Smiles finally on faces of No. 9 team's driver, owner

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Less than three weeks after he announced his partnership with NASCAR team owner Ray Evernham, businessman George Gillett Jr. traveled about 5,000 miles one-way to congratulate his driver Kasey Kahne for his second-place finish Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

There were a lot of smiling faces in the Gillett Evernham Motorsports camp this night, as Kahne, last year's Nextel Cup leader in victories, scored his first top-five finish in his No. 9 Dodge in the season's 24th race.

Maybe the most telling stat was Kahne leading 305 of 500 laps, after leading only 63 laps total in the 23 races this season before Bristol. He hadn't led a lap in 10 races and scored his first top-five finish since last year's Homestead finale.

George Gillett Jr. handles the business side while Ray Evernham directs the competition side. But that doesn't mean the new co-owner is not a sports fan.

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But on this day, the broadest grin might have belonged to the man who attended his first NASCAR race since becoming the majority owner of Gillett Evernham Motorsports. And a more appropriate label Saturday might have been "sportsman George Gillett."

Gillett said he began his long day in Russia, where he concluded an Atlantic salmon fishing expedition with three of his four sons, then flew to England to watch his Liverpool Football Club win a Barclays Premier League match, and finally arrived in Tennessee at about 6 p.m. ET.

"The fishing was fabulous; the team won the match 2-0, so this has been a good weekend," Gillett said after greeting Evernham and Kahne in the post-race hubbub on pit road. "We had a wonderful experience [in Russia], so all-in-all it was just a great week -- and weekend -- just excellent."

Gillett, whose face resembled a kid's at a carnival, sought out Kahne to congratulate him not only for his Saturday night achievement but also for his victory in Friday night's Food City 250 Busch Series race.

"Good to see you -- nice going," Gillett told Kahne as he shook his hand. "I'm proud of you. What a weekend."

Gillett later told a visitor the excitement he experienced Saturday was partly why he became involved with Evernham.

"It's great," Gillett said. "Because last year, when our teams were competitive all season long, that was a lot more fun."

"It feels good [because] he can't make it to a lot of them," Kahne said, matching Gillett's grin when asked about his owner's itinerary getting to Bristol. "He wanted to be here, I guess."

Kahne, holding a bottle of water in his trembling hand as he wound down from dominating two-thirds of the night on Bristol's new concrete surface -- he was in the top 10 for 497 of 500 laps -- was as equally enthused as his owners.

"It feels good. I think it will feel a lot better [Sunday] when I can think about it and sit back," Kahne said. "To run well -- you know you go into a season and you think you're going to run well [and then] you don't. So heck yeah, I'm gaining confidence. That's a big weekend for us. It felt good to have a strong weekend, to run good in the McDonald's car for the first time and also win the Busch race [Friday] night. (Continued)