Kasey Kahne eyes $5M Las Vegas IndyCar challenge
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| Kasey Kahne |
IZOD IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard wants NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Kasey Kahne to race in the $5 million all-star Izod World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October and Kahne said he is interested.
“[It would be good] if you could get in the right car, work with the right guys, have enough time to feel like you were prepared going into a race," Kahne said Saturday during NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 activities at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “But I don’t think you just get in an Indy-car and race. It’s a high-speed sport. You’ve got to know what you’re doing.
“If I can spend the time to figure out what I’m doing and work with the right guys, it’s something I would look at."
Kahne said he has not talked yet to any IndyCar teams but he knows Team Penske is open to fielding a car for the right driver. Kahne and extreme sports star Travis Pastrana are the most recognizable drivers to express interest in the challenge but Pastrana fractured bones in his foot and ankle Thursday night during the X-Games in Los Angeles.
Kahne doesn’t know if his NASCAR contract holder, Rick Hendrick, would let him try an Indy-car, but he’s willing to ask once NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship field is settled. He is 14th in the standings before Sunday’s Brickyard 400.
“I’ve brought it up in the past about some other things," said Kahne, who owns and drives sprint cars and crashed violently but safely last week at Williams Grove (Pa.) Speedway. “[Hendrick] would be somebody that I’d definitely have to talk to, see if it made sense.
“It’s not just me. There’s a lot of other people involved. It would be a little bit of a process before I’d know or not if I was going to do it.
“I like IndyCar racing; I like what they do. I’ve driven them a couple of times, enjoyed it. I drove in a testing situation, which is way different than a racing situation. I’d have to do it in a race. It would be kind of a dream of mine that I’ve always wanted to do.
“Whether it happens, I don’t know yet. But it would be neat if it did." AutoWeek
06/12/11 Former 200 USAC Midget Car champion Kasey Kahne, and now NASCAR Sprint Cup star, is expected to throw his hat in the ring to have a go at the $5M prize put up for the IndyCar finale in Las Vegas in October.
Kahne tested an IndyCar for Panther Racing in 2000 but instead took the NASCAR route in his career.