Hendrick driver kicks off Shark Week with special paint scheme
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The instructions were simple enough.
If you lose your balance or get knocked over, don't wave your arms. Don't attempt to catch yourself.
The sharks will come after you if you do.
As if racing at nearly 200 mph while surrounded by 42 others all battling for the same real estate wasn't dangerous enough, Kasey Kahne recently spent a few days in the water in the Bahamas. Surrounded by sharks.
"One time one rubbed me pretty good; the back half of him hit me," Kahne said. "I didn't go over, but he rubbed me pretty good. Another time another one was pretty close, and I was like petting him in a way. I don't know if you pet sharks, but I touched his skin. It was real hard and rough, really tough."
Kahne, driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series made the trip to film for Discovery Channel's upcoming Shark Week effort that kicks off Sunday night.
Great Clips, a primary sponsor of Kahne's team, has backed the network's annual week-long programming for the past three seasons.
"Maybe they weren't Great Whites, but they were big," Kahne said of the scuba diving excursion that placed him in the water surrounded by Caribbean reef sharks and other creatures from the deep. "I enjoyed it ... it was a neat experience and I'm really glad I got to do that."
Kahne said he went through an hour-long class to familiarize himself with the equipment and the process. After diving to just under 40 feet, he settled in as a fellow diver drew the sharks in with food.
"The biggest thing is just to keep your hands to yourself, don't move your hands because they're looking for food," Kahne said. "We had a guy down there in something like a steel mesh suit feeding them to keep them around us. So keep your hands to yourself, kind of keep them close to your chest and if a shark runs into you, just fall over.
"You're seated on the floor, kind of have your legs wrapped around a rock to kind of hold yourself up because you're on your knees. Just fall over and kind of slowly get back up.
"It was more about not making quick moves so it doesn't get their attention. It was really under control, really exciting. I loved it."
Kahne's No. 5 Chevrolet will feature a Shark Week/Great Clips paint scheme for Sunday's Coke Zero 400 (7:45 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Daytona International Speedway.
RELATED: See Kahne's paint scheme
"I grew up as a kid watching a lot of the Shark Week shows," he said. "I still do and it'll be pretty fun to see myself on there for 2-3 minutes. I think kids love that type of stuff and I think that's why it's such a big deal to Great Clips. All the kids that they see, I think the Shark Week involvement is a pretty neat deal. They do a great job with it.
"I had a blast. I'll go back and do it again. I don't know if I'll swim with sharks again -- I don't know how to set all that stuff up -- but I'll definitely scuba."
Watch Kahne swim with the sharks below.