#9-Kasey Kahne met with the media and discussed joining Hendrick Motorsports, his current crew chief, Kenny Francis, and more. the Chevy Racing transcript in part:
‘Its been a great week. To be in the position Im in now and know where Im gonna be in 2012, to have the opportunity with Rick Hendrick and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, to me, its an unbelievable opportunity. I cant wait to get that started. Now Im focused again on just making sure that the 9 car, our whole Budweiser Ford team, works well together and communicates well together, do everything we can the rest of this season to perform, enjoy ourselves, win races, and I still feel like we have a shot at the chase. We just need to put a big effort in, but I think we can get back in the points and definitely have a shot at the chase and run strong throughout the rest of the year.’Â
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT NEXT YEAR OR WAITING FOR HENDRICK TO DEAL WITH IT? ‘Ill work through it with Mr. Hendrick and figure out exactly what we need to do in 11 that makes the most sense. As far as right now, I still dont know and Im leaving it up to those guys. They made the commitment to me and Rick said hell make sure its right, and I took that as I think itll be a pretty good opportunity, a pretty good situation Ill be in next year. In order to know Ill be in the 5 after that, I was able to take somewhat of a risk and wait a month or two months, whatever it is, to figure out what 2011 will be, but the future will definitely be really good to be a part of that team and part of that organization.’Â
IS IT A CASE WHERE IT WAS JUST TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE? ‘I feel like weve had six-and-a-half years that Ive spent with those guys and weve had a great run. Theyve given me a lot of opportunity and weve had some pretty good success. I definitely have a lot of friends there and a lot of people that I really enjoy working with there, and Im gonna keep doing that through the rest of this year, but sometimes you just need some change and you need something different. I was fortunate enough when I came into this sport that I jumped right in with Ray Evernham. Until this year, Id never looked at another shop. Id never been inside another building and I never knew what was out there in any way. To be able to go around to all these other teams over the last few months and learn as much as I did about them, about the owners, about the people at each team, was pretty neat for myself. I feel like theres definitely some really neat race teams out there and theyre gonna be tough to beat for a long time.’Â
HOW MUCH SAY WILL YOU HAVE IN YOUR CREW CHIEF AND HAVE YOU TALKED WITH KENNY FRANCIS ABOUT MAKING THE MOVE WITH YOU? ‘Kenny Francis, to me, is as good as anybody in the garage. We have a great relationship and we communicate really well. It seems like we figure things out pretty quickly, so I really like working with Kenny. As far as the future and where that all goes, Im not sure how that will work yet. Thats another one of the things were not sure about, but itll be good. Kenny is wanted by a lot of teams. He does a great job for Richard Petty Motorsports, and hopefully Ill work with him for a long time because I really like Kenny Francis.’Â
MARK MARTIN SAID HE CAME TO YOU IN SEPTEMBER AND SUGGESTED YOU WOULD BE A GOOD REPLACEMENT FOR HIM IN THE 5 CAR. DID THAT HAVE AN EFFECT ON YOU? ‘It did. Mark pulled me aside a few times and one time we sat in his bus for at least an hour and talked about things. Hes an unbelievable guy and an unbelievable race car driver, and to be able to sit there and talk to him and learn about something I have no idea about was nice for me. So, yeah, that was a huge part of my decision. Ive always had that in the back of my head on what I had learned from Mark. Jimmie Johnson has been a big part of it as well. Hes always been a great guy to me and I think hes helped me whenever Ive had questions ‘Â not even about the whole Hendrick Motorsports thing ‘Â Ive had questions about other things and Jimmie has always been there to help out. So I think between those two guys and then just sitting down with Mr. Hendrick and learning about the place, walking around the place, I was just really impressed and really excited to be a part of it now.’Â
WAS YOUR INITIAL STRATEGY TO TAKE BUDWEISER WITH YOU? ‘I dont have control of that. Thats not up to me. What I did was I worried about myself, what I needed to do for my future and what I felt was the best idea for myself and what would work good for me. I have a great relationship with Budweiser, the people there, and I think the last couple years have been awesome with them, and, hopefully, we can win some more races this year which would be great. As far as the future goes, I enjoy that brand and I want to be part of that brand, so its completely up to them and what they want to do in the future. I havent talked to any of them about it.’Â(Chevy Racing PR)(4-16-2010)
