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Kasey Kahne -- Pocono Race Preview
06/07/2021
Driver: Kasey Kahne
Team Director: Tommy Baldwin
Team Owner: Ray Evernham
Chassis: No. 54
Info: Brand new chassis
KASEY KAHNE QUOTES
“I like Pocono. It was a fun track to race at last year. It’ll be different this year without shifting. We’re not going to be able to shift because of the new gear rules. We’re looking forward to it. We finished third there in the second race and had a top-five going in the first race and I got into the wall. It should be a pretty good track for us. I’m excited to take our Dodge Charger up there.
On finding consistency this year:
“We have such a great race team here at Evernham Motorsports. It seems like all of the people here are very smart people, so yeah, we’re really close. We just haven’t hit on it. We haven’t figured out what the inconsistency is. There are a lot of different things it could be. It will only take one time to hit on it, and then we’ll be fine. I thought we did at Richmond. We obviously hit on something there, but it didn’t help at other tracks, so we’re back to where we were, just looking for that little bit.”
STATS & FACTS
KASEY KAHNE AT POCONO
This weekend will mark Kahne’s third NASCAR Nextel Cup Series start at Pocono.
Kahne earned his best start at Pocono with a Bud Pole in his first career visit to the track last spring. Kahne went on to finish 14th in the race.
Kahne earned his best career Pocono finish during last year’s fall race with a third place run after starting 20th.
RECORD BREAKING RUN
Kahne set the Pocono track qualifying record after topping the charts at 172.553 mph, 52.164 sec, last spring.
The qualifying record was the third track record set by Evernham Motorsports last season (Kahne – Las Vegas and Pocono(a), Mayfield – Dover(a)).
Evernham Motorsports Dodges currently hold four track qualifying records on the Nextel Cup circuit, including Bill Elliott’s record run at Texas in April of 2002 (in addition to the above).
TESTING, TESTING…
Kahne and the No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger team are scheduled to test at Carolina Motorsports Park, in Kershaw, S.C., next Thursday, June 16. The team will use the test to prepare for the June 26 roadcourse race at Infineon Raceway.
KAHNE CHARGES TO VICTORY AT RICHMOND!!!
Kahne claimed his first NASCAR Nextel Cup Series victory in the May race at Richmond. Kahne started from the pole position, led seven times for 242 laps, and never fell out of the top ten, en route to his first career victory.
Kahne’s win was also the first of the season for the new Dodge Charger, which returned this year after a 27-year hiatus from NASCAR’s premier series.
RICHMOND WIN MILESTONES
Kahne’s win was the sixth win for Evernham Motorsports, marking the fifth consecutive year that an Evernham Dodge has visited victory lane.
Kahne became the 11th driver to win from the pole position at Richmond, the last of whom was Bill Elliott who won from the top spot in spring of 1992.
Kahne also joined an exclusive club of 13 drivers to earn career wins in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck, Busch and Cup series.
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