Twenty-nine years after his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car start — with a distinguished NASCAR career in between — Kasey Kahne claimed his first victory as a driver in Friday night‘s Outlaws event at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Kahne has had enormous success as a World of Outlaws team owner, winning five series championships with driver Brad Sweet and one with Daryn Pittman. A victory of his own, however, continued to elude him — until Friday night.
Substituting for injured Anthony Macri, Kahne held off Sheldon Haudenschild in the closing laps to seal the win on the legendary half-mile dirt track. Kahne‘s first start in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series came at Grays Harbor Raceway in his home state of Washington on Aug. 22, 1997.
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“This is crazy,” Kahne said in Victory Lane. “I couldn‘t believe this would happen this weekend. Two weeks ago, I was still building my own cars to get prepared to hopefully race them later this year. Nick Macri and their whole family…
“Man, this whole Macri Motorsports team. (Crew chief) Joe Mooney, he‘s exceptional on the wrenches. He worked at KKR (Kasey Kahne Racing), and he‘s done so much more since then with Anthony.”
In a NASCAR Cup Series career that spanned 15 years from 2004 through 2018, Kahne won 18 races, including four Crown Jewel events — the Coca-Cola 600 three times (2006,2008 and 2012) and the Brickyard 400 (2017).
His high-water mark came in 2006 when he won six times with Ray Evernham‘s fledgling Dodge team. Kahne also won races with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports, Red Bull Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.
Two-time NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson, co-founder of the High Limit Racing sprint car series, was delighted to learn of Kahne‘s victory.
“Yeah, that was awesome,” Larson said. “I was flying here, so I didn’t get to watch the race live, but I’d gotten texts from multiple people when he won and landed in time to watch his interview and just see how excited everybody was for him… the fans, himself, the team.
“Kasey Kahne‘s put a lot into the sport of sprint car racing. He’s achieved everything you can achieve as an owner, so to conquer something that he’s been trying to get for a long time and been somewhat close, was cool. He was fast at Lincoln (Speedway in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania) the other night, and then really good last night, so that was awesome.”
