At 45 years old, it's strange to think that we haven't seen Kasey Kahne behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car in nearly seven years. A veteran of over 500 Cup races with an impressive 18 wins, Kahne's NASCAR career came to an abrupt end in the middle of the 2018 season.
Kahne stepped out of the car after struggling with heat exhaustion over the course of the three to four-hour races, facing an out-of-control heart rate and an inability for his body to regulate its internal temperature. The slender and well-trained Kahne was in shape, but no matter what he did, he could not combat the extreme dehydration, and it was only getting worse. There was a fear of passing out while behind the wheel, or even suffering heat stroke if he continued.
Kahne lamented in September of 2018: “It’s just better off for me to stay home." His final NASCAR race would be the grueling Southern 500 at Darlington with Kahne noting: "It was really hard to keep my eyes open. I was struggling to do that and I was trying to control my heart rate because it was so high. I just kind of laid in the car and drove around the corners and tried to do as little as possible to get my heart rate to go down."
But seven years later, he is finally back ... at least for one race. While the Cup Series enjoys its only off-weekend for the rest of the year, Kahne will be driving the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet this weekend. Kahne will make this highly anticipated comeback at a track that has also been absent from NASCAR for several years, and one he knows quite well -- Rockingham. And while he hasn't been racing stock cars, he has been racing, running dozens of short sprint car events on dirt. But his Saturday return at Rockingham will be the longest race he's done since stepping away.
In celebration of Kahne's return to stock car racing, we decided to take a look at some of his best moments behind the wheel.
Driving like a veteran from the start
Kasey Kahne's 2004 rookie season was an unusual one, simply because of how ridiculously close he kept getting to Victory Lane. He led nearly 700 laps and recorded five runner-up finishes without a single win. But nothing compared to what went down in the last Cup race ever held at Rockingham. Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kenseth entered the final corner high and he surely thought the gullible rookie behind him would follow into the dirty air. It appeared that way at first, only for Kahne to cut down mid-corner and pull alongside Kenseth. In just his second-ever Cup race, Kahne was the one driving like a veteran and they drag-raced to the line in front of 50,000 screaming fans. By just 0.010s, Kenseth barely hung on. Kahne never led a single lap that day, coming just a few inches shy of leading the only one that mattered. From that day on, every NASCAR fan knew the name 'Kasey Kahne.'
Winning it for the fans
In 2008, Kahne, now sponsored by Budweiser after the brand's lucrative partnership with Dale Earnhardt Jr. came to an end, was not locked into the annual All-Star Race. He was unable to race his way into the main event, but he didn't need to worry as the fans had his back. Kahne made the All-Star Race by way of the Fan Vote, taking the 24th and final spot on the grid. Showing his gratitude to the fans who got him there, Kahne proceeded to march through the field and win the All-Star Race and collecting the $1 million dollar bonus in a stunning upset. No other fan vote recipient has ever done that. One week later at the same track, Kahne went on to win one of NASCAR's crown jewel events when he won the Coke 600. It was his second of three wins in NASCAR's longest race, which all came with three different teams.
It doesn't get much closer than that
Kahne had a knack for being involved in photo finishes throughout his career. And in 2015, he was involved in the closest ever recorded finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway (at the national level) and the third-closest in Truck Series history. In an overtime restart, he pulled alongside Erik Jones in a thrilling battle. Out of Turn 4, it was all Jones up top, but Kahne refused to let that stand as he swerved towards Jones in an attempt to side-draft off him. Contact was made and Kahne slid sideways, but it was somehow just enough to surge ahead. Kahne was victorious by a mere 0.005s.
Giving Red Bull its wings
On loan to Red Bull for one year before moving over to Hendrick Motorsports, Kahne joined the Red Bull Racing team in its final season before shutting down. Despite the imminent demise of the organization, that didn't stop Kahne from giving it his all. He showcased the team’s true potential before its NASCAR story abruptly ended. In the penultimate race of the 2011 season, he played spoiler in the middle of the playoffs and took the fight to the title contenders in his No. 4 Red Bull Racing Toyota. Holding off giants of the sport, he claimed victory in Phoenix. Two weeks later, Red Bull Racing disappeared from the sport and he moved on to HMS, having earned the team its final win.
The (first) return of Rockingham
This year's Rockingham revival isn't actually the first. There was an attempt to bring it back with a Truck Series race in 2012, which Kahne gladly entered. Like many of his Cup triumphs, Kahne didn't show up until late in the race, but once he did, there was little the field could do to stop him. Kahne blew by Matt Crafton in a brief battle for the race lead with 46 laps to go and never looked back, leading the remainder of the race and winning the first Truck race ever held at Rockingham. This weekend, the Xfinity Series returns to 'The Rock' for the first time in 21 years and Kahne is just about the only driver entered who has real experience there, so could history repeat itself once more?
Winning one of the wildest Brickyard 400s
Not every driver can have a memorable final win to put an exclamation point on their Cup career, but that's exactly what Kahne did in 2017. He and no one else knew it at the time, but when NASCAR went to Indianapolis Motor Speedway that summer, it ended up being the final time the popular driver ever won at the Cup level. That year's Brickyard 400 was chaotic, featuring a mid-race restart where the two drivers who had dominated the entire day took each other out (Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.). From that point onward, it was pure mayhem. It morphed into a fuel-mileage race but Kahne could not not stretch it, diving to the pits for a splash-and-go. But that proved to fortuitous as a caution flew moments later and he was able to cycle to the very front of the field. It was then caution after caution with Kahne having to fend off the pack through multiple restarts.
But the defining moment came with two laps to go when Kahne ended up in the middle, three-wide for the race lead. To his outside was Brad Keselowski and to his inside was his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson -- whose car was smoking as the engine began to falter. Even still, Johnson never lifted. In fact, none of them did as they raced into Turn 3, three-wide for the win. Johnson crashed and Kahne narrowly avoided being collected, holding onto the race lead through the chaos. More wrecks and restarts followed but Kahne never relinquished the lead again. His 18th and final Cup Series win came in another NASCAR crown jewel, kissing the iconic bricks.
