NASCAR NEXTEL CUP Teleconference With Kasey Kahne
Written by John Davison · March 23, 2004
Darlington Recap, Bristol Advance
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) “I don’t think it (success) hurts my learning curve. I’m learning a lot every weekend. I learned a lot last week at Darlington, so hopefully that carries over to Bristol this weekend. It’s another tough racetrack where you can get in trouble. I don’t think it’s hurt. I think it has put a little more pressure on us because we have run so good early in the season and maybe we need to have a little higher expectations from the outside. I think we still have our same goals - the Raybestos Rookie of the Year and top 15s every weekend and finishing the races and not get in any wrecks.”
DO YOU LIKE BEING IN THE SPOTLIGHT? “So far we’ve been in the spotlight pretty often at the start of the season. It’s been good for our whole race team. It’s a good race team. They showed that at the end of last year and taking on a rookie driver and new crew chief. Tommy Baldwin and myself have a good thing going so far. I think everything is going pretty good.”
HOW MUCH CAN YOU TRANSFER FROM BUSCH TO CUP AT BRISTOL? “I can transfer a lot. I learned a lot of things in the Busch Series, a lot of good things and bad things, things to do and things not to do. I bring a lot of that with me this year. The biggest thing I know how easy it is to get in trouble and not finish the race or hurt your fenders and slow down at the end of the race. With that experience and now working with the great raceteam I’m working with, that helps.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE BRISTOL TO SOMEONE WHO’S NEVER SEEN IT? “A small racetrack with a ton of great race fans around it. It’s a real tough track to race. If you move out of the lane a little bit you get passed by eight or 10 cars. You can move cars and a wreck can happen quick there and if there is a wreck there’s usually three or four cars in it.”
DID THINGS GET RACIER AT DARLINGTON? “I think it’s going to keep getting tougher as the year goes on. At certain times when it’s good racing some of those guys and other times it’s more difficult. They make it harder on you than I think they need to, but it’s just part of coming in as a rookie and being fast. It’s a good thing. For that to happen at Bristol, if somebody spins you out there you’re going to get hit by another car and you’re going to get into the wall. We were lucky enough at Darlington to stay out of the wall on two different spins and Bristol won’t be like that. There will be more tempers going at Bristol if that goes on.”
WILL BRISTOL BE A MORE PHYSICAL WEEKEND FOR YOU WITH TWO RACES? “It’s going to be the most physical weekend of the year so far for sure. I still think Saturday will help with Sunday. Bristol is a tough track to get around. You can slow your lap down a whole lot by what you’re doing with the throttle. I think the Busch race will help. Just because I race the Busch race won’t mean I’ll do better in the Cup race.”
HAVE YOU TALKED TO TONY STEWART YET? “No, I haven’t talked to Tony. We’ll probably talk this weekend. I kinda pinched him up to the wall and he didn’t like it and spun me when we got to the corner. That’s racing with Tony Stewart I guess. I wasn’t surprised at all really. It’s different now. Tony has helped me a lot and done a lot of things for me. When I was racing in Busch he would help me a lot. Now that we’re racing against each other, he needs to race good. I need to race good, and you don’t get quite as much help as you used to when you don’t race in the same division.”
WHAT MAKES STEWART SO GOOD? “Just how bad he wants it, how bad he wants to pass the car in front of him, how bad he wants to win the race. He’s aggressive. He’s always on top of the wheel. He’s as hard of a racecar driver you’ll find. That’s what makes him so good, how bad he wants to win races.”
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE IN MIDGETS AND STOCK CARS? “I think the midgets move around a lot and they’re real quick. You have to feel what the tires are doing and what the car is doing so you don’t spin out. I think a stock car is close to the same. I’d say if you were to compare them, a Cup car is closer to it just because of the horsepower. You can drive a little more with the throttle and engine than not having the motor to pull you out of certain situations. I don’t know if they (midgets) are quicker, but it’s a shorter wheelbase and a lighter racecar. They’re a lot quicker. When a stock car gets up to 180 or 190 mph it’s pretty quick, too, in the direction it can change.”
HOW ARE YOU HANDLING ALL THE SUCCESS? “Dale Jr. has given me some advice. Dale Jr. Bill Elliott and Jeremy Mayfield have given me some advice on all of this. I went from not having too many interviews and too many different type media things to a bunch every week. It’s changed a lot, but it’s changed for a good reason. I’m just trying not to lose focus on what we’re doing and keep racing good. We want to be able to do that for the UAW and Dodge Dealers and keep our sponsors happy.”
YOU ALMOST WON BOTH POLES AT DARLINGTON. HOW HAS RUNNING BUSCH FULL TIME HELPED YOU? “It’s giving me more time on the track before I get in the Cup car. I think it helped me in Cup practice last week. I made six or seven runs before I got back in the Busch car. I knew where I needed to be on the track and where I needed to pick up the throttle. We had two great racecars. It would have been neat to get both poles, but second and first was still pretty cool.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE TAKING OVER FOR BILL ELLIOTT? “That’s been a dream to get the support and help from Bill Elliott. That’s something not too many rookies get. You can get into somebody else’s racecar and get help from a crew chief, but you never get the support Bill Elliott has given me. That helps me build confidence and race situations. It’s really cool to have Bill on my side. He keeps me aware of things that are going to happen on track, things to look out for and to look for. He helps me out in certain situations on the racetrack. If we go back to Atlanta it’ll help me on Saturday. When I was actually in the race on Sunday, I thought about things that Bill had told me probably 10 times in the race. It’s just little things, but some of the little things are the biggest things that can help you.”
TALK ABOUT IMPROVEMENT AT EVERNHAM MOTORSPORTS “Jeremy is having a great season, a great start to the season. He’s got two or three top 10s. He’s seventh in points. They’re doing a great job. Our team is doing a great job, and I think Ray Evernham has got his program where he wants it right now. He’s still working hard to make it better. He’s worked real hard to get it where it’s at. Now he’s got a lot of good people in position with Kenny Francis, Tommy Baldwin, different engineers and crew members and pit crew guys. The engine shop is better. Everything at Evernham Motorsports is better than it was last year. Ray has just got everything going in the right direction.”
WHAT DO YOU HEAR FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS ABOUT YOUR SUCCESS? “It’s really cool what’s been going on. My mom started my fan club and she’s running my website and my apparel store. People call her and Dodge dealerships, a lot of people, fans are talking about what we’re doing. We just need to keep it up. It just makes more fans in the Pacific Northwest watching NASCAR.”
CAN YOU COMPARE BRISTOL TO RACING ANYWHERE ELSE ? “Everybody says sprint car drivers run good on short tracks. Ever since I’ve got to ‘em, I’ve actually struggled more on short tracks than any other tracks. It’s a completely different deal to me the way the cars handle when you get side by side and just what goes on through the race. It’s a pretty big surprise to me on what it is. That’s probably the biggest thing I need to work on this year - short tracks. It’s going to be a long race. That’s why I try to stay in as good of shape as possible and be ready for these types of races. It’ll be the longest, probably the hardest race I’ve ever had in a racecar. I look forward to being in good enough shape to where I’ll feel good when the race is over. I’ve never run 500 miles there, so I don’t know where I might get tired or what I might need to do from the next 500-mile race at Bristol. We ran 300 miles there last week when we tested, and I felt really good. I’m looking forward to running 500.”
CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge) “Our whole team has gotten a whole lot better. We’ve improved on the bodies, and we’ve got a new front clip that’s been working well for us. Our engine program has really stepped up this year. We have a little more experience, and that makes us easier. Last year, if we had the same type of day at Darlington we started out having a couple of days ago, we probably would have ended up 35th. That would have been based on my experience level and where I was at last year. Having run some of these races before, we had a really good car, but we had a bad pit stop that got us a lap down. Before we knew it we got caught up in a crash and we were 30 something. The guys did a good job repairing the front end of the car. We raced hard, got our lap back and ended up 15th. I’m not real happy with 15th. We’ve got a taste of these top 10s now, but we had such a good car, considering the circumstances it was real good day for us.”
TALK ABOUT JIMMY ELLEDGE “I think he’s had a positive effect on my career. Jimmy and I have always got along. Even before we got together on the 41 car it was kind of funny. When I was running the Busch car a few years ago, Jimmy and I were out on the lake and he said he’d like to work with me. It’s funny how it worked out and we got to work together last year. Jimmy being one of the younger crew chiefs, it makes it real easy for us to get along. Our attitudes are similar. Even though he’s a young crew chief, he’s experienced. He’s been a key to me learning and developing my skills.”
WOULD YOU HAVE LIKED MORE TIME IN OTHER SERIES? “If you had asked me this last year I would have said absolutely. There’s so much to learn, but now, looking back on our plan, our plan was to run these two years. We knew last year was going to be a struggle. That valuable experience I got at the Cup level last year put me ahead for this year versus say if I had just run Busch. I think the optimum way to go is to run two years in Busch and maybe some truck experience, and maybe by the time you get to Nextel Cup you’ve had four or five years of stock car experience under your belt. I only had one year. For sure, it was early. If you wanted to do it the best way, you’d probably want more experience at the lower levels, but looking back at it, getting that year under my belt, even though it was a struggle and didn’t paint the right picture for us, it gave me the experience I need to run well this year. I feel very comfortable this year, and I wouldn’t change anything. It’s a totally different lifestyle to adjust to. When I ran Indy Lights we ran at most 16 races a year. Last year I think I ran over 50 races. Just to adjust to that lifestyle is something new, along with the media attention and being in the top series in motorsports in the United States. There’s a lot of attention focused on you. When you have a bad weekend, you hear about it in the press the next day. Adjusting to all that took some time. There was a ton of things to learn last year. The cars, the tracks, your home life and traveling. There were a lot of things to adjust to. The team can take my comments more seriously. Last year I was in such a learning mode that I was taking advice from those guys. You’re not much of a leader when you’re trying to learn from everybody else. I think this year I’ve taken a more active role in knowing what I want out of the car. Jimmy Elledge has been a big part of that. We’ve honed our communication skills, and I’m able to give a lot better input on the car and situations outside of racing.”
WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT COMING FROM A RACING FAMILY? “I would say ultimately it would make it easier just being in the loop of things. Being around motorsports your whole life and meeting the right people and watching your dad and your uncle go through good times and bad times and learning from those experiences. All those things are positive. My dad and uncle have been a huge help to me, and it’s paid off. I learned things a lot earlier in my career than if I hadn’t been in a racing family.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL WITH EXTRA PUBLICITY? “I have been fortunate watching my uncle and dad and seeing that kind of media attention. I’ve been here first hand and seen it grow. I don’t feel like I’ve never seen any of it. It’s not a huge surprise. I’ve had to learn how to deal with the media. I’m comfortable with it. It’s part of the sport, and I don’t think too much about it. My experience with the media has been great.”
HOW HAS STERLING HELPED YOU? “Sterling has always been a big help. He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to walk over and say here’s something you might want to try, but he’s always been there to answer your questions. He’s a great guy. He has a good heart and he’s done a lot of little things to help here and there. You can’t replace that. It’s really having a guy like Jamie. There’s a competitiveness between us, but we have an open relationship. That will push our team to bigger and better teams.”
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