Kasey Kahne: 'It Was Time for Me to Move On'

Discussing his abrupt departure from Richard Petty Motorsports this week, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne insisted Friday morning that it was a mutual decision. He dismissed reports that he was owed money from the team and challenged anyone to question his commitment despite the late-season split.

"It was time for me to move on,'' Kahne told reporters Friday morning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where he'll begin his tenure in the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

"It definitely went down differently than what a lot of people people expected, including myself. It's a big change for myself. I'm been doing the same thing for six and a half years. ... and now everything's different, but I'm looking forward to it. I've been looking forward to next year and now I've got a quicker start on it.

"I think it's good for me that it happened. And I think it's good for RPM also.''

Red Bull Racing general manager Jay Frye concurred and acknowledged the timing certainly benefited them as well. Kahne was already set to run the full 2011 season with the team before taking over the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in 2012. With one of Red Bull's lead drivers, Brian Vickers recovering from a blood clot, the No. 83 was available for Kahne now.

"This is something we didn't anticipate happening, but we couldn't be happier about it,'' said Frye, who was seated alongside a smiling and Red Bull jacket-clad Kahne as the two took questions from the media

There has been a lot of speculation this week that Richard Petty Motorsports owed Kahne money and the whole operation was in dire financial straits. But Kahne said he was "all paid up" and grateful to RPM for that. He deferred all questions about RPM's future to that team.

The announcement of his departure from RPM Thursday came only days after a particularly frustrating race. The brakes on Kahne's No. 9 Budweiser Ford went out early in last Saturday night's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. After spinning out midway through the 500-mile event, Kahne said he was sick to his stomach and left the track. The crew repaired the car and driver J.J. Yeley finished the race in it.

"People can talk, they can say what they want, but I'm definitely not a quitter."
-- Kasey Kahne Some racing insiders questioned Kahne's departure, considering he ran in his Kasey Kahne Foundation's charity 5K race early the next morning, finishing the event in 22 minutes. One driver, who wished to remain anonymous, told FOXSports.com that Kahne was behaving like a "prima donna.'' Others wondered if he quit on the team.

"People can talk, they can say what they want, but I'm definitely not a quitter,'' Kahne said.

"Anyone that questions my commitment doesn't know me very well and how much I love the sport or how much I put into racing. I feel like I do everything I need do to make myself the best I can be. We kept having problems and I was sick to my stomach (Saturday night). It was time for me to call it a day and that's what I did.

"I'm happy I did and ready to get on to this weekend.''

Kahne spent Thursday getting fitted for his new seat and spending time with his new team. He has spent his entire career at RPM, which is an evolution of the Evernham Motorsports team where he won 2004 Rookie of the Year honors. The organization has undergone four different ownership/management changes in the last seven seasons with Kahne and his car No. 9 about the only relics from Evernham's original Dodge operation.

Although Kahne earned the team's only two race wins last season, he is winless this season and failed to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. None of the RPM teams has really contended for a victory and Kahne is currently mired in 21st in the standings, which would be his worst ranking since a 23rd-place final standing in 2005.

While Kahne seemed to acknowledge there was some sentiment in leaving the only Cup series team's he's ever known, he is clearly ready for the next chapter in his career.

"I don't know if it's relief, but it's definitely my future and definitely something I've been looking forward to,'' Kahne said.

"I wanted to finish strong for RPM and Budweiser and Ford, they've done a lot for me and my family ... but it's about me moving on and starting my next year and them moving on and starting their next year. It's mutual and I'm glad we've done it. Let's go on from there.''

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NASCAR Goes Green, Switches to Ethanol Mix for 2011

CONCORD, N.C. -- NASCAR Chairman Brian France announced Saturday that the stock car series will be switching to a 15 percent American-made ethanol mix in its Sunoco race fuel beginning in the 2011 season.

NASCAR's exclusive fuel supplier, Sunoco, has been working with the series to develop a suitable mixture -- called Sunoco Green E15 -- and race teams have been using it during test sessions for the past several months. It's a big step for NASCAR, which only began using unleaded fuel a little more than two years ago.

"A couple of years ago we laid out what we hoped would be a smart, environmentally smart approach in all areas of the industry of NASCAR, given we have lots of partners and most importantly our fans who want to continually see this sport evolve and be smart in every area when it comes to the environment and when it comes to things they care about,'' France said.

All three of NASCAR's national touring series will use the fuel. NASCAR Vice President for Competition Robin Pemberton said the initial feedback from teams has been positive. He expects there to be a slight increase in horsepower and to have a negligible affect on fuel mileage.

"All drivers like more power so they all have smiles on their faces for that,'' Pemberton said, promising further development during test sessions and also at NASCAR's Research and Development Center.

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One Hot Summer of 'Boys, Have At It' NASCAR Highlights

The leaves are changing, and pretty soon it will be getting dark at 5 p.m. and the holidays will be hurtling at us.

We've still got five races to go in NASCAR's Chase to the Sprint Cup championship, and four more in the Nationwide series.

But on this rather slow Wednesday at the halfway point of the Chase, we thought we'd jump back into the summer for a review of some of the highlights and lowlights of those long, sunny, hot days of June, July and August.

The 2010 season will be remembered as a year that the economic downturn hit NASCAR hard, with vast swaths of empty seats at many race tracks. Even Bristol doesn't sell out anymore.

But NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton's open invitation of "Boys, have at it" in January had its effects, too, and throughout the season, the drivers showed a far greater willingness to mix it up on the track, and the NASCAR police stood down and let 'em race.

The results include these top-five candidates below.

"His Wife Wears the Firesuit in the Family ..."

The spinout of Joey Logano by Kevin Harvick at Pocono race occurred in early June, a couple of weeks before summer, but it produced the best heat-of-the-moment quote of the 2010 season thus far, so we're starting here. Logano's quip about Harvick comes at the 3:50 mark of the video. Kevin Harvick Inc. tacitly acknowledged the superior nature of the quote by quickly emblazoning "I wear the firesuit in this family" on its line of women's tops.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wins in the Wrangler No. 3 Car

Two of our summer highlights come from the Nationwide series, including Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s stirring victory in the Nationwide race at Daytona International Speedway on Independence Day weekend.

No matter the size, every crowd at every track cheers loudest when NASCAR's most popular driver is in the thick of the fray, battling for the lead.

The Big One in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona

What better for the NASCAR economy than to keep the body shop guys at all the race shops gainfully employed. The competitors certainly did their part in the Coke Zero 400, with three two-car crashes, a pair of three-car crashes, a four-car crash and the big one -- 19 cars in a riot of crunching sheet metal, smoke, steam and tire rubber in turn three on lap 148.

Twenty-eight of the 43 drivers were involved in one crash or another, and seven of them managed to get involved in two of the incidents.

The Hardest Crash of the Summer

One of the minor story lines this week is the trouble Elliott Sadler has been having finding a ride for 2011. It doesn't help things that he's been involved in a series leading 14 yellow flags for spins or crashes.

But none of the incidents compared to the crash he had at Pocono in July, when he went head-on into an Armco-lined earthen berm, hitting it about as hard as an earthen berm can be hit. Sadler had the wind knocked out of him and was sore afterward but otherwise unhurt in a crash he said NASCAR officials told him was the hardest they'd ever recorded.

Taking 'Boys, Have At It' to the Limit

Carl Edwards tested the boundaries of NASCAR's new, more freewheeling racing policy when, seeing that he was beaten coming off the fourth turn, intentionally turned Brad Keselowski in front of the field, causing a massive, dangerous wreck.

Edwards paid no price for his actions, except perhaps in his standing among the fans.

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Spotter's Stand: Are Bad Brakes the Breaking Point for Kahne, RPM?

J.J. Yeley became NASCAR's newest Budweiser man for about 90 laps Saturday night after Kasey Kahne left the track following a lap 125 crash on the frontstretch.

Yeley, who started the race in the start-and-park No. 36 for Tommy Baldwin Racing, hopped in the repaired No. 9 when Kahne decided to leave Charlotte Motor Speedway for the evening.

The driver change -- one that seemingly echoed a situation a few years ago when Kyle Busch departed Texas Motor Speedway after a crash only to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. finish the race in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports car -- initially was blamed by Richard Petty Motorsports staff on Kahne feeling ill.

However, listening to Kahne's radio told a different story -- one that involved Kahne being incensed over brake issues.

Fortunately, Kahne had a previously scheduled 5k running race for his charity foundation Sunday in Charlotte, and he didn't hesitate to speak up, explaining that both issues were involved.

"I want to thank J.J.," Kahne told The Associated Press. "I appreciate him doing that. I just didn't feel good enough to get back in the car." Kahne said he became sick to his stomach after the crash.

The nausea Kahne endured during the event wasn't aided by the brake problem -- he said his foot went to floor several times -- or by what Kahne says an RPM employee told him in the garage area.

"I'm not going to say names, but I was told that I need to start doing my part," Kahne told The AP. "I can't control the issues I've had this year. I don't know how many parts I've broke. If I really thought about it, I could come up with all kinds of stuff."

Kahne said he was as mad as he's ever been in a race car when his brakes failed.
"We were a little bit tight, but still actually passed cars and really felt good and then, boom, my brakes are gone. It's not like you have half-brakes, like you can pump them. Your foot goes to the floor. It bottoms out. It's a joke."
-- Kasey Kahne
"I came into the race thinking we had a shot to win, thinking we had a good car in practice, we had a good shot," he said. "It went green. We were a little bit tight, but still actually passed cars and really felt good and then, boom, my brakes are gone. It's not like you have half-brakes, like you can pump them. Your foot goes to the floor. It bottoms out. It's a joke."

He said it was his third brake failure of the season.

Kahne, of course, is leaving RPM at the end of the season for a ride at Red Bull Racing. After year's stopover in that seat, Kahne has a contract with Hendrick Motorsports.

Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis, is scheduled to follow the driver to Red Bull next season.

This season, Kahne is 21st in points after failing to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup -- a distinction he achieved last season.

Red Bull has been in an interesting situation this season thanks to a blood clot problem that sidelined driver Brian Vickers early in the year. Vickers is expected to return to start the 2011 season, but his No. 83 has been a rotating door of drivers.

Perhaps Kahne would look into leaving a seemingly unfixable situation at RPM to run a few races at Red Bull?

"I don't know," Kahne told SBNation.com. "I really don't know if that'll happen or not. I doubt it."

WHO'S HOT: Jimmie Johnson's third-place finish has him set up perfectly for a fifth straight title. What you're watching -- however you may feel about it -- is truly one of the greatest achievements this sport has ever seen. He looks untouchable, again.

WHO'S NOT: For a guy who looked like a potential force to reckon with coming into the Chase, Jeff Burton has been decidedly not. He's recorded three straight finishes of 18th or worse.

NOTABLE: Jamie McMurray proved again Saturday that his win in the season-opening Daytona 500 wasn't a fluke moment in reviving his career.

After being all but cast off from the sport in terms based on his performance in a lucrative deal with Roush-Fenway Racing that never showed results, McMurray's return to Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing seemed like a last-ditch chance before falling into obscurity.

Now, he's won Daytona, Indianapolis and Charlotte -- all in the same season. What's that say about McMurray, the driver, and about NASCAR's Chase format?

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Tim Richmond Documentary Airs Tuesday Night on ESPN

In another of ESPN Film's Emmy-worthy installments of its documentary series "30 for 30," the network on Tuesday night gives us a moving and informative look at the life of former star NASCAR Cup Series driver Tim Richmond, who died in 1989 of complications from AID at the age of only 34.

Using the right blend of classic race footage and emotional interviews, the hour-long film gives an in-depth look at NASCAR's original rebel, the driver who gave Dale Earnhardt fits on track and puzzled the "Good Ol' Boy" garage, which wasn't sure what to make of this glam-kid from the Midwest.

As his former team owner Rick Hendrick and contemporaries such as Darrell Waltrip tell it, Richmond had more talent than he could harness. And Richmond enjoyed every bit of his success -- perhaps to a fault. The film, with emotional interviews from Richmond's sister, lets you decide.

This is a must-see for the massive legions of new NASCAR fans who started tuning into the sport only in the last decade. And it's sure to be an emotional trip down memory lane for those who remember Richmond's spunk, talent and personality.

It's interesting and compelling television whether you're a NASCAR fan or not.

The show begins at 8 p.m. (ET) Tuesday.

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Timeline: Kasey Kahne's First Seven Years in NASCAR

Kasey Kahne, who was released Wednesday night as the driver of the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 9 Budweiser Ford, came on the scene in 2003, when RPM was still Evernham Motorsports.

In the seven years since, he's racked up 11 victories, including an impressive six victories in 2006.

But Kahne was a lame duck at RPM, and he and longtime crew chief Kenny Francis had previously announced their intentions to race for Red Bull Racing in 2011 as a stopover point before Kahne's move to Hendrick Motorsports' No. 5 car in 2012.

Here's a look back at Kahne's seven-year ride through the ranks of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:

Date: Feb. 14, 2004
Race: Daytona 500
Importance: Kahne's first Cup Series experience under the tutelage of owner Ray Evernham -- and with expectations that the former crew chief could turn the 24-year-old driver into the next Jeff Gordon -- was abrupt and short. After qualifiying 27th for the season-opening 500, Kahne blew an engine 42 laps in and finished 41st.

Date: Feb. 22, 2004
Race: Subway 400 at 'The Rock'
Importance: It didn't take long for Kahne's name to become the next big thing of NASCAR. A week after a dismal finish in the Daytona 500, Kahne recorded his first runner-up finish, losing to by Matt Kenseth at the old North Carolina Motor Speedway at Rockingham by .010 of a second.

Kahne finished second a total of six times in 2004, including the next week at Las Vegas. In that event, Kahne won his first pole.

Date: May 14, 2004
Race: Chevy American Revolution 400 at Richmond
Importance: In a battle between the established former open-wheel racer in Tony Stewart and the newcomer Kahne -- both with extensive sprint car backgrounds -- the pair combined to lead 385 total laps over the 400-lap night race. At the end, though, Kahne led the most laps -- 242 -- and held off Stewart by 1.674 seconds to record his first career Sprint Cup victory.

Date: 2006 season
Importance: The term "coming-out party" certainly fits the mold of all-too-often-used sports cliché, but it's tough to find a better summation of Kahne's 2006 season. Kahne won early and won often in his third full season, taking the fourth race of the season with a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Four of Kahne's five other triumphs came at 1.5-mile tracks -- including a win at Texas and a sweep of the Charlotte points races. Kahne also won at the two-mile track in Fontana, Calif., in route his first Chase for the Sprint Cup appearance.

Date: August 6, 2007
Importance: In a move that seemed to establish a brief trend of NASCAR teams partnering with outside investment firms, Evernham sold a majority share of his team -- one that he began from scratch when Dodge re-entered NASCAR racing in 2001 -- to sports and business mogul George Gillett.

The move came during precipitous time for the team (Kahne didn't win in 2007 after his six-win burst just a year before) and left questions about Evernham's future involvement with the team. Those questions were answered for good after Evernham sold his remaining share in the team in 2009.

Date: January 9, 2009
Importance: Following a second straight season where he failed to qualify for the Chase to the Sprint Cup, Kahne again had to roll with the punches of another team ownwership change when Gillett partnered his racing venture with the long-struggling Petty Enterprises to create Richard Petty Motorsports.

The team transitioned to Ford race cars for the 2009 season and Kahne -- now accompanied by new teammates -- had his most successful season since the 2006 campaign. Two wins, seven top-fives and the most lead-lap finishes he's ever had in a Cup season vaulted Kahne and Francis into the Chase. A blown engine in the first Chase race at New Hampshire, though, quickly derailed Kahne's championship aspirations.

Date: Oct. 16, 2010
Race: 2010 Bank of America 500 at Charlotte
Importance: A track where Kahne has a long record of success -- his three career wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway and an average finish of 13.5 make the 1.5-mile oval his best track -- proved to be the place where Kahne's relationship with RPM unraveled. Brake issues, an all-too-frequent problem with his cars, Kahne said, finally contributed to a frontstretch crash that sent his No. 9 to the garage.

Kahne left the track without comment, but in interviews early the next morning at his previously scheduled 5k charity race in Charlotte he told of the animosity of the evening. Kahne said he was sick during the race and that, combined with a wrecked race car, prompted him to leave the speedway. The team, though, repaired the car and driver J.J. Yeley finished the race in Kahne's seat -- one Kahne would never return to.

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Tony Stewart Announces Mobil 1 as New Co-Sponsor For 2011

NASCAR owner-driver Tony Stewart announced Tuesday that his No. 14 Chevrolet will begin carrying Mobil 1 as a co-primary sponsor in the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season.

The multi-year deal will put Mobil 1 on the hood of the two-time Cup champ Stewart's Chevy for 11 races and it will serve as associate sponsor for the other 25 races that co-sponsor Office Depot will headline for the team.

ExxonMobil will also provide engineering support to Stewart-Haas Racing and Mobil 1 will be an associate sponsor on the team's second car, the No. 39 Chevy driven by Ryan Newman.

"As a team owner, I'm absolutely thrilled to add such a respected technology partner to our race team,'' Stewart said two days after collecting his second win of the Sprint Cup season in Fontana, Calif.

"And as a driver, it's exciting to partner with a brand that has such an incredible racing pedigree.''

Mobil 1 is completing the last year of its sponsorship on Penske Racing's No. 77 Dodge driven by former Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr. It is the "Official Motor Oil of NASCAR.'' It replaces longtime Stewart sponsor Old Spice, which announced earlier this season it would not be renewing its sponsor contract.

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Ashley Phalen Killed in Driving Experience Crash at Auto Club Speedway

FONTANA, Calif. (AP) -- A woman crashed a replica Indy race car into a wall at a high rate of speed and died while taking part in the Mario Andretti Driving Experience at a Southern California motor speedway.

The San Bernardino County coroner's office says 24-year-old Ashley Phalen of Los Angeles was killed early Friday when her vehicle slammed into a wall and overturned at the Auto Club Motor Speedway in Fontana. She died at a nearby hospital.

Phalen was participating in what is described on andrettiracing.com as the "World's Fastest Racing Experience." The website says people can drive a race car with 600 horsepower for an eight-minute session and reach speeds up to 160 mph.

The San Bernardino Sun reported that the crash occurred at 9:32 a.m. PT Friday and that the car struck an inside wall before overturning.

An after-hours phone message for the Andretti Driving Experience wasn't immediately returned.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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Tony Stewart's Winning Week in His Own Words

Editors Note: FanHouse is teaming up with two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart for weekly, in-depth stories as he competes in the 10-week Chase for the Sprint Cup. Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet, enters Saturday night's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway -- the fifth of the 10 playoff races -- ranked fifth in the standings, 107 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. On Friday, FanHouse caught up with Stewart in his motor coach just before the start of final practice. Here's his personal account of a busy week starting with his second victory of the season Sunday in Fontana, Calif., followed by a major press conference Tuesday when he announced that Mobil 1 will be a primary sponsor of his car for 11 races in 2011.

CONCORD, N.C. -- We didn't get in a big hurry to leave (Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif). Probably the coolest part was I thanked all the guys and came back to the motor coach and (co-owner) Gene's (Haas) motor home was parked right next to mine.

Gene and his family were still outside and they had their own personal cameras out and they were taking pictures of the scoring pylon and it had 200 laps at the top and the running order under it.

That's the stuff that makes you feel good. I've never seen Gene have a camera in his hand, let alone his entire family. That just shows you how big a moment it was for him personally. And for me, that was the icing on the cake. That's what meant the most to me.

When we won the All-Star race (in 2009) that was big, but to win in California, his home track with all his family there, the home of his business. ... to get a win there for him was big.

What a lot of people didn't know is that our World of Outlaw team the night before my California win ran first and second, my USAC Silver Crown team ran first and second and this week, It was just a huge week all the way around.

As far as celebrating, it wasn't really a big celebration except for on the plane. It was just myself, Eddie (business manager Eddie Jarvis), my dad (Nelson Stewart), (crew chief) Darian (Grubb), (car chief) Jeff Meendering and the pilots.

We had four hours to get home. Eddie was on his Ipad, Darian was on his computer and we had "Smokey and the Bandit" playing on all the TVs. We had it all old school then we were all listening to music.

On Monday, I did absolutely nothing. I laid on the boat all day and just relaxed. We had such a busy week in California, I just kinda took Monday (off).
"We had four hours to get home. Eddie was on his Ipad, Darian was on his computer and we had "Smokey and the Bandit" playing on all the TVs. We had it all old school then we were all listening to music."
-- Tony Stewart
Honestly, the media stuff wasn't that much different than usual. We loaded up Tuesday pretty heavily to maintain some sanity on Monday.

Tuesday, we went to the shop and started with a team meeting and introduced the Mobil 1 people to the organization then went out for the announcement and had four hours of media after that.

It's been weeks, it's not been months, that we had a deal (Mobil 1). It's not that it was necessarily a secret but just when you make the announcement you want them to get all the bang they can get out of it, to do it right and make it big.

I was there at the shop until 5 o'clock and then drove to the Brickhouse (restaurant) for the Jail and Bail (NASCAR scholarship fundraiser). My bail was set at $20,000 and we raised $25,000 so it was a good night there too.

We've been good in the Chase. You want them talking about you. We just had a bad race in Dover and I multiplied the problem with a speeding penalty and running out of fuel at Loudon, N.H. We dug ourselves a hole the first two weeks and the following two weeks dug ourselves out quite a bit.

Some of those guys have had problems and that helped us. That's what had to happen to get us the rest of the way there. Jimmie (Johnson), Denny (Hamlin) and Jeff (Gordon) are going to have to have at least that one off-day to get us the rest of the way there.

The good thing for us, is we're not having to be those guys looking at what's coming from behind. We're strictly focused on what's ahead of us. I told the guys at the team meeting on Tuesday that I'd rather fall all the way back to 10th doing everything we can to win than to say, 'This is good enough, let's try to keep what we've got.'

I'd rather and I think, our organization would rather go for it and go down in a big ball of fire trying then saying, 'That's good enough.'

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