Driver hits hard coming out of Turn 3, exits race
RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings
LONG POND, Pa. — Kasey Kahne lost control of his No. 5 Chevrolet on Lap 4 of Sunday’s Windows 10 400, hitting the inside pit wall and bringing an early end to his day in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway.
“I just got really loose really late, so far off the corner,” Kahne told reporters outside the infield care center. “Really late exit. Not sure why or what happened. I just jumped out and you are so far off the corner that it’s a slow slide so far down pit road. It was crazy. I’ve never ended up over there like that. I don’t know why that was.”
Kahne came off of Turn 3 and smacked the wall of pit road hard around pit stalls 39 and 40, which were the pit boxes of AJ Allmendinger and Travis Kvapil. The hit caused major damage to Kahne’s car and damage to the pit road wall.
A NASCAR spokesperson confirmed there were no injuries in the incident.
For his part, Kahne said “I’m fine” and added that “I wasn’t afraid I hit anyone because it threw me right back off the wall. I was hoping that everybody saw me coming because I was coming fairly fast.”
Pocono Raceway President/CEO Brandon Igdalsky and track workers inspected the damage before workers welded the damaged wall as a red flag was displayed. That red flag lasted 14 minutes, 43 seconds.
The incident was similar to what happened to Jeb Burton and his No. 26 Toyota in Saturday’s final practice session. Burton came off of Turn 3 loose and went into the pit road wall. The damage from that hit forced the Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate to a backup car for Sunday’s race.
The early exit and last-place finish for Kahne could not have come at a worse time for the Hendrick Motorsports driver. After an eighth-place finish at Sonoma Raceway in June, Kahne was eighth in the point standings. Since then, Kahne has not finished better than 19th, with a 32nd-place result at Daytona, 27th-place finish at Kentucky, 19th-place finish at Loudon and a 24th-place result at Indianapolis.
“That’s really bad for points,” Kahne said. “It’s bad for just our team to lose a car that quickly into this race. And the last month has been really bad, and that was worse. I don’t know what the deal is right there, how that happened. I just lost it, late exit and spun. Got loose, spun.”
Entering Pocono, Kahne was 13th in the point standings and holding the second-to-last spot in the provisional Chase Grid. Sunday’s 43rd-place finish unofficially dropped him to 15th in the points standings, but he’s still in the Chase Grid in the No. 16 spot.