Aug 12

Written by: The Commish
8/12/2010 9:21 PM 

Kasey Kahne racing a Toyota for one season before moving to a Hendrick Chevy? 

Really?

A bit o' history:  After starting his NASCAR Busch Series career in 2002 with Ford support Kasey moved to Ray Evernham's Dodge team in late 2003, replacing Bill Elliott, because Ford said he wasn't ready for Cup and couldn't (wouldn't)  provide him a ride.  Big Blue sued for breach of contract and the suit was later dismissed, the year after Kasey drove his #9 Dodge to Rookie of the Year honors in Cup.  

After six years the Evernham Dodge team, now owned and operated by George Gillett (after a royal merger that created Richard Petty Motorsports), Kasey found himself back in Fords this season racing Cup cars built by Roush Fenway but prepared by RPM.  The results have been spotty at best but after myriad management and personel changes over the years Kahne's ship finally sailed; no one was really surprised when he signed a deal with Rick Hendrick to race the #5 Chevy in 2012, replacing Mark Martin when the Methuselah of NASCAR's contract expires.

But that left Kasey on the outside looking in for next season with nothing to drive.  So Toyota and Chevy reached across the aisle to put Kasey in one of the Red Bull Toyota's next season.  Then, after one season, Kasey will move to Hendrick Motorsports and race a Chevy.

My first reaction was, "Huh?"  This makes no sense unless incriminating jpegs or cell phone videos are involved.  Manufacturers are historically, notoriously protective about their "property," which in this case is a driver who will, in 16 months, take his very pretty face to Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports and the No. 5's sponsors du jour.

Kahne has already raced Toyota's for Braun Racing in the Nationwide Series and also ran a truck race for Kyle Busch in the Camping World Truck Series.  Super 7 Sweep players know he races a Tundra in trucks and a Camry in Nationwide.

What if Kasey tears up the circuit next season?  What if he makes the Chase and becomes the potential fulfilled superstar who puts Red Bull Racing closer to the top of the 2012 power rankings? 

What if Kasey's formerly soccer-mom-marketed face and brand suddenly become strongly and positively associated with either a Hendrick -competitive energy drink and manufacturer brand?

If Chevy doesn't think Jay Frye's Red Bull Toyota's are competitive they're as crazy as Mel Gibson on a message machine.  And regardless of what Kasey does in 2011 he's going to have to better those results it in 2012 when he moves to the #5 Chevy.  Judging from the #5 team's history that's not a great bet.

So I just don't get it.  No, I get it, it's all about bidness and good old boy network deal with sponsors and other power brokers.  But I fail to see how Chevy has done anything but dig itself a hole that could become a Dale Jr. -like chasm. 

Congrats to Toyota and Red Bull though.  They got the deal of the decade.

Still, this development does diminish the argument that NASCAR manufacturers had about allowing their drivers to race at Indy in Honda -powered cars.  Forget about the realistic chance of a $20 million dollar bounty for anyone who wins the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600 the same weekend.  You have to be willing to suspend disbelief for that kind of talk.  But if Chevy will allow Kasey Kahne to race a Toyota for one year before joining its top NASCAR team, then neither Chevy or Dodge or Ford, or their teams and sponsors, should try to prevent drivers from attempting to compete at the Brickyard in the Greatest Spec Series-acle in Racing, powered by Honda.

Honda has made it official.  They're building a new turbo V6 for IndyCar and unless a pleasant surprise re: another engine supplier is in the offing in the next few weeks all the new Dallara's will still have Honda power in 2012.

There's also talk about some consternation among the ranks regarding when and how the actual rules for the Dallara "safety cell" will be determined, and what worthy geniuses will be tasked with developing them.  

Meanwhile, Roush Yates Engines has announced it will be offering a new EcoBoost twin turbo V6 based on a Ford production engine for the American Le Mans Series' LMP2 class.  WT's (wishful thinkers) immediately began salivating over the concept of Ford back in IndyCar, including an aero package, to return another missing competition element to the series.

Here's what Marshall Pruett provided to Robin Miller in answer to an on-topic question published in the latest edition of Miller's Mailbag at SPEED.

"The new engine Roush Yates is building is part of the production engine move the ACO is making for the LMP2 class starting in 2011. All signs point to the 2012 Dallara IndyCar being built to only accept fully stressed, purpose-built engines, so the Ford you’re referring to might not be something that’s suited to IndyCar racing. For a wider, taller prototype chassis, there’s plenty of room to add in a lot of extra supports and bracing to keep the engine properly secured. It makes using a production V6 like the EcoBoost motor a snap.

In the back of a low and narrow IndyCar chassis, I just don’t see how these LMP2 engines will work, unless Dallara is required to build a cradle for production-based engines to be dropped into."

" ... As many as six new LMP2 engines are expected for 2011. If Randy Bernard and Co. were smart, they’d tweak the 2012 engine rules to make it a breeze for those engines to be used in IndyCar racing, rather than going on a world tour asking car manufacturers to build similar, but more costly motors that only suit open-wheel racing in what's still a spec series."

Pruett's got exactly the right idea.  The Dallara safety cell should be built to allow production-based engines.  Let's hope the decision makers in Indianapolis are sharp enough to realize this.

Changes to NASCAR's Cup schedule are in the news with one less race at Atlanta and Fontana, a new race at Kentucky, a second race at Kansas and the spring Phoenix race moving back two months to the Sunday after Daytona in February.

The Phoenix date is really an it's-about-time no-brainer as the weather is absolutely perfect in in late February, the town is still abuzz after the Fiesta Bowl, the Barrett-Jackson auto auction and the Phoenix Open and race fans would the the last demographic to boycott the Grand Canyon State over political goings on.

But that creates an eight-month gap between PIR's only two event weekends.  Rumors abound that both The Glen and Kansas City are going to lose their IndyCar dates next year but PIR has already said they're hoping ISC approves a re-paving request which would put the kabosh on any thought of a spring IndyCar or Copper World Classic -ish open wheel event in late March or April.

This Commish hopes the economy and the need to generate revenue convinces ISC to postpone repaving for now so they can return IndyCars to the quirky dogleg mile.  As long as I'm wishing, let's make it a two day, four-race event featuring IndyCars, Indy Lights, USAC midgets and/or sprints, Silver or Gold Crown cars -- or even those crazy, red-flag-every-six-laps  supermodifieds.

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