By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 16, 2005
The continuing exodus of talent from auto racing's open-wheel ranks was starkly apparent Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, where Kasey Kahne roared across the finish line to win NASCAR's Chevy American Revolution 400, followed by Tony Stewart and a hard-charging Ryan Newman.
All three top finishers grew up obsessed with becoming racecar drivers, but none dreamed of racing stock cars. Their dream was the Indianapolis 500, and to get there, they pursued a classic open-wheel pedigree, earning their racing stripes in the U.S. Auto Club's midgets, sprints and silver crown divisions. But just like open-wheel phenom Jeff Gordon before them, each took a sharp and unexpected turn at a critical point in his young career and headed south to strap in a hulking NASCAR-brand stock car.
Why NASCAR?
"That's the question of the century," says champion USAC car owner Steve Lewis, who helped both Kahne and Stewart to USAC titles.
It boiled down to opportunity.
Midgets and sprint cars are ideal preparation for the Indy 500. They're a handful to drive, ultra-light and super-fast. With no fenders, they're apt to flip over upon the slightest contact. They also compete on a variety of tracks -- one-fifth mile to a mile around; many of them dirt, which means the cars slide all over the place.
"Sometimes we'd race two different cars the same night," recalled Kahne, 25, who won USAC's 2000 midget championship and silver-crown rookie of the year. "Being able to adapt in cars quickly helped when I got to this level."
But when young USAC champs are ready to slide into a full-blown Indy car, they're typically expected to finance the ride by bringing along a multimillion dollar sponsor. For most young Americans, Indy-style racing may as well slam the door. It did on four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon, who had all the hallmarks of a racing phenom in 1991 but didn't have a sponsor in his back pocket. Meantime, in the South, NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick, well versed in drumming up corporate sponsors himself, simply wanted a proven talent. He hired Gordon, and the two went on to win 72 Nextel Cup races and more than $70 million in prize money.
"NASCAR owners figured out early on that what these drivers learned in the close-quarters USAC racing -- where car control is critical, and they have to make split-second decisions -- creates a very, very good driver," Lewis said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Better still, USAC drivers typically don't destroy as much costly equipment as do budding stock-car racers, who come up bumping and banging on short tracks. The difference between the disciplines, of course, is fenders. Open-wheel racecars have none; stock cars do.
Explains Bob East, who coached Kahne and built his cars during his USAC days: "A lot of kids who grow up racing stock cars think that running into somebody is not a big deal. In an open-wheel car, if you run into somebody or run over their wheel, you're going to flip, and there's a good chance of getting hurt. You learn how to race really close and fast, but not touch. You learn that line."
Kahne, a native of Enumclaw, Wash., seemed headed for Indy-car racing until just a few years ago. He made it to the steppingstone Toyota Atlanta Series and Formula Ford 2000 series in 2001. But the most attractive job offer came from NASCAR.
"The best opportunity was in NASCAR," Kahne said.
And almost overnight, it seemed, Kahne achieved cult-figure status, tapping into NASCAR's fervent fan base the moment he stepped in Bill Elliott's famed No. 9 car. Kahne's blue-eyed, boy-band good looks didn't hurt, either.
People magazine named him one of America's top 50 bachelors. And he backed up the hype on the track, winning NASCAR's 2004 rookie of the year honors with four poles and five second-place finishes. Kahne won $4.76 million as a NASCAR rookie. This season (his second), he is featured in a national TV spot for Mountain Dew, and his souvenir business (KaseyKahnestore.com) is booming, hawking customary T-shirts and caps, as well as women's jewelry, seat cushions, table lamps, clocks and die-cast cars featuring his car and likeness.
But Kahne's heart hasn't strayed far from Indy. Race day at Richmond found him sitting in his No. 9 team's transporter truck watching TV coverage of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, even though it was rained out.
"I love open-wheel racing," Kahne said after the Victory Lane festivities. "If I ever run the Indy 500 or not, I'll be thinking about Indy on pole day. It'll just be there with me until I quit racing."