The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series is among the most challenging racing circuits in the world.
With competitors traveling up and down the country’s highways and county roads for 10 months straight, the term “Outlaw tough” is naturally used to describe the gladiators who make each season a success.
For longtime NASCAR Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne, who returned to the sprint car racing world after his retirement, the full-time grind of the Outlaw tour came with plenty of lumps.
The travel, learning new race tracks and hard crashes that sidelined him for 27 races, gave the 42-year-old Washington native plenty to digest heading into his second full season racing with the series.
However, Kahne’s ownership of Kasey Kahne Racing, which has won four consecutive World of Outlaws titles with driver Brad Sweet, eased that transition.
“I think nothing really surprised me because I’ve had the teams, I’ve had the cars and I’ve talked with teams and drivers over the years. So I understood that side of it,” Kahne said.
Though on the driving side of things, the former USAC National Midget champion turned stock car driver, had a lot of adjusting to do inside the cockpit.
“I think the toughest part to me of the Outlaw deal is the different types of racetracks that you go to nonstop,” Kahne said.
“As soon as you start to feel like, ‘Oh, this should work pretty good at the next track,’ when you go to another track, it doesn’t work at all, because of whether the banking is different, or the actual dirt surfaces, things like that. It’s just difficult to keep up with all the different race tracks and the schedule that the Outlaws go to.
“As far as the racing and things like that, I enjoy that a lot and enjoy just the difficulty of trying to do that many races and have that much opportunity. None of it’s very similar.”
Kahne’s eagerness to face the difficulties head-on has begun to payoff this season.
Through the first 10 races, Kahne has snagged three top-10 finishes, with a podium result at Volusia (Fla.) Speedway Park. The driver of the No. 9 is 10th in points.
While Kahne’s comfort level isn’t fully there yet, the KKR driver feels the formula is simple — the more racing on the same tracks he does, the better suited he’ll be going forward.
“I think I’m getting closer to being very comfortable at different racetracks and kind of anywhere we go, which it’s really nice to actually go to the track and be much more comfortable when I get there when we start and things like that,” Kahne said.
“I just feel like there’s things that you just keep picking up on each year that you do a lot of one thing. Whether you’re racing in NASCAR, IndyCar, sprint cars — the more you do it, the better you get.
“The next time you’re in that position, it just happens,” Kahne continued. “You don’t necessarily think about what you’re doing. You don’t think about how to do it differently. It just kind of happens because of the scenarios that you’ve been in with just doing it so much.”
Kahne pointed to Sweet as a prime example of everything coming together naturally, noting how the driver of the No. 49 KKR machine began to hit his stride.
“Brad Sweet raced for me for a long time. and then just one year it clicked,” Kahne said. “He’s been one of the best sprint car drivers since then. Before that he was more of like a top-10 sprint car driver. Once it clicked, he’s been on top of that ever since.
“So, I feel like it’s just a lot of little things from racing a ton, and whatever you’re doing.”
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