Kasey Kahne: Championship Contender?

During NASCAR’s media tour, everyone says it: they’re excited. After the season, when genuine emotion casts PR aside on the victor’s Sprint Cup stage or the pit road of the defeated, only one driver actually will be.

Don’t be surprised if it’s Kasey Kahne.

Go ahead; check the timestamp. It’s not 2005, a year after Kahne set a career-high 13 top fives as a rookie, nor is it 2007, when Kahne’s most recent performance had been a league-leading six wins. It’s not even 2013, with Kahne mere months removed from fourth in the prior year’s standings.

No, it’s 2015, just following a Kahne season so uninspiring that a countdown to when Chase Elliott would take his place had started.

Not even a clutch win at Atlanta turned his year around. A. J. Allmendinger, driving for the single-car JTG-Daugherty program that had only cracked the top 20 in points one other time, beat Kahne in the final standings.

Once sponsored by Tide in the early 90s, the 5 car was now a stain on Hendrick’s strong program.

To say a Sprint Cup’s never been closer would seem illogical. To say anything else would overlook the team’s potential.

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Kahne enters 2015 with a new crew chief, Keith Rodden, who worked on Jamie McMurray’s ride last year. That could be a catalyst; it was for McMurray, who led more laps in the final 10 races alone than he did in all of 2013.

While McMurray missed the Chase, Kahne should be able to make it — even in the most dismal year, a Hendrick car will be among the 16 best. Kahne is not likely to go winless, either, and could target the Coca-Cola 600 as his ticket out of the regular season: his four wins at the track, paired with Rodden’s own Sprint All-Star Race triumph, make as good a combination as any.

Once in the playoffs, Rodden will be a major asset. Rodden’s team scored four top fives in the season-ending stretch, more than Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin, two of the Chase’s final four. Moreover, the team led in five more of those races, totaling nine times the #1 car was competitive.

As long as Kahne is in the Chase, he’s positioned for success.

The position that really matters, of course, shows up in the finishing order. For Rodden and McMurray, there were gaps between performance and results. With Kahne and the 5, those could be erased. On the speedways with Chase dates, Kahne has seven wins, 10 runner-up results, and six third-place rankings. While heavy on Charlotte success, those numbers include results from nine of the Chase’s tracks; only Homestead is excluded.

Even then, two poles, 107 laps led, and wins there in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series hardly make it Kahne’s worst track.

With a new aero package taking out downforce, Kahne can comfortably rely on his sprint and midget car experience. In a small sampling of Truck Series races, where aerodynamics are less sophisticated, Kahne’s record (four wins in five starts) makes Kyle Busch’s dominant results in the series seem inconsistent.

If nothing else, Kahne should adapt quickly. Prior to NASCAR, Kahne transitioned from the lightweight, oval-faring machinery of USAC into the formula cars on the IndyCar ladder. Then, he was off to the hulking stock cars, and even dabbled in a sports car race.

Rules tweaks aren’t likely to trip up someone with Kahne’s versatility.

Some might enter 2015 questioning Hendrick’s decision to re-sign him, let alone his championship chances. Those same spectators may leave the season even more confused if it is Kahne holding the year’s final trophy.

On the media tour, no one’s confused — they’re excited: Carl Edwards with his new team, Jeff Gordon in his final try at a championship, Danica Patrick with more experience. They warrant the headline dominance they receive, but perhaps the buzz should be about Kasey Kahne. If he’s excited for 2015, he really should be.

And if he’s champion, you should have seen it coming.

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Kasey Kahne: Overlooked, But Not Out In 2015

By Ric Libertino | Jan 30, 2015