It has been a week of high-profile NASCAR announcements, from Alex Bowman’s 2018 job behind the wheel of the Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 88 to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s new digs in the NBC television booth in 2018 to former Cup champion Brad Keselowski’s big news Tuesday that he has re-upped with Team Penske.
And, oh by the way, Kasey Kahne also broke a three-year winless streak with a victory Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet. In this especially busy news cycle, Kahne’s accomplishment may appear somewhat overshadowed. But don’t underestimate the impact.
It had been 102 races since the 36-year-old from tiny mountainside Enumclaw, Washington had last grinned and hoisted a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series trophy. And he did so late Sunday night in one of NASCAR’s most prestigious Victory Lanes, in a town – Indianapolis — where he came to essentially launch his racing career almost two decades ago.
As Kahne told me earlier this month, Indianapolis Motor Speedway “has long been circled” as a place he could right the team’s ship.
The timing of Kahne’s playoff-boosting win is huge as he makes a case to legitimately challenge for the Cup alongside the sport’s biggest names. And for Kahne, it’s especially significant considering his future at Hendrick Motorsports — where he races alongside teammates Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott — is apparently uncertain despite another year left on his contract.
“This shows that I gave it all that I can to get a win,” Kahne acknowledged. “It shows that I’m passionate about driving stock cars, that I can still win races, too.”
On Sunday evening in one of the most unique race settings – a setting sun capping an extended-hours race – Kahne did just that – he reminded people why he is an 18-race Cup winner and why he was Rick Hendrick’s pick five years ago to steer the No. 5 Chevrolet.
“I was just not going to give up,” Kahne said so simply and succinctly, opening his winner’s press conference late Sunday night after getting some IV fluids to counter the long day and extreme heat.
“Unbelievable to win at Indianapolis,” Kahne said. “Unbelievable to win a Cup race. It’s been a while. It feels really good for myself and my confidence. I know it’s great for our team. We needed it as a team.
“Just really, you know, excited. Indy, I moved here in 1999, lived here for three summers, raced sprint cars, midgets all around the area. This was the track that I always wanted to win at, and dreamed of racing at. “
And certainly getting over that winless hump is beyond a big deal to the team. It makes Kahne one of the 12 race winners poised to fill that 16-driver playoff field, which will set in stone after the Sept. 9 regular-season finale at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
NASCAR fans may remember Kahne has shown a knack for winning when it counted most – his last playoff appearance in 2014 came after he won at Atlanta the next-to-last regular-season race.
So with confidence anew, Kahne, his team, and the series heads to Pocono, where Kahne is a two-time race winner. In fact he’s raised trophies at four of the six upcoming regular-season venues, including Pocono, New Hampshire, Bristol and Richmond.
“We have a lot to work on, for sure, but we are heading the right direction,” Kahne said Sunday night. “We won a big race today. I feel good about it, man. I feel like I can still race these cars. I’ve known that, and I’ve wanted to, and I have the passion to. So to be able to get a win at this track, this stage, was great for our whole team today, for sure.”
And so like some other 2017 winners, Ryan Newman – who broke a long winless drought – and Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who hoisted their first ever Cup trophy, Kahne’s win this weekend will be a big boost for the rest of the season. And perhaps make a difference in the path of his career.
“I would hope that this would give us all confidence and give us momentum and push us to, yeah, we’ve been at the shop, giving a 100 percent, but now we really are giving 100 percent,” Kahne said.
“Now we’re really excited to go to the next race because we didn’t run 15th or 18th or crash today, we actually won the Brickyard 400. So I just think that it helps me and it helps my guys.
“I don’t see how that can’t make us better the last 17 races of the year.”