Kasey Kahne eyeing more NASCAR races if Rockingham goes well

Kasey Kahne’s highly anticipated NASCAR return is here, coinciding with the return of Rockingham. It’s a track he knows fairly well — having earned a win here before. This weekend, he takes on the classic track again piloting the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with backing from HendrickCars.com.

Speaking in a press conference on Friday, the 45-year-old said he’s “been really looking forward to this race,” later commenting on how “it’s been a special track throughout my career.” He added that depending on how well things go, this may not be the last time you’ll see him behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car.

“This has been as excited I’ve been this whole year — whether it’s sprint car racing or pavement racing — in a little while when it comes to racing. I’ve been really looking forward to this race. And I just really thought (I’ll) see how it goes. See if things click, if it makes sense. If I feel like I’ve been doing it for 15 years,’ then yeah, maybe we could get another one in later in the year. If it’s difficult … maybe one and done. Just have to pay attention, see how it goes and go from there.”

A real shot at the win 

Kahne has every reason to be confident for the race on Saturday, and not just because he topped the charts in the ten-lap averages. His first-ever laps in a stock car were at Rockingham, as was his NASCAR Xfinity debut in 2002. In the last-ever Cup race at Rockingham in 2004, Kahne — who was just a rookie at the time — nearly won the race, losing in a photo finish to Matt Kenseth. And in the first failed revival of Rockingham in 2012, the winner of that year’s Truck race was none other than Kahne himself.

“I’ve always really enjoyed it from the very first lap that I made here,” said Kahne. But despite his past success at Rockingham, the veteran driver is keeping his goals grounded for the rest of the weekend.

“I want to race every lap,” said Kahne of his hopes for the weekend ahead. “I want to be very competitive. I feel like to be out as long as I have and to come back and just do everything perfect and win would be very tough. These guys do it every weekend, they’re very good at it. And they put a lot of time into it year after year. So, I think that would be very tough to do, but I think we can be very competitive, run in the top ten throughout the race, and who knows what happens after that. We also have practice today to see where we stack up.”

Kasey Kahne, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

Health update

One question many fans have involves Kahne’s health, which is what forced him out of NASCAR in the first place. He had to quit mid-season in 2018 after suffering from extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion as his body struggled to regulate its own temperature. 

“As far as my health, I’m in a good place right now because I don’t do this all the time,” explained Kahne. “I don’t do the long races … it got worse as soon as the summer months came, and then every week after that was just draining me the last couple of years I did it. I think going into this is good. I saw 88 degrees, and I was like, ‘That’s nice, I’m looking forward to it, I’m fine with it.’ Other people called and were like, ‘Can you do it?’ Yeah, it’s not that big of a deal, it’ll be fine.”

Qualifying will take place Saturday morning, just hours before the green flag flies for 250 laps of racing at Rockingham. It will be the first NASCAR Xfinity Series race at ‘The Rock’ in 21 years. And yes, Kasey Kahne was in that race too.