DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – These days there isn’t much of the same for Kasey Kahne when it comes to being a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver.
After a six-year span at Hendrick Motorsports, Kasey Kahne has switched gears this season and will drive the No. 95 Chevrolet for Leavine Family Racing.
And while the independent team has certainly made waves over the past few Cup Series seasons, Kahne is prepared to bring his veteran knowledge and dedication and lead the Concord, N.C.-based team to new heights beginning with Sunday’s Daytona 500.
“It’s been going pretty good,” said Kahne of his adjustment. “There is definitely a lot of differences and things that I’m trying to learn as I go and they are trying to learn about me.
“There was a lot going on last week with two cars. You get one driving a little better so you have to do it to the other car, but you don’t have time. It was a lot thrown at that team for those two, three days. Now we are down to one car and for here the rest of the year.
“They were worn out after The Clash because there was so much going on. I feel like that we learned a lot each one of us and we will apply it starting tomorrow afternoon and keep getting better.”
While it’s been business as usual for most of the employees at LFR, Kahne admitted that it’s taken a little time to get adjusted to his new settings – especially going from several hundred employees at Hendrick to less than 30 employees at Leavine.
“That, the size of the team is probably the main difference,” offered Kahne. “I mean the size of the company. The size of the team. To get a race car to the track is a completely different way of doing it. I’m perfectly fine with it, but it’s just a completely different way of doing it.”
But make no mistake about it, while working in a smaller setting will take some getting used too, Kahne doesn’t believe it will have a direct impact on the competition.
“I mean I don’t really know yet. It’s still pretty fresh,” he said. “But, to this point, there really hasn’t been any challenges. To this point, the guys have done a nice job and my car, everything has felt just how I would want it to feel as far as where I sit and the things that I hold on to,” added Kahne.
“So, everything has been pretty simple up to this point. I think as this season goes, as we start racing and the pressure turns up, then that is probably where we will find some more challenges, but at this point, it hasn’t been bad at all.”
The “Great American Race” has the opportunity to provide trials and tribulations in a span of 200-laps, and while Kahne feels that his No. 95 team can be a contender, it’s the meat of the season where his team has the opportunity to show their strength and abilities.
“I think Daytona we want to win,” Kahne explained with a soft pause. “You come to Daytona and every car here feels like they really probably have a great shot at winning this race if things go their way and they make the right decisions. That is how I feel about Daytona,” sounded Kahne.
“I don’t feel like I will be any slower on Sunday than I’ve ever been. To me, I have just as good of a shot as I’ve ever had at this race. I look forward to having that. As far as once we get to Atlanta and Vegas like I think it’s hard to set expectations on like your actual finishing results until you kind of see where you stack up and then you work from there. My big thing to me is just working together as a team and always, whatever we are learning, we are applying the next week to suit me and to make the No. 95 better for me.
“If we are doing that throughout the whole season we are going to meet our expectations. I just don’t know really where is that? I don’t know until we get going and then from that point, we just always want to keep coming up the ladder, in my opinion.”
To help steer the No. 95 team in the right direction, LFR added Travis Mack to the picture during the off-season. A car chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports last year, Mack’s dedication and work ethic could make them a dynamic duo.
Travis (Mack, crew chief) for one is someone who knows a lot about the race cars and has been working on them for a long time and I feel like he is going to give me great race cars and then our engineers are really solid.
“Yeah, I think we can definitely run up to our expectations, I feel like that will surprise a lot of people and I really feel like we will be able to run up to our expectations throughout the season.
“I’m going to do everything I possibly can to have the best season that I’ve had this year and next year and move on from there.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
