Kasey Kahne runs well in season of change at Richard Petty Motorsports

By SceneDaily Staff

Monday, December 14, 2009

Richard Petty Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne won two races in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

David Griffin
NASCAR Scene

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Kasey Kahne and his crew chief, Kenny Francis, found themselves dealing with a year of change at the Richard Petty Motorsports team in 2009, and they face even more changes in the year ahead.

Before this season began, the former Gillett Evernham Motorsports group merged with Petty Enterprises, creating the team known as Richard Petty Motorsports this season.

And before this season ended, RPM announced plans to merge with Yates Racing for 2010 and switch from running Dodges to Fords.

Despite the effects and distractions that changes can provide, Kahne returned to the Chase For The Sprint Cup after a two-year absence and was the bright spot in the four-car organization this year, collecting a pair of wins, seven top-fives and 14 top-10s.

From the start of the season, Kahne quickly moved into position to gain a Chase berth. He remained in or near the top 12 in the standings, the cutoff for a berth in the championship-determining field, for most of the year. He fell as deep as 17th in the standings as he battled through a trio of races in which he finished 36th, 29th and 23rd, but then he began to work his way back into position for a Chase berth.

Kahne moved back into the top 12 with his 15th-place finish at Daytona in July and never fell outside that group again. He went on to finish 10th for the year after moving to as high as fifth in the standings when the field was reset for the Chase based on wins.

He battled to his final position despite the fact that his team was in the process of planning the merger with Yates Racing and switching to Fords next season. While Kahne remained in his Dodges, teammates Elliott Sadler and AJ Allmendinger each ran at least one race behind the wheel of a Ford.

"I feel like we're pretty used to some of this stuff," Kahne said. "We've had a lot of changes over the last three or fours years, so as a team we're used to it and it’s just part of it."

As the year neared its end, Kahne reminisced about his positive experiences in a Dodge, the model he's run since 2004. He was under contract with Ford prior to that and had to deal some legal issues with the manufacturer after parting with it.

Kahne was brought to Dodge by team owner Ray Evernham and was even sponsored by the manufacturer for a time.

“It’s been really good," he said of his years with the manufacturer. "Dodge has treated me awesome. Coming into Cup racing in 2004 with Ray and Bill Elliott and Dodge and all the Dodge dealers, there’s been so many great times over the last six years. It’s hard to leave a company that you’ve been strong with and felt comfortable with. There are a lot of people that I’ve made friendships with, and it’s tough to leave that.

“At the same time, we have to go where the company feels that it’s a better spot. That’s what [RPM] is doing, and I’m behind RPM because that’s who I need to be behind, and I want to race well for them wherever we go.”

Kahne says that he's intrigued by the pending partnership, though he has often pointed out how difficult it has been to labor through the closing months of the season and head into the offseason facing so much uncertainty.

The merger was not completed by season's end, though all parties said it was in the process of being done.

Kahne has one season left on his contract with the organization and found himself often asked about not only his thoughts on the transition, but also his future plans. Still, he appeared to keep his focus on the competition side of the sport.

"All I can do is make myself better at driving race cars and communicating with Kenny Francis," he said during the season-ending race weekend. "If I do that, I’ll be happy next season.”

And he gained some new highlights over the course of the year. Kahne won on a road course for the first time in his career - and took Richard Petty to victory lane for his first time since 1998 in the process – when he came home first in the June race at Infineon Raceway in California.

He counts that as his highlight of the season.

As he looks down the road, Kahne said during Champion's Week that he has both managed to avoid the stress a pending change can create - and that he sees the positive enhancements the proposed merger could create.

"I think the positives are the engine package that Yates is going to give us," he said. "The Ford engine is a lot better than than what we've had. It showed with Elliott at Talladega, it showed with AJ the last three races, and they both were happy with where it was compared to what we had, so I look forward to getting to race that engine.

"And it's working with Roush [Fenway Racing]. There's a lot of really good people over there, good drivers that [I] can work with. … Hopefully, it works out well."