Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger

Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway

Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest

· This weekend will mark Kasey Kahne’s 10th career start at Bristol Motor Speedway.

· In nine starts at Bristol, Kahne has one top-five and three top-10 finishes.

· After starting from the pole last fall, Kahne led 305 laps en route to a runner-up finish.

· Kahne has qualified in the top 10 at Bristol six out of the nine races in which he has participated for an average starting position of 11th.

· Kahne currently occupies the 11th position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings. He is 21 points ahead of 12th-place Denny Hamlin and 47 points ahead of Clint Bowyer and David Ragan, who are tied for 13th.

· Kahne will be signing autographs at Food City Family Race Night in Bristol, Tenn. this Thursday, August 21 around 6 p.m. EDT.

· Kahne will be available for interviews with motorsports media members at Bristol Motor Speedway this Friday, August 22 at approximately 11:15 a.m. in the infield media center.

Kahne Discusses Racing in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway:

How frustrated were you after Michigan’s 40th-place finish? “To have a bad race in Michigan was disappointing with the points, but it is what it is. These things happen and they are out of your control. We’ve got three (races) to go and It’s still very attainable to make the Chase. We’ll just have to have some good races these next few weeks.”

Describe the unknown when racing at a track like Bristol. “It’s a tough track obviously just because a lot of times what happens there is out of your hands as a driver. I’ve gotten involved in accidents running in the back and I’ve gotten into accidents while running in the top 10. Trouble can find you anywhere on that track so that’s probably the biggest unknown when you go into a race at a place like Bristol.”

How different is racing at Bristol than anywhere else the Sprint Cup Series races? “It’s pretty different. There aren’t too many other places we race where you can leave with a top 10 and have a race car that’s pretty beat up and maybe even been wrecked. I really don’t know of another track you can compare it to though. It’s a short track like Martinsville but it is really fast which you can kind of compare to some place like Dover with the concrete. It’s just a different track to race. I’ve probably gotten more comfortable racing there during the last couple years and it’s a place I look forward to racing just because you really never know what to expect, which makes it fun and challenging.”