Kasey Kahne has been the highest finishing non-chase driver for the second week in a row. He finished fourth at Dover International Speedway and kept his momentum going heading to Kansas. Kahne finished second to future teammate Jimmie Johnson in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, giving Red Bull Racing their best finish of the season.
[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”208″]
[/media-credit]An incident on pit road on lap 21 set Kahne back from his fifth-place starting position. Under the first caution, Kahne pitted for two tires, only to have the jack break. Then as he was attempting to leave his pit, he was blocked in by the No. 48 car. The No. 4 team decided last minute to take four tires, restarting back in 40th position.
From there, Kahne raced his way from 40th position to sixth position, getting himself back into contention late in the race. Kahne gave up his position to pit when the fifth caution came out with 28 laps to go. Crew chief Kenny Francis made the call to pit for four tires and a splash of fuel, to restart the race in 12th position. Kahne quickly raced to fifth after the restart and found himself in second place with 10 laps to go.
With two laps to go the final caution came out, eliminating Johnson’s two second lead. Kahne was able to clear a group of cars on the green-white-checkered restart, but came up short finishing the race in second position.
On the restart Brad gave me a good push, and I had a shot at Jimmie,” said Kahne. “I just couldn’t really get to him. I thought maybe getting to (Turn) 3 I would go high, and he kind of entered into the middle and then just crept his way to the top and just really didn’t have a shot there at him. But I think we had a good Red Bull car. The guys did a nice job today.”
At the end of the season, Red Bull will be leaving the team with no word yet whether they will continue as a one car operation. Kahne will be leaving the team to start his new ride with Hendrick Motorsports, extending through the 2015 season.
