‘Undefeated’ Kasey Kahne excited about driving in Pocono truck race for Kyle Busch
Kasey Kahne will drive Kyle Busch's truck in the Camping World Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway Saturday. // Elmer Kappell, NASCAR Illustrated
When Kyle Busch discovered that he couldn’t race in the inaugural Camping World Truck Series event at Pocono Raceway this weekend, he knew exactly who he wanted driving his truck.
Kasey Kahne will drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports at Pocono Saturday afternoon while Busch drives for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway Saturday night.
Kahne has run just two Truck Series races in his NASCAR career, winning them both.
“Kyle and I had been talking about it for a while and I told him I was interested in running a truck race or two for KBM this year,” Kahne said. “He had another obligation with the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday, so he asked if I could race his truck.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to come back to the series and compete with really good equipment. I’ve watched Kyle put the team together and it’s really been impressive how well they’ve done this year as a first-year team.”
KBM has used a variety of drivers in its first season in the Truck Series and has two wins, both by Busch.
Director of Competition Rick Ren says having Kahne in the truck at Pocono will be a big boost for the team.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for Kyle Busch Motorsports,” Ren said. “It shows the credibility of the race team that Kyle’s put together already that a guy like Kasey Kahne wants to come over and drive our equipment.
“Kasey’s 2-for-2 truck racing and he’d probably like to extend that, so I think he’s excited about getting to drive our equipment. We run up front weekly, and I know when he came over to the shop, he was all excited about it.”
Kahne also has an impressive record at Pocono Raceway and likes racing at the 2.5-mile, triangular track. He has one win (June 2008), two poles (June 2004 and 2008) and five top-10 finishes in 13 career Sprint Cup starts at Pocono.
“Pocono has always been a good track for us,” Kahne said. “The straightaways are so long, you need to get all of the speed down them that you can so you can come off of turn three as fast as possible.
“I’ve always liked the uniqueness of the three different corners and the challenge that it presents to the teams to set up your car to be fast at each of the different ends
Ren says the team – which participated in a Goodyear tire test in May at the track with Busch, Brian Ickler and Tayler Malsam all taking turns behind the wheel – is prepared to give Kahne a strong truck.
“We got three different viewpoints from guys driving it and Kasey runs really well there,” Ren said. “We did some stuff with the engine, we did some tire stuff and I think we have enough data that we helped Toyota on the engine side and helped Goodyear on the tire side.
“I think we’ll take that info and apply it. A couple of us have run Pocono in the past [in other series], so we kind of have an idea of what we need there.”
