Background and career
Kasey Kenneth Kahne (; born April 10, 1980) is an American professional dirt track racing and stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet Camaro SS for Richard Childress Racing. Currently, Kahne competes in High Limit Racing, driving the No. 4 sprint car for his own team, Kasey Kahne Racing, and will compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series full time driving the No. 77 for Spire Motorsports in 2027. Off the track, Kahne is active in charitable work and is a member of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. He also owns his own race team, Kasey Kahne Racing, which competes in the World of Outlaws and High Limit Racing series, fielding two sprint cars for himself and Brad Sweet. Kahne is a two-time Skagit Speedway winner of the Annual Jim Raper memorial Dirt Cup (2002 and 2003) and currently holds the fastest lap record there. Kahne scored 18 career wins in the Cup Series, including 3 Coca-Cola 600s in 2006, 2008, and 2012, and the Brickyard 400 in 2017. He was also the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Rookie of the Year in 2004. He retired from racing before the end of the 2018 Cup Series season for health reasons and was replaced at Leavine Family Racing by Regan Smith. In 2023 he was named as one of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers.
Kasey Kahne was born on April 10, 1980, in Enumclaw, Washington, to his parents Kelly and Tammy. His father Kelly was a mechanics enthusiast with a background in motorsports, and his mother Tammy, would later manage aspects of his early career. He has an older sister Shanon and a younger brother Kale. He grew up on a 50-acre (20 ha) rural property where he rode four-wheelers and dirt bikes. Growing up he also participated in other sports like baseball and basketball, and he would drive snowmobiles in the mountains during the winter.
Kahne began racing open-wheel sprint cars at Deming Speedway at seventeen in Deming, Washington, before moving up to Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington, and then he moved to USAC. In 2000, Kahne made a trip to Pennsylvania where he won the season opener at the historic Williams Grove Speedway. He was hired by Steve Lewis, who had also employed future NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Jason Leffler, Tony Stewart and Kenny Irwin Jr. In his first year on the circuit, he was named Rookie of the Year, as well as winning the national midget championship. He continued to run USAC, as well as the Toyota Atlantic Series and the World of Outlaws.
In 2002, Kahne made 20 starts in the Busch Series driving the No. 98 Channellock Ford Taurus for Robert Yates Racing. His best finish was a tenth place finish at Cabela's 250. A year later, he moved to the No. 38 Great Clips Ford for Akins Motorsports full-time. He won his first pole at Michigan International Speedway and his first Busch Series race at the Ford 300. Kahne finished seventh in the points standings. With his move to full-time competition in the Cup Series in 2004, he also drove 30 races for Akins in the Busch Series, finishing 13th in points. In 2005, he made 22 starts in the Busch Series, splitting time with Akins and Evernham's new No. 6 team. He won the O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway and the United Way 300 at Kansas Speedway. On May 26, 2007, Kahne won the Busch Series' Carquest Auto Parts 300 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway for his first win of 2007. On August 24, 2007, Kahne won the pole for the Cup Series' Sharpie 500 at Bristol, his second pole of the 2007 Nextel Cup Series season. Later that night, during the Busch Series' Food City 250, Kahne passed Ryan Newman on the top side in a three-wide pass that included Jason Leffler on the bottom. He held off the hard-charging Leffler to score his seventh career Busch win and his second of 2007. In 2009, Kahne ran fewer events in other NASCAR series than in previous seasons, only seven (four in the Nationwide Series, three in the Whelen Modified Tour). With fewer distractions, Kahne's Sprint Cup stats slightly improved that year. During the 2014 Nationwide season, Kahne scored an upset win at the Nationwide Series' Subway Firecracker 250, passing teammate Regan Smith on the final lap. The margin was 0.021 seconds. On January 24, 2025, NASCAR announced that Kahne would return to the driver's seat for the Xfinity Series race at Rockingham Speedway on April 19. Kahne has six career starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, winning five of them; his lone non-victory is a second-place run at Pocono Raceway in 2010. In 2004, he made a pair of starts in the series at Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving the No. 2 Team ASE Racing Dodge Ram for Ultra Motorsports, winning both races. At the 2015 Charlotte Truck race, he held off Erik Jones for the win by .005 seconds, the second-closest margin in Truck Series history.
Kahne replaced Bill Elliott in the No. 9 Dodge for Evernham Motorsports at the end of the 2003 season when Elliott announced a part-time schedule starting with the 2004 season. Since Kahne was still under contract with Ford, the manufacturer filed a lawsuit against him after he joined Evernham Motorsports. U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland ruled in favor of Kahne, citing a clause in his contract with Ford that stipulated that the manufacturer had to provide Kahne with a full-time ride on a Ford team that both parties mutually agreed upon. That clause also stipulated that if an agreement could not be reached by either party, then Kahne could seek a ride with a different manufacturer, without breaking the terms of his contract with Ford.
In 2004, Kahne surprised many by nearly winning several races (including five 2nd-place finishes and 13 Top 5's), winning four poles, and capturing the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award. He narrowly missed the Chase for the Nextel Cup after Jeremy Mayfield, his teammate, claimed the final spot. In 2005, Kahne scored his first career Nextel Cup victory in his sophomore season 2005, after a dominating performance in the Chevy American Revolution 400 at Richmond International Raceway. It was also the first win for the Dodge Charger, which returned to NASCAR that year. It was the first time a Dodge won a race at Richmond International Raceway since Richard Petty did so in 1975. In addition, he became the first driver born in the 1980s to win a race in NASCAR's premier series. He also scored two poles in back-to-back weeks at Darlington and Richmond during the same year. Despite this, he was plagued with inconsistency and slumped to 23rd in the points.
