The question of where Kasey Kahne will land in 2011 was answered this week when Red Bull Racing announced he would drive for the team for one season before he heads to Hendrick Motorsport in 2012…
In a deal that team manager Jay Frye said happened quickly, Kahne’s signing gives Red Bull a proven veteran who knows how to win.
“To get a Kasey Kahne-calibre driver and even if it is just for one year, he will help be able to point our program in the right direction for the future. We will worry about 2012 next year,” Frye said.
“We had an opportunity to secure his services for next year and we were thrilled we could do that.”
In Kahne, Red Bull snapped up the hottest free agent on the NASCAR market. The 30-year-old from Enumclaw, Washington, already has a contract to drive the No. 5 car for Hendrick in 2012 but his deal with Richard Petty Motorsports ends at the conclusion of this year.
After months of speculation and rumours about his short-term future, Kahne is eager to get to work with Red Bull next season.
“It feels good to be secure for next year, to have a good deal with Red Bull and to know what I am doing for 2011. I have a positive attitude about it and am looking forward to it because they can really run well. They have in the past and I think we can again,” he said. “I feel we have a good shot. I'm looking forward to it.”
And Red Bull should be pleased about having Kahne in the fold. In seven Sprint Cup seasons, he has 11 wins, 17 poles and 84 top-10 results in 238 starts. He also made the Chase for the Cup in 2006 and 2009.
One thing that attracted Kahne to the Red Bull squad was the reputation the energy drink company has for encouraging its athletes to have fun away from the racetrack.
'I feel we have a good shot, I'm looking forward to it' – Kasey Kahne
“I always have heard about the opportunities that those athletes get and what other Red Bull athletes do on the side and with Red Bull,” he said.
“They get great opportunities and that’s what really excited me about the whole program. I think the competition can be really good, seeing what [No. 83 driver] Brian [Vickers] did last year with the Chase and win and all the poles.”
Ironically, Mark Martin was rumoured to be coming to Team Red Bull earlier this year in order to make room for Kahne who will drive the car now occupied by the NASCAR veteran.
Signing Kahne may be a way to hedge the team’s bet for 2011, should team leader Vickers continue to be sidelined by the blood clots that forced him out of the car in May.
The uncertainty surrounding Vickers’ future was only one of the outstanding questions left unanswered in a press conference to introduce Kahne as a Red Bull driver.
For example, what car will he drive, who will be his crew chief, and will the team need to expand to three cars all remain a mystery.
But Frye insisted most of the details would be hammered out soon.
“A lot of this stuff has happened very quickly. Over the next month, 45 days, we will start to organise the teams and put the teams together for 2011. At this point, we really have no comment on specifics,” he said. “The biggest thing is what car he is going to be in and to put the team around it.”
And with all indications pointing to Vickers returning to the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota in 2011 and Speed rumoured to have already signed a contract extension for next year, some decisions need to be made about the team’s make-up for next year.
“We have a lot of options at this point being we are only a two-car team. Right now, with Brian, we continue to monitor his health and he is doing great. Things are looking very good with him, but at this point we still don’t know. We are only half way through the process he needs to go through,” Frye said.
“With [No. 82 Red Bull Toyota driver] Scott [Speed], we are a couple of years into that program. It needs to get better. We are working hard to get him better and do what we need to do to get him better. But we have options. Is it possible to expand? Sure, we have the ability to do that. Do we plan to do that? At this point that is unclear.”
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