By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kasey Kahne could have returned to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2019, whether competing for Leavine Family Racing or another potential team.
He could have been out logging laps, greeting sponsors and cashing a paycheck. But his heart wouldn’t have been in it.
“It felt really good to have that, but at the same time it wasn’t necessarily about that anymore,” Kahne said of his 2019 offers. “And I didn’t feel that I could seriously race all of next year and be completely committed 100 percent.
Kahne has been a full-time competitor in Cup since his rookie season in 2004 – a 15-year career that’s brought him 18 victories, 176 top-10s and six playoff appearances among other distinctions.
The run has been memorable. But paired with the decade of work that led Kahne to NASCAR’s top level, the Washington native’s quarter-century of intense focus on racing has finally become too much to bear.
“My mind is always in racing,” he said. “It’s all I’ve thought about for 25 years. It’s all I’ve wanted to do and figure out how to get better as a driver, as a team, understanding the cars, all those things, you know how can I get better? That is all that has been on my mind.
“So, (to) just back off of that a little bit I think will be really refreshing and be really good for me and my family, friends, things like that.”
Kahne continued a recent trend on Thursday, announcing that he’ll step away from full-time competition in NASCAR at the end of the 2018 season. He was the third driver on the week to announce a desire to change, following similar decisions from Formula One’s Fernando Alonso and Xfinity Series veteran Elliott Sadler.
At just 38 years old, Kahne is one of the youngest stars to give up on full-time Cup competition in recent years, placing him closer to Carl Edwards than Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart on the age range.
His decision to leave the sport early might be hard for some to swallow — particularly when he has opportunities to keep driving — but he felt the time was right to make a move.
“It has been on my mind for a while,” he admitted. “Truthfully, the last two years at Hendrick (Motorsports) and then the year here at LFR (Leavine Family Racing) just like as far as competition, I haven’t been as competitive as what I want to be.
“So, I would say over the last three, four months it’s started being on my mind, like man, do I need to find other things to do and think of other things to do. I just finally made that decision.”
His decision made, Kahne can prepare for the future.
He’ll be able to spend time with his two-year-old son Tanner – something he’s already done heavily in the past, but will now be able to enjoy outside of the race track on weekends. “We can go to a football game, we can go to a baseball game,” he said. “Just do things and not be completely thinking about racing while I’m with him or while I’m at a dinner or so many different things that go on throughout a week or a year.”
The 2000 USAC National Midget Series champion also hopes to return to his dirt roots. Kahne stated his intention to run “40 or 50” sprint car races in 2019, ramping up from a smaller dirt schedule he’s contested in recent years.
He already has a team to compete for, having fielded entrants in World of Outlaws under the Kasey Kahne Racing banner since 2006. The organization’s financial model will shift slightly with the loss of Cup money, but Kahne hopes to have two teams along with himself for the foreseeable future.
Kahne also isn’t ruling out future NASCAR drives. They just can’t be on a full-time basis.
“I feel like I can still go out and win races and be competitive,” he said. “Why be completely done if there is an opportunity to do a couple of races – a Daytona 500, a Brickyard, or whatever it may be?”