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Sitting in the shade outside his motorhome at Daytona International Speedway before qualifying for the Coke Zero 400 last weekend, Kasey Kahne was all smiles and optimism.
And that’s saying a lot considering the 17-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup winner was in the midst of a you-gotta-be-kidding-me stretch of four DNFs in the previous five races. A victim of weird parts failures and last lap side-swipes.
Yet Kahne knew his No. 5 Chevrolet was stout at the speedway, and he proved it qualifying fourth and leading the race late into the night — his 12 laps out front the first time he led since the Daytona 500, where he posted a seventh-place finish.
When you are part of the esteemed, championship Hendrick Motorsports team, a lot is expected. And a winner since he first started competing as a kid in Enumclaw, Washington, Kahne absolutely shares those expectations.
It is what has made the early summer run tough. But turning that adversity around is what compels Kahne and his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevy team, the bold opportunity to remind everyone he can be a championship contender.
“I think that in wrecks so often you can look at it and see how you could have done something differently and not wrecked,” Kahne said. “What’s crazy about my last five weeks, those four wrecks I couldn’t have done anything differently.
“I gave more than enough room at Dover and I still was hit by a car that hit the wall, drove all the way across the track and plowed into me and destroyed us. The same at Sonoma. I gave tons and tons of room and he went the wrong way when we got to the corner and took us out.
RELATED: See what happened to Kahne at Sonoma
“The other two were part failures, not wrecks. I mean I’ve been in the care center for a month straight and I hadn’t even seen the care center in a year and a half. … So it’s been kind of a crazy last little while. You just can’t always control it.
“It’s all a part of racing. Things happen.”
While there have been rumors in the garage about Kahne’s future, the Hendrick Motorsports team confirmed again this week, his contract goes through the 2018 season.
And Kahne’s team has nothing but high expectations for their on-track leader.
His crew chief, Keith Rodden, has worked with the 37-year-old Kahne in various positions through tenures at Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports and Red Bull Racing. And like the driver, he has full confidence in the team’s ability to qualify for NASCAR’s playoffs.
And Saturday night’s showing at Daytona only encourages the team.
“Already some of the guys have some pep in their step because of Daytona,” Rodden said. “It validates the work they do and they want to see that. They want to see their work rewarded. Being able to drive from the back to the front three times and lead the race, that’s real important to them.”
“I think the guys on the team stay focused on the right stuff. If they bring anything up they might hear [rumors], I tell them we don’t even need to worry about it. Fortunately, some of us on the team have been together for a while so we’ve been through it all from Gillett Evernham, to Petty to Red Bull … and we know at the end of the day, you have to perform, you have to race smart. You can’t have parts break because of building them improperly. And you have to finish.
“You’re judged by finishing position and so we have to figure out how to finish better and once we do that I think we can really surprise some people.”
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Kahne, who finished a career best fourth in the 2012 championship, has victories at five of the nine race tracks the series will visit before setting the playoff field – including Michigan, Loudon, Pocono, Bristol and Richmond.
“I think with the experience I have now, that win could be anywhere,” Kahne said. “I don’t really have any tracks that I don’t like. In the past, I might not have liked a track because I didn’t run as well there as I would like. But over the years I have that experience and feel like we can run well at every track we race at.
“It could happen at any time. And we’ve seen that already this year with a couple guys. That’s encouraging. The other thing is speed in the car and doing right things for entire race. We need to put the entire thing together on the track and off the track. If we do, we can definitely win. We’ve done that in the past. We just need to execute.
“And all the races leading to Richmond we could do it at any of those race tracks and I feel very confident of that.”