Kasey Kahne Reveals Why He's Back in NASCAR Full-Time

Kasey Kahne (0:00)

I definitely want to enjoy the experience and enjoy the cars, the trucks, and how they feel. But I wouldn't be doing it either if I didn't want to be competitive. I just still love the competition, and every time you're on track, just trying to do the best that you can.

Kevin Harvick (0:17)

Welcome to SPEED with Harvick and Buxton, fueled by POET. And today, we've got a very special guest. And Kasey Kahne, welcome back, man.

Kasey Kahne (0:25)

Thanks.

Kevin Harvick (0:26)

Well, it's, we've been trying to get you on the show just to kind of catch up and you ran Rockingham, and we always follow the high-limit sprint car stuff. And then you blow us out of the water with, you're going to come back truck racing. So tell us, tell us the plans for next year.

Kasey Kahne (0:44)

Yeah. So I was big surprise, blown out of the water as well when Jeff Dickerson came up to me. And we were talking at Knoxville Nationals this year. The sprint car race out there. And he was like, yeah, we want you to come and run full time. And I was like, full time, you know, like, so it was a big surprise to me. But I got thinking about it. And to get that type of an opportunity, I've been out of the, I mean, I've been out for eight years, I think eight or nine, somewhere in there, and get that type of an opportunity to run a truck and be with a team with a lot of success.

You know, I was like, man, I can't pass this up. So yeah, I got excited pretty quick. Talked to Amy a lot about it. And yeah, this makes a lot of sense. So yeah, we're excited to do that.

Kevin Harvick (1:37)

When you look at the, obviously Jeff Dickerson and the Spire bunch has done a lot of, they've got a lot of moving pieces with all their different racing interests. And then you look at Spire with the kind of the evolution of the team and they have their truck piece of it. And it's been successful with the things that they've done on the track. Where, I know that the conversation spurred the interest, but obviously we saw you in the car at Rockingham last year, you did very well. And you know, like you say, you've been out of it for a while. How long did it take you to kind of get the interest back for NASCAR? You know, your Cup career ended and then you went to do the sprint car stuff.

Were you watching the races? Were you kind of like, I'm done with it? How long did it take to get the interest back to just say, all right, I'm going to watch again and follow NASCAR? Did you follow it the whole time?

Kasey Kahne (2:30)

I actually didn't right at first. You know, I was kind of frustrated how, in a way, my last couple of years, just kind of my body, in a way, was just giving up on me to run those full Cup races week after week and be able to be just as sharp at the end of the race or later in the season as it got hotter and more human and all the stuff as I wanted to be. And so I was frustrated with that and just how it all ended. So when I got out, I didn't, I mean, it's hard not to pay a little bit of attention to what I did for years.

And I love all of racing. So yeah, I knew what was going on, but I didn't watch much for probably the first couple years. And then anymore, I mean, I watch it all the time. You know, whether it's, I don't watch, but there isn't as much practice in things anymore either. So it's more just races. But yeah, I mean, I keep pretty close attention, but it did take a couple of years.

Kevin Harvick (3:28)

So what's the thing that as you come back into Rockingham last year, you get in your rally car. And what was the biggest thing that kind of caught you off guard with the changes of how the car felt or what you, what you thought it was going to be coming into the weekend to what it was during the race?

Kasey Kahne (3:45)

I would say to me the biggest thing that I felt like I had to work on throughout the race and throughout the weekend was the pit road, just everything on pit road, restarts, racing side by side and just understanding where that car is and kind of where your car is, you know, just how it changes the feel of your car in a way and the balance off of air. But the actual driving part was so cool, like I didn't feel like I was out of it hardly at all.