NDIANAPOLIS — Kasey Kahne, whose career was once pointed in the direction of the Indianapolis 500 as a USAC open-wheel series star in the late 1990s and early 2000s, finally won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
His victory in Sunday’s bizarre and eventful 24th Brickyard 400 was an emotional one to the driver who considers Verizon IndyCar Series driver Ed Carpenter as one of his best buddies. In fact, Kahne once lived in a house owned by Carpenter when he was an aspiring driver in the USAC ranks.
“Unbelievable to win at Indianapolis,” Kahne said. “Unbelievable to win a Cup race. It’s been a while. It feels really good for myself and my confidence. I know it’s great for our team. We needed it as a team.
“I’m just really excited. I moved to Indy in 1999, lived here for three summers, raced sprint cars, midgets all around the area. This was the track that I always wanted to win at, and dreamed of racing at.
“Me and my dad, when we first moved here, we got a shop on Gasoline Alley. We came over, went to the museum, then got on a bus. They bused us around the track. I got to feel the track in a bus. That was a really cool day. That was in 1999. That was a blast to be part of that with my dad.
“Then to be able to race here starting in 2004. I came close at winning some races early on, led a lot of laps in ’12 or ’13. Was close again. To pull it off this year, it’s unbelievable.”
Kahne’s drive to victory began over six hours before race actually finished at 8:58 p.m. Eastern Time. In between were three red flags that stopped the race – one for a severe storm that quickly blew through the area and two more for multi-car crashes that left oil and debris on the racing surface.
Kahne got the jump on Brad Keselowski on the final restart and crossed the overtime line prior to another multi-car crash that occurred behind the leaders.
At that point, the race was over and Kahne’s quest for glory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was complete.
“I was just not going to give up,” Kahne said. “First off, the strategy worked out perfectly when we pitted and got to the lead. We had been running 11th to 14th, somewhere in there I feel like. I had a pretty good car at the time, once we got it to turn. Early on, it was on the tight side. Once we got it to turn, it was actually pretty quick. We just needed to get the track position.
“Everything worked out perfectly on that strategy. We got to the front, then it was restart after restart. We got the first one, was pulling away, then there was a wreck. The second one, we were three wide into three, there was a wreck. Then the next one, Keselowski kind of figured out how to get the lead there.
“Then the final one, we were able to get the lead back.
“I had a great car out front. I had a pretty good car all day long. It was just a matter of kind of getting that last little bit of turn in the car, then controlling the track bar to keep rear grip in it as the tires wore off.
“I was really happy.”
Source :speedsport.com
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