Big Machine Vodka 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
No. 95 WRL General Contractors Chevrolet Notes:
· IMS HAULER PARADE: Defending Brickyard 400 race winner, Kasey Kahne will serve as a grand marshal for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Hauler Parade on Friday, September 7th. Kahne will be joined by a fellow Brickyard 400 winner, Jamie McMurray, as the two will serve as the guests of honor at the parade riding in the official IMS pace car Chevy Camaro ZL1s. Following the parade, Kahne and McMurray will participate in a Q&A session at Fan Fest with IMS President, Doug Boles.
· KAHNE BY THE NUMBERS: In 14 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at Indianapolis, Kasey Kahne has an average start of 11.9 and an average finish of 13.6. He’s completed 2,140 of 2,262 (94.6 percent) career laps and has led for a total of 170 laps. Kahne has earned one win and is the defending Brickyard 400 winning having driven to the win in last year’s event. Kahne has also earned four top-five and seven top-ten finishes at the historic 2.5-mile Brickyard.
· RACE INFO: The Big Machine Vodka 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.5-mile) begins at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 9th. The race will be broadcast live on NBCSN, Sirius XM Channel 90 and IMS Radio.
Kahne’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Indianapolis:
Date Event: S F Laps Status
08/08/04 Brickyard 400 12 4 161/161 Running
08/07/05 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard 4 2 160/160 Running
08/06/06 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard 4 36 159/160 Crash
07/29/07 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard 5 40 39/160 Crash
07/27/08 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard 4 7 160/160 Running
07/26/09 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard 8 7 160/160 Running
07/25/10 Brickyard 400 24 13 160/160 Running
07/31/11 Brickyard 400 2 18 160/160 Running
07/29/12 Crown Royal 400 15 12 160/160 Running
07/28/13 Crown Royal 400 7 3 160/160 Running
07/27/14 Crown Royal 400 10 6 160/160 Running
07/26/15 Crown Royal 400 27 14 164/164 Running
07/24/16 Combat Wounded Coalition 400 26 18 170/170 Running
07/23/17 Big Machine Brickyard 400 19 1 167/167 Running
Kahne’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Indianapolis:
Races Wins Top 5s Top 10s Poles
Cumulative 14 1 4 7 0
Kahne’s 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Season Stats:
Starts Wins Top-5’s Top-10’s Poles Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
25 0 1 1 0 30 26.0 22.8
Kahne’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
Starts Wins Top-5’s Top-10’s Poles Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
529 18 93 176 27 4,678 14.5 17.7
From the Driver’s Seat:
Kasey Kahne: “Every time that I’ve gone to Indy ever since my first race there, it’s a place I had wanted to win at really badly. Restarts at Indy and getting into Turn 1 can be very tough, and that’s just one of the many aspects that can be challenging there. Crossing the finish line at Indy last year, I wanted to yell and celebrate but I couldn’t because I was cramping so badly at the time, so it kind of hurt to win the Brickyard that way since I wanted to celebrate but I physically couldn’t. I was really happy and it felt great being able to win at Indy last year since it was a place that we had come close to do winning at over the years, but I just hadn’t gotten that first victory there until then. I’m still really proud of what we were able to accomplish that day. You need a great car in order to have a strong run at Indy because it’s so easy to make little mistakes there throughout the weekend. When I first started racing at Indy in 2004, you could move around a lot more on the track and you had room to make passes, but recently, track position has become a lot more critical this last decade since it’s more difficult to pass. I know Indy pretty well and the feel that you need in order to go fast there. We didn’t have track position last year, but we were one of the fastest cars throughout the whole race. The top-two guys were better than us, but they ended up wrecking, and after that we were as good as anybody else. Trying to build that package of what we need out of our Chevy, while being ready for anything in the race, will help us have a good weekend at Indy. Any time that you can win at Indy, that’s significant, but being able to win there back-to-back would just truly be unbelievable.”
From the Pit Box:
Jon Leonard: “Indy has become another one of those staples on the NASCAR circuit and I feel that it’s one of the top four events everybody wants to win at during their career. It’s the last race before The Playoffs start, so teams are amped up and putting everything they have into it as they try to make the cut. Our No. 95 group had a good run going at Indy last year running in fifth before we got caught up in an incident. Kasey (Kahne) ended up winning the race, so we’re all amped up to get back to the place where he’s the defending winner. Some of the keys to being successful at Indy include raw speed, horsepower, and driver comfort. Indy is like a speedway with tight corners at the end of the straightaways. Straight-line speed is important, but you really have to work on turning those tight 90-degree corners well and getting off of them in order to give that straight-line speed and motor some air to breathe. Driver comfort is also very important at Indy. The cars are so trimmed out and are buried into the ground so it usually gets pretty hot inside the racecar with little airflow. Keeping the driver comfortable is worth just about as much speed as anything we can do with any other adjustments. Indy typically ends up being some sort of a strategy race. Tires aren’t as big of a factor and many races have been won there based on fuel mileage. We’ll definitely keep an eye on all those aspects and try to use that to our advantage to steal a win and get into The Playoffs.”
No. 95 WRL General Contractors Chevrolet Team:
Driver: Kasey Kahne Crew Chief: Jonathon Leonard
Car Chief: Ben Leslie Spotter: Doug Campbell
Engineer: J.R. Houston Mechanic: Bill Mares
Shock Specialist: Tim Lambert Mechanic: Ryan Dextraze
Mechanic: Matt Kimball Hauler Driver: Damon Lopez
Tire Specialist: Tony Ramierz Jackman: Jonathan Willard
Fueler: Ryan Dextraze Rear Changer: Cory Baldwin
Front Changer: Chris Winchell Front Carrier: Justin Kirby
About WRL General Contractors:
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