KASEY KAHNE SURVIVES EARLY SPIN TO LEAD THE CHARGE FOR TEAM CHEVY AT MICHIGAN
CHEVROLET CAPTURES FOUR OF THE TOP-10 FINISHING POSITIONS
BROOKLYN, MI – August 19, 2012 – On lap 68 of the 200-lap Pure Michigan 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, Kasey Kahne and his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet avoided a multi-car wreck and slid through the infield grass of Michigan International Speedway. A fast race car, minor repairs by the crew, and 132 laps later, Kahne and the No. 5 team had rallied back to the fourth position as the field roared to life for a final green-white-checkered finish. Kahne was able to gain one position before the checkered flag fell to come home third. This was his fourth top-10 finish in the last seven races.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had started the race in the rear of the field in a back-up No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet, also rallied back from a rough weekend at MIS to take a fourth place finish behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Kahne and Earnhardt Jr. led Team Chevy by taking two of the top five finishing spots.
Ryan Newman, No. 39 WIX Filters Chevrolet had another solid run finishing in the eighth position. Paul Menard, No. 27 Menards/Pittsburgh Paints Chevrolet ended the day in the ninth position recording his fourth top-10 finish of the season.
It was a disappointing day in particular for three Team Chevy drivers who were plagued with engine problems. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet finished 28th, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet finished 27th and Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet finished 32nd
The next race on the tour will be held at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, August 25, 2012
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET – FINISHED THIRD
Kasey, talk a little bit about the race out there today.
KASEY KAHNE: Man, there’s a lot that went on for us. We had a really good, awesome Farmers Insurance Chevrolet at the start. Tracked down Mark Martin who was hung up behind a couple slow guys. I thought I might try to pass him and those guys. I don’t know if Mark was tight behind them or cruising behind them, but either way I wanted to get by those three.
Next thing I knew, the 42 and 47 were crashing. Mark was in there. Going so fast, not a whole lot you could do. I slid in there. I slid through the grass, thought it destroyed my car. Fortunately it just pushed the right front fender in. The guys were able to pop it up out. We came back to third.
Solid day, solid recovery. Thankfully when Mark Martin slid down pit road, he ended up halfway into our pit. One of our guys got hit a little bit by a tire. His oil tank exploded and stuff. That was really close to a really bad situation but it turned out all right. We’re all lucky, for sure.
Q. With Friday and Saturday being so different in weather than today was, how well did you adapt at the very start of the race to the track being so different?
KASEY KAHNE: Man, we just felt pretty good yesterday in final practice. But I was a little bit tight, thought we would free up a touch, so we did. It wasn’t enough. I was kind of tight when the race started today.
When the sun was out, I was kind of sliding all four tires. The track was just a little bit slipperier today, the speeds were a little slower, but not a ton. When there was cloud cover, I felt like it was pretty similar.
For us it was small changes and the car stayed really close.
Q. Guys, is this a new era at Michigan here? For years cars got spread out here, long green flag runs, not a lot happened. All kind of things happened out there today. Is this a different Michigan than it used to be?
KASEY KAHNE: Well, I’d say we’re all fighting for a small piece of pavement right now. Fortunately the track actually opened up a good bit today from the first race, which was nice.
The restarts are still really tight. You can make up the most ground right there, or lose the most. It’s a tough point of the race. But just try to do the best you can there. I think by the time we come back next year, it’s going to be even better and wider. I don’t think it will take a real long time and we’ll be racing all over the track like we used to. Either way, it’s smooth. Did a great job repaving. I enjoy coming up here. I like how the track is now and I think next year it will be a little bit racier than it is now.
Q. Kasey, can you take us through the wreck, what was going through your mind, what the crew had to do to get you back in position to be a contender?
KASEY KAHNE: Well, the wreck, you know, I was in third when Mark caught the 47 and the 42. I was a half straightaway behind him. Got into second. Mark was held up so bad by the two in front of him. Mark must have been tired or loose or whatever, but he was really struggling to get to the inside or outside of those guys.
I got there and I thought I would try to pass Mark. About that time the 47 just got loose from what I could see. I don’t know, maybe the 42, I’m not sure if they touched or not, but the 47 started spinning, then we just all tried to miss it.
I slid through the grass. Didn’t injure it too much. Just right front damage. Mark took off towards our pit stall, exploded into that wall.
From there we just battled back. We fixed the right front. We had good pit stops. We had a nice strategy to get back to pass some of those cars, not all on the racetrack, but pass them in other ways.
I just felt really good about our speed. Our car has been really fast. We’ve been pretty consistent as a team. We want to make it to the Chase. That’s a big part of our season, something that we’re really shooting for. I think our team has done a great job of that.
We put a solid day together. It would still be nice to get one more win and make that Chase spot, make it happen. But we’ll see. We still have good tracks to go, we just need to keep running upfront.
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