Last Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway marked the latest run-in on the track between Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch. And it’s leading Kahne to give Busch the silent treatment.
Well, the mostly silent treatment.
“[Busch] sent me an e-mail, and texted if I got it, and I told him I did,” Kahne said today according to the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen-Patriot. “I talked through every situation and scenario with him when we’ve had it, and to this day I’ve raced him the exact same way.
“I think he was having a bad day, and he just loses it. He did write me an e-mail, but I don’t care any more. I don’t care to talk to him.”
With less than 20 laps to go at Pocono, Busch squeezed Kahne into the wall and touched off an incident that also collected Carl Edwards. A potential Top-10 day for Kahne instead ended with him finishing 42nd.
Kahne and Busch appeared to have settled their differences from one year ago, which saw them have multiple incidents with each other. But the Pocono crash has seemingly re-fueled Kahne’s disdain for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Making him much happier was this morning’s announcement that his No. 5 Chevrolet would continue to enjoy Farmers Insurance sponsorship through the 2017 season.
Whether or not Kahne will be in the No. 5 car for that time period remains to be seen. Kahne’s current deal with Hendrick Motorsports only runs through the end of next year.
He’s hopeful that he can stay in the Hendrick garage, but knows that he has to start getting better results. Kahne’s ill-fated run at Pocono left him 21st in points, and he remains without a win that can put him into the Chase for the Sprint Cup for a third consecutive season.
“We can’t have that,” he said to reporters about his ongoing struggles. “If we can get rid of some of those troubles, I would hope that I would be at Hendrick Motorsports for a long time.
“We have a lot of really good things going on and with a little bit of performance here and there, maybe [negotiations] will come up sooner than later.”
Kahne was fastest in this morning’s first Sprint Cup practice session, turning in a lap at more than 203 miles per hour.
