Kasey Kahne

Kasey Kenneth Kahne (born April 10, 1980) is an American dirt track racing driver and former professional stock car racing driver.

In 2000, Kahne made a trip to Pennsylvania where he won the season opener at the historic Williams Grove Speedway.

He was hired by Steve Lewis, who had also employed future NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Jason Leffler, Tony Stewart and Kenny Irwin Jr.. In his first year on the circuit, he was named Rookie of the Year, as well as winning the national midget championship.

He continued to run USAC, as well as the Toyota Atlantic Series and the World of Outlaws.

Kahne is a 2-time Skagit Speedway winner of the Annual Jim Raper memorial Dirt Cup (2002 and 2003) and currently holds the fastest lap record there.

In 2002, Kahne made 20 starts in the Busch Series driving the No. 98 Channellock Ford Taurus for Robert Yates Racing.

Kahne replaced Bill Elliott in the No. 9 Dodge for Evernham Motorsports at the end of the 2003 season when Elliott announced a part-time schedule starting with the 2004 season.

Since Kahne was still under contract with Ford, the manufacturer filed a lawsuit against him after he joined Evernham Motorsports.

U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland ruled in favor of Kahne; citing a clause in his contract with Ford that stipulated that the manufacturer had to provide Kahne with a full-time ride on a Ford team that both parties mutually agreed upon.

That clause also stipulated, that if an agreement could not reached by either party, then Kahne could seek a ride with a different manufacturer, without breaking the terms of his contract with Ford.

He also was the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Rookie of the Year in 2004.

With his move to full-time competition in the Cup Series in 2004, he also drove 30 races for Akins in the Busch Series, finishing 13th in points.

In 2004, he made a pair of starts in the series at Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving the No. 2 Team ASE Racing Dodge Ram for Ultra Motorsports, winning both races.

In 2004, Kahne surprised many by nearly winning several races (including five 2nd-place finishes and 13 Top 5’s), winning four poles, and captured the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award.

He narrowly missed the Chase for the Nextel Cup after Jeremy Mayfield, his teammate, claimed the final spot.

In 2005, he made 22 starts in the Busch Series, splitting time with Akins and Evernham's new No. 6 team.

He won the O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway and the United Way 300 at Kansas Speedway.

In 2005, Kahne scored his first career Nextel Cup victory in his sophomore season of 2005, after a dominating performance in the Chevy American Revolution 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

It was also the first win for the Dodge Charger, which returned to NASCAR that year.

Kahne scored 18 career wins in the Cup Series, including 3 Coca-Cola 600s in 2006, 2008, and 2012, and the Brickyard 400 in 2017.

On May 26, 2007, Kahne won the Busch Series' Carquest Auto Parts 300 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway for his first win of 2007.

On August 24, 2007, Kahne won the pole for the Cup Series' Sharpie 500 at Bristol, his second pole of the 2007 Nextel Cup Series season.

Later that night, during the Busch Series' Food City 250, Kahne passed Ryan Newman on the top side in a 3-wide pass that included Jason Leffler on the bottom.

He held off the hard-charging Leffler to score his seventh career Busch win and his second of 2007.

In 2009, Kahne ran fewer events in other NASCAR series than previous seasons, only seven (four in the Nationwide Series, three in the Whelen Modified Tour).

With less distractions, Kahne's Sprint Cup stats slightly improved that year.

His best finish was a 10th-place finish at Cabela's 250.

A year later, he moved to the No. 38 Great Clips Ford for Akins Motorsports full-time.

He won his first pole at Michigan International Speedway and his first Busch Series race at the Ford 300.

Kahne finished 7th in the points standing.

Kahne has six career starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, winning five of them; his lone non-victory is a second-place run at Pocono Raceway in 2010.

During the 2014 Nationwide season, Kahne scored an upset win at the Nationwide Series' Subway Firecracker 250 passing teammate Regan Smith on the final lap.

The margin was 0.021 seconds.

At the 2015 Charlotte Truck race, he held off Erik Jones for the win by .005 seconds, the second-closest margin in Truck Series history.

He last competed in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2018, driving the No. 95 Dumont Jets/Procore Technologies Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Leavine Family Racing.

Currently, Kahne competes in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, driving the No. 9 sprint car for his own team, Kasey Kahne Racing.

Off the track, Kahne is active in charitable work and is a member of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.

He also owns his own race team, Kasey Kahne Racing, which competes in the World of Outlaws series, fielding two World of Outlaws sprint cars for himself, and Brad Sweet.

He retired from racing before the end of the 2018 Cup Series season due to health reasons and was replaced at Leavine Family Racing by Regan Smith.

Kahne began racing open wheel sprint cars at Deming Speedway at 17 in Deming, Washington, before moving up to Skagit speedway in Alger, Washington, and then he moved to USAC.