Kahne drops two spots after blowing engine
Published 11:26 am Thursday, December 11, 2008
By Brenda Sexton
The Courier-Herald
After qualifying well and running in the Top 6 most of the day, Enumclaw NASCAR Nextel Cup diver Kasey Kahne lost the engine of his No. 9 Dodge Charger and finished 35th Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Kahne's No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge was running minus a cylinder about halfway through the 500-lap contest. Nursing the car along for a nearly 100 more laps, Kahne managed to stay on the lead lap, around the 19th and 20th spot, as long as he could.
“It looks like it might have been a valve spring, something that wasn't too bad, but it ended up getting worse and worse and we couldn't run up front any more,” Kahne said. “We'll just have to look forward to going to Texas now. We ran in the top three the first half of the race. We got a little loose and dropped back to fourth, but we were just one or two adjustments from being a top three car.
“It was fun while it lasted. We had a great racecar. We finished second in this race last year, but this was the best car I'd ever had here at Martinsville. We were having a lot of fun out there. It just wasn't our day. These guys are doing a great job, and we just had a little problem today. We'll regroup and bounce back next week at Texas. I'm really looking forward to that race.”
Kahne dropped two spots to fourth in Nextel Cup drivers' standings. Competition continues Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth at 3 p.m. on FOX.
Plateau area fans will remember Kahne won the Busch Series race at Texas this time last season.
