Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Do or die at Richmond for Kasey Kahne's Chase hopes

Kasey Kahne is 40/1 to win at Richmond Saturday night.
Kasey Kahne on racing at Richmond
“I’ve always liked Richmond. I have been able to win here in the past and I look forward to the challenge. I think you can bring a lot back from the day race, but the bigger thing is the cars have changed since then. Even though it will be the same package, the teams have built better cars. We were really competitive in the first race, and I think we’ll bring back a similar setup, but a better car, and work from there in practice.”

RETURNING TO RICHMOND: Kasey Kahne returns to Richmond International Raceway and will pilot the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS for Saturday night’s 400-lap race. Kahne’s fourth-place result in this year’s April race at Richmond is tied with his finish at Dover as his highest of the season.

RACING TO THE CHASE: Kahne is on the outside looking in for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. However, a win this weekend at Richmond would punch his ticket to NASCAR’s 10-race postseason. Kahne has been in this situation before – 2014 – when he needed to win in order to earn his spot in the Chase. Kahne led 25 laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the penultimate event of the regular season and went on to win the 335-lap race to advance to the Chase.

RICHMOND LOOP DATA: According to NASCAR’s loop data at Richmond from the past 10 years at the track, Kahne ranks sixth in two categories - fastest laps run with 400 and green-flag passes with 1,140. The Enumclaw, Washington, native ranks seventh in quality passes with 534, and 10th in both average speed early in a run at 118.651 mph and green-flag speed at 115.878 mph. He is 12th in laps led with 281.

FIRST WIN AT RICHMOND: Kahne’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup win came in his 47th start in the series, and in only his third start at Richmond. Kahne swept the May 2005 weekend by also earning the pole award. He took the victory after leading a race-high 242 of 400 laps. Kahne is one of four active drivers to start from the pole position and win in the same weekend at the 0.75-mile track – Jimmie Johnson (2007), Kyle Busch (2010) and Brad Keselowski (2014) are the other three.

HEADED HOME: No. 5 team tire specialist Keith Eads will visit his home track this weekend. Richmond is the closest the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stops on the circuit to Eads’ hometown of Arlington, Virginia, which is located approximately two hours north of Richmond.

FIVE KAHNE 5K: For the seventh consecutive year, Kahne will hold his 5K charity run. The event will take place at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 9, at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Interested participants can pre-register online by visitinghttps://fivekahne5k.racesonline.com/home. Over 8,000 children in the states surrounding North Carolina have benefited from the funds raised by the annual charity run.

 

2016 Season

  • 16th in standings
  • 25 starts
  • 0 wins
  • 0 pole positions
  • 2 top-five finishes
  • 7 top-10 finishes
  • 0 laps led
 
 

Career

  • 457 starts
  • 17 wins
  • 27 pole positions
  • 88 top-five finishes
  • 163 top-10 finishes
  • 4,607 laps led
 
 

Track Career 

  • 25 starts
  • 1 win
  • 1 pole position
  • 5 top-five finishes
  • 9 top-10 finishes
  • 281 laps led
 

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