a handful of starts there, he has been very successful at. In fact, his first runner-up finish came at the track during his rookie season in 2004.
During his time in NASCAR, Kahne was a very popular driver, having driven for teams such as Evernham Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Red Bull Racing, Levine Family Racing, and, of course, Hendrick Motorsports. During his 15-year NASCAR Cup Series career, he won 18 times, scored 176 top 10s, and 27 poles. He’s also an 8-time winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and holds 5 victories in the trucks. Now, he’s back and having a great time. So, with no further ado, we here at The Daily Downforce thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of Kahne’s hallmark NASCAR moments. Here are Kasey Kahne’s 5 greatest career highlights.
With Kasey returning to the Rock this weekend, we thought it would be appropriate to start this list with his one and only Cup Series start at Rockingham. This came all the way back in his rookie year in 2004. Kahne was tapped to be the replacement of fan-favorite driver Bill Elliott following his retirement at Homestead in 2003. Right out of the gate, Kahne was fast. Lightning fast. Early on in his career, he was considered a generational superstar, often spoken of in the same breath as NASCAR greats like Jeff Gordon. In fact, he was often compared to Gordon by his car owner, Ray Evernham, who hand-selected him to replace Elliott in the 9. He was considered a future champion, and though that never panned out for him, he still went on to have a successful NASCAR career.
This race was only Kahne’s second start. Kahne started the race in third and established himself as a serious contender throughout the race. He ran inside the top 5 all day long and, in the end, nearly beat Matt Kenseth to the line in a truly thrilling finish. This was Kahne’s first runner-up finish, and he’d go on to get several more before finally shattering that glass ceiling and capturing his first win. But Kahne, as a rookie, almost won the final race (to date) at Rockingham Speedway. That’s no easy feat and is truly, truly impressive.
Like his mentor/driving coach Bill Elliott before him and Bill’s son and Kahne’s eventual teammate, Chase Elliott, after him, Kasey Kahne had a string of runner-up finishes before he captured his elusive first win. Of course, there was the aforementioned 2nd-place finish at Rockingham in 2004. But he followed that up a week later with a 2nd at Las Vegas. Three weeks after that, he finished 2nd at Texas. Then again, in the summer at Michigan. The again at Fontana in the fall. He ultimately went winless in 2004 and finished 2nd a frustrating 5 times. For an extra kick in the pants, he also finished 2nd at Martinsville in 2005, bringing his total up to 6 runner-up finishes before he got his first win (beat your heart out, Sheldon Creed).
The day finally came for Kahne in Richmond on May 14, 2005. He started the race from the pole and battled Tony Stewart hard in the closing stages to finally shatter that glass ceiling. Ultimately, he led 242 laps, most on the night. Kasey Kahne was finally a NASCAR Cup Series winner.
As the years went on, cracks in the structure of Evernham Motorsports started to appear. George Gillette joined as a major partner in the team’s ownership group in 2007. Meanwhile, namesake owner Ray Evernham was getting harder and harder to get a hold of. By 2009, the team merged with Petty Enterprises, forming Richard Petty Motorsports. That was the beginning of the end for the organization.
Towards the end of the 2010 season, it was announced that Kasey Kahne had signed a lucrative contract with the powerhouse that is Hendrick Motorsports. The catch was that he was not to be allowed to drive for the team until Mark Martin left at the end of the 2011 season, meaning that he’d need to find a buffer team between seasons. Ultimately, he left Petty prematurely in a team swap between himself and A. J. Allmendinger. The Dinger went over to Petty to finish out the year while Kahne signed on with Team Red Bull. This ultimately led to Kahne signing a 1-year deal with the team for the 2011 season.
Red Bull was Toyota’s second-best team in NASCAR behind JGR…which really wasn’t saying much. They won a race with Brian Vickers in 2009, but had been winless since then before Kahne joined the fold. The driver of the number 4 Red Bull Toyota got the team their final victory at Phoenix in the fall of 2011. He led only 14 laps after Tony Stewart dominated the day. But hey, he led the 14 that counted!
Though Kahne never got to hoist the Harley J. Earl trophy down in Daytona USA, he still had a couple of crown jewel wins under his belt. In fact, he won NASCAR’s longest races not once, not twice, but three times! The one we’re spotlighting today is his 2012 triumph, driving the number 5 QuakerState Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports. This was his first big win for HMS, proving that Mr. H’s investment in him had paid off.
Kahne started the race in the 7th position and led 96 of the race’s 400 laps. He earned this win, too. He ran down and passed leader Denny Hamlin on Lap 332 and never looked back. This was the start of a beautiful relationship between Kahne and his new team. He raced for HMS between 2012 and 2017.
Well, we talked about Kasey Kahne’s first win (of 6) with Hendrick Motorsports, now let’s talk about his last–when he finally nabbed another one of those crown jewels. The year was 2017, and Kahne was coming off a rough patch. In fact, the Hendrick Motorsports organization as a whole was on the cusp of entering a rebuilding period by that point. Jeff Gordon retired two years prior and was replaced by a young Chase Elliott. Though Jimmie Johnson won the championship the year before, his performance was falling off even in 2016 and took a steep nosedive in 2017. Dale Jr. was injured most of 2016 and was racing his final season in ’17.
And then there was Kahne. He was suffering from a 102-race winless streak. After making the Playoffs in 2012, 2013, and 2014 (narrowly), Kahne missed the postseason in ’15 and ’16 and was on track to do the same in 2017 until he broke through and captured this win at Indy. Things just weren’t trending in a positive direction for Kahne by this point, and it became clear that his days as a NASCAR Cup Series driver were numbered.
Prior to this race, it was already announced that Kahne would not be returning to HMS for the 2018 season and that he would be replaced by up-and-comer William Byron. This victory was Kahne’s final hurrah and was what turned out to be the final win of his career. He started 19th and led 12 laps at the end of the race, holding off Brad Keselowski for the victory.
That does it for this one, Daily Downforce readers. What do you think of Kasey Kahne and his career in NASCAR? What are your favorite moments? Would you like to see him come back for more races in the future? Let us know what you think! And be sure to come back here to Daily Downforce.com for more awesome NASCAR content!
