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NASCAR: Five Possible Landing Spots for Kasey Kahne in 2018

By Asher Fair

LONG POND, PA - JULY 29: Kasey Kahne, driver of the #5 Great Clips/Shark Week Chevrolet, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Overton's 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 29, 2017 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
LONG POND, PA - JULY 29: Kasey Kahne, driver of the #5 Great Clips/Shark Week Chevrolet, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Overton's 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 29, 2017 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /
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BROOKLYN, MI – JUNE 10: Danica Patrick drives the #10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 10, 2016 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Getty Images )
BROOKLYN, MI – JUNE 10: Danica Patrick drives the #10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 10, 2016 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Getty Images ) /

No. 10 – Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford

Danica Patrick, the current driver of the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, has not had a great Cup Series career at all, especially given the fact that she has driven for a top-tier team in each of her five full-time seasons. In 176 career races, she has finished in the top 10 just seven times and has never finished in the top 5. Over the course of the last 86 races, she has just one top 10 finish, and that was only a 10th place finish at Dover earlier this season.

And get this. She had never finished in the top 15 in two consecutive races before up until this season, when she finished in 15th place and Kentucky and 13th place at New Hampshire. Then, she went on to add two more top 15 finishes to that streak, with an 11th place finish at Indianapolis and a 15th place finish at Pocono.

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Somehow, that streak of four straight top 15 finishes was considered a “hot streak” despite the fact that she did not finish any of those four races in the top 10. Sure, it was the first time she had ever finished back-to-back races in the top 15, and she reeled off four straight top 15 finishes, but she’s driving for one of NASCAR’s top teams. No “hot streak” for any other driver on any of NASCAR’s top teams consists of four straight non-top 10 finishes.

When Kasey Kahne came to Hendrick Motorsports in the 2012 season, he had never finished higher than 8th place in the championship standings in eight prior seasons. But that season, he ended up finishing in 4th place in the standings, proving that the move to a top-tier organization benefited him. Perhaps another move to a top-tier organization like Stewart-Haas Racing can rejuvenate his declining career. With uncertainty about Patrick in regard to her results and her sponsorship, Kahne driving the #10 Ford in the 2018 season is a legitimate possibility.

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