Post by pmossberg on Oct 3, 2009 0:36:53 GMT -5
www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/cup/10/02/kkahne.blocking.distractions.kansas/index.html
Kahne trying to block out the numerous distractions
Team mergers, blown engine among the challenges
By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
October 2, 2009
05:32 PM EDT
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- It has been a wild few weeks for Kasey Kahne.
Just before racing at Richmond last month, as he was riding the high of winning the previous week's Cup race at Atlanta, he discovered the organization that employs him -- currently called Richard Petty Motorsports -- was planning a merger with Yates Racing that supposedly will take effect next season. It was news to him at the time, even though such a merger will affect him greatly in that he no longer will drive a Dodge in the Cup Series, switching instead to a Ford.
Still, Kahne blocked out the distraction and finished a respectable 12th at Richmond. That and his solid body of work in the season's first 26 races, including a win at Sonoma as well as Atlanta, earned him the No. 5 seed amongst the 12 participants heading into the Chase.
Then he blew an engine in the first Chase race at New Hampshire, relegating him to a 38th-place finish that dropped him like a rock to 12th in the Chase standings. That brought about a pep talk from team co-owner Richard Petty.
"I told him after New Hampshire, 'Look, forget about the points. Let's go out and win races. You don't even have to look at the points deal. If you win enough races, you win the points standings. That's how I always looked at it,' "said Petty, winner of a record 200 races and seven championships as a driver.
"I know the first race in the Chase was disappointing. But we've had a good year. Kasey and the crew have confidence from that and need to stay confident."
On Friday at Kansas Speedway, where he was preparing for this Sunday's Price Chopper 400, Kahne said that he is taking Petty's advice to heart. He also insisted that despite being 189 points behind current leader Mark Martin in the standings, it's still early in the Chase and he's not completely out of the hunt for the championship.
But he knows he has to start not only running well -- as he did to finish eighth last Sunday at Dover -- but running well enough to actually get to Victory Lane. And he needs to do it quickly and almost certainly multiple times.
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"I've talked to Richard, and the only way that we're going to be able to get back into the points battle is to win races," Kahne said. "It's the only way to get those points back. You need the bonus points and they only come from wins and leading laps, so hopefully we can do that and gain some of those spots back.
"Those are things that we can control, so those are the things that we need to work on, stay focused on -- and that's all I try to do each week. That's what [crew chief] Kenny [Francis] and the entire team does. We try to stay focused on things that we can control. If we can do that, hopefully we can get back into that top five and maybe even higher."
Meanwhile, as if the merger that isn't yet really a merger and the blown engine at New Hampshire and the pending switch from Dodge to Ford aren't enough to distract Kahne, there was seemingly bizarre news from the Middle East for the driver to digest. And we're not talking Tennessee -- the Middle East of the United States in terms of geography; we're talking Saudi Arabia, or the Middle East of the world.
It was announced Wednesday that George Gillett, whose family is majority owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, had entered into a "commercial collaboration" agreement with F6, a leading Saudi Arabia-based sports management firm founded and led by Saudi Arabian Prince Faisal bin Fahad bin Abdullah Al Saud.
According to a news release from F6, the agreement is designed "to explore business opportunities" in soccer, stock-car racing and interactive media in Saudi Arabia. Gillett and F6 have denied that the agreement means anything more, although Gillett is supposed to visit Kansas Speedway on Saturday to talk more about it and RPM's pending merger with Yates Racing.
Through it all, Kahne keeps racing, trying to grit his teeth and make up ground in the Chase.
"I just try to block it out," Kahne said. "It sounds like, at least talking to Foster [Gillett, George's son], that that's something the Gilletts are part of, something that they're working on away from racing. That's what he's told me.
"I don't know what else is involved in that. It's just one of those things that we try to stay away from and stay focused on our race cars and how we can go fast each week. We need to focus in on the things that we can make better, and that's trying to win races."
I have Richard petty cars 1/18 1/24 scales! Etc...
