Race 2 Win: Nationwide Series Race Notes

Nationwide Series

Lipton Tea 250 - Kasey Kahne Notes

No. 9 Lipton Dodge Charger
Lipton Tea 250
Richmond Int’l Raceway Preview

Kasey Kahne will return to the seat of the No. 9 Lipton Dodge for this weekend’s Lipton Tea 250. The Washington State native has nine career starts at the .75-mile track and earned two poles, one top-five and four top-10 finishes.

The Lipton Dodge finished strong last week at Talladega with Patrick Carpentier behind the wheel. The 36-year-old was able to snatch the Ultimate Chargers team its fourth top-10 of the season.

TV and Radio Times: Qualifying is set for Friday at 4:00 p.m. (ET) on SPEED and MRN Radio. Race time: Friday at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2 and MRN Radio.

DRIVER KASEY KAHNE QUOTES:

ON THE TEAM’S PERFORMANCE “This weekend is going to be a lot of fun. Richmond is a great track for us and I’m hoping to continue the run of top-10 finishes for the Lipton Dodge team. It’s a little added pressure this week having Lipton on the car and racing in the Lipton Tea 250. But Kirk [Almquist] and the guys are up to the challenge of preparing strong cars. I hope we can do the same on Friday night and visit victory lane.”

THE APPEAL OF NIGHT RACING “Night racing is always a treat for us. For me, there’s nothing better than a short-track racing under the lights. It reminds me of my midget and sprint car days. I’m really looking forward to this weekend.

“Richmond will always be a special place for me. I got my first Cup Series win there so it has a lot of meaning. We’ve run well there in the Nationwide Series too. There will be a lot of young talent mixed with some older veterans for this race so the fans can anticipate a lot of action and a great show.”

NOTES

Chassis

Kahne will drive chassis No. 009 at Richmond. It last raced to a 21st place finish at Phoenix.

Richmond Int’l Raceway

Kahne has nine starts and two poles at Richmond.

His resume includes one top-five and four top-10 finishes.

In his last Nationwide race at RIR [Fall-2007] Kahne finished ninth.

Kahne has an average start of 13.3 and a finish of 16.3 at RIR.

2008 Season

At Talladega the Lipton Dodge finished eighth, earning Carpentier his second straight top-10 and rookie of the race honors.

The No. 9 Lipton Dodge Charger is ranked 11th in owner points.

Kahne has four starts in the Nationwide Series this year.

Patrick Carpentier earned the Lipton team their first top-10 of the season after finishing eighth at Las Vegas. Carpentier didn’t have any practice laps in the car before taking the green flag.

The Lipton team nearly grabbed their first victory of the season at Bristol. Kahne ran out of laps to make the winning pass in the rain-shortened race, but earned the team their first top-five of the year.

History

Gillett Evernham Motorsports had two victories in the Nationwide Series last year. They came at Charlotte and Bristol with Kahne behind the wheel.

Since joining forces with Gillett Evernham Motorsports in 2005, Kahne has won at least two races each season in the Nationwide Series.

Gillett Evernham Motorsports

Ray Evernham served as Jeff Gordon’s crew chief from 1992-’99 winning 47 races and three Cup championships.

Evernham founded Evernham Motorsports in 2000 and began first full season of competition in 2001 serving as the cornerstone of Dodge’s return to NASCAR.

George Gillett Jr. became co-owner with Evernham in October 2007. Gillett also owns the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL and the Liverpool soccer team in the English Premier League.

Gillett Evernham Motorsports campaigns Kasey Kahne in the No. 9, Patrick Carpentier in the No. 10, and Elliott Sadler in the No. 19 in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition.

The organization also fields the No. 9 in NASCAR Nationwide Series races with its Sprint Cup drivers plus rookie Chase Miller.