Kahne kicks off season at Daytona

Published 2:05 pm Monday, February 7, 2011

After years as the Budweiser No. 9, Kasey Kahne fans will have to get use to looking for the Enumclaw NASCAR Sprint Cup driver in the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota.

Kahne will drive the No. 4 while he waits to join the Hendrick Motorsports team next season. During the one-year stint with Red Bull Racing, Kahne will be teaming with Brian Vickers in the No. 83. Kahne and Vickers went head-to-head in 2004 for Rookie of the Year honors.

The Rookie of the Year honor Kahne picked up then will land him a spot in Saturday’s nonpoints Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway.

The green flag is set to fall at 8:10 p.m. Saturday. FOX will broadcast the event live. It marks the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event on the track’s repaved surface.

The race distance will again be 75 laps, consisting of two segments – 25 and 50 laps. Both green-flag laps and yellow-flag laps will count. Between segments there will be a 10-minute pit stop.

Starting positions will again be determined by a blind-draw at the annual Budweiser Shootout Draw Party Friday.