Departing Hendrick Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne will drive the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet for the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, the team announced Tuesday evening.
Kahne, 37, won his 18th-career Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, earning him a spot in the series’ postseason playoffs and currently idles 15th in the championship standings following the opening Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway this past Sunday.
“I want to thank Leavine Family Racing for this opportunity and will work as hard as possible to help them continue improving,” said Kahne. “I am ready for this challenge and look forward to making a fresh start. Bob and everyone at Leavine Family Racing put a lot into their program and I’m excited to become a part of it.”
Kahne started his Cup career in 2004 with Evernham Motorsports. He remained with the origination as the team transformed from Gillett Evernham Motorsports to Richard Petty Motorsports.
In 2010, Kahne was signed to drive for Hendrick Motorsports beginning with the 2012 season. He left RPM following the 2010 season and took a one-year stint to Red Bull Racing in 2011 before moving on to his newest endeavor in the No. 5 Chevrolet in February the following year.
Since NASCAR adopted its popular playoff format, Kahne has appeared six times with a career-best of fourth in 2012, earning two victories along the way.
Prior to his Indianapolis win, Kahne has struggled to keep pace in the No. 5 Chevrolet, especially during the 2015 and 2016 seasons, where the Enumclaw, Wash. native maneuvered just six top-five and 21 top-10 finishes in 72 races.
In August, Kahne learned he would not return for the final year of his contract at Hendrick Motorsports and would be replaced by newcomer William Byron.
Kahne told ESPN.com that he considered racing sprint car (he owns Kasey Kahne Racing, a World of Outlaws team) and potential other open-wheel series, but when he saw the potential LFR had, he was convinced this was his best opportunity.
“That was something I thought a lot about, but working with Bob Leavine, it just turned out to be more than I expected it to be and got me excited,” Kahne told ESPN.com. “At first, I was thinking I probably was going to do a wild season and just do anything and everything.
“Bob changed my mind with what he has, what he wants to make of it and build. I just think [of] where they’re at, how they’ve improved each year. And he’s a guy who you can take his word on what he wants to do.”
Kahne will end his tenure at Hendrick with a new crew chief after the powerhouse organization announced Monday that Darian Grubb will oversee the No. 5 team for the remaining nine races left in 2017 beginning with Sunday’s ISM Connect 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Leavine Family Racing was established in 2011 by Texans Bob and Sharon Leavine. Fellow Lone Star state driver David Starr competed in the first four races that year but didn’t earn its first top-10 in the Cup Series until former Formula 1 competitor Scott Speed wheeled a ninth-place finish in 2013.
Current driver Michael McDowell joined the organization in 2014 and has competed part-time, until running the full 36-race schedule in 2016, where the Concord, N.C.-based team earned two additional top-10 finishes, including a 10th in the season finale at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
This season the organization sits 25th in the championship standings with McDowell, earning a career-best fourth at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in July.
Last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, Leavine told Motorsport.com that he was “50-50” on whether LFR would run two Cup teams in 2018.
“We look at this as an opportunity to go to the next level,” said LFR team owner Bob Leavine. “This deals partially with performance because obviously, Kasey is a playoff-caliber driver. He has a wealth of information being with a larger organization like Hendrick Motorsports, and we think that will help us. We also look at this as an opportunity for marketing to be able to sell sponsorship.
“Overall, we think Kasey is a good fit and felt we needed a change. There is absolutely nothing that Michael did, it was just a matter of us having to make some changes to help us move up the ladder and be a factor in the playoffs.
“I know Kasey will bring things that will help us, and I believe our environment will be conducive to his confidence level, which will, in turn, raise our confidence level. It just seemed like the right time and the right fit for our team.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
