By Jerry Jordan, Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – After suffering from extreme heat exhaustion at Darlington Raceway last week that left his heart rate extremely high – putting his health in jeopardy – Kasey Kahne said he made the decision to sit out this week’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and possibly other races, until doctors can determine why he can’t stay hydrated in the racecar.
“At Darlington, about a hundred to go, it was really hard to keep my eyes open and see,” Kahne said. “I was struggling to do that. I was trying to control my heart rate because it was so high. I basically just kind of laid in the car and drove around the corners. I had to just control the car just to try to do as little as possible so my heart rate would go down because it was so high. At that point all I’m doing is focusing on my body and my health, not on what I should be actually focusing on, and that’s racing.
“After the race, I went to the care center. I threw up all the way there. A lot of fans seen it. Threw up in the care center. They got IVs going in both arms. At that point I got to where I wasn’t sick any more. Sick all the way on the drive home. It’s just been a rough week. That’s where I’m at today”
Kahne said not racing Indy, where he is the defending winner, was a tough decision but he has to put his health first. The overheating issues have plagued him since last year but the incident at Darlington Raceway was the worst, so far. He worries that with the temperature and dew point that is typical for the event that he would likely suffer from a similar situation as last week. Until he gets a clearer picture from the doctors on how to prevent his becoming overheated, he will evaluate his participation each week.
“I had basically since last year, you know, since last year, the start of this year, each race I get a little bit worse by the end of the race with my hydration,” Kahne said. “It just got to where at Darlington I had been to the care center a few times. (At) Darlington I had to go to the care center again. It’s been the worst that it’s been this time. It’s kind of lingered all week, stuck with me. I just need to figure out how to make it better. I would much rather be there than not. At this point I have to just figure out how to finish these races, how to be able to go that long in a hot car in the environment that we’re in, between the air temp and the dew point degrees, just to control it all.
“Just taking it one race at a time. My whole reason for doing this is because I know that Indy is a tough one, the dew point is always up there. I just know that I’ll be in that same situation there. For the full race, I’d be in the same situation. I can’t go through it again, so I’ve had to not go there, you know, learn more by the next one, decide from there.”
Aside from sweating more fluids out that he is able to take in, Kahne said he was also having trouble breathing and that towards the end of the race at Darlington it became a primary focus over driving the car.
“About halfway through the race, I started getting to the point where I couldn’t drink anymore,” he said. “Once I can’t drink any more, I’ve already lost a lot more – at that point in time – fluids than what I was able to put in. That’s why I can’t drink any more, it will start coming back out. I keep drinking the most that I can throughout the rest of the race, but it just gets super hard. My body keeps sweating so much that I have, like, absolutely nothing left by the end of the race
“I know as hard as I work out during the week, how I have to breathe in order to get enough oxygen for where my heart rate is at, when you’re working very hard, there’s other workouts where you don’t work near as hard, you do it for a longer period of time. But, yeah, those last hundred laps at Darlington, I was doing all I could to breathe, to stay caught up with where my system was.”
Earlier this season, Kahne called a press conference to announce that he would be retiring from full-time Cup Series racing at the end of the season. He said the primary reason for the decision was to spend more time with his son, Tanner, and to continue his efforts in the short-track racing world, where he is a team owner. Asked, on Thursday, if his continued health issues also played a role in that retirement decision, Kahne conceded it had.
“I mean, it’s been on my mind, for sure,” he said. “Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely part of that decision, for sure.”