Kasey Kahne's hopes to do more sprint car racing again - MotorSportsTalk

Kasey Kahne has tentatively penciled in his next sprint car race for 2017 or 2018.

Well, kind of.

Kahne, who made his early mark in racing in sprint cars in and around his native Washington state, temporarily stopped racing them in 2012 when his boss, Sprint Cup team owner Rick Hendrick, stopped approving Kahne’s extracurricular activities.

Hendrick’s move was understandable. He was merely protecting his investment in Kahne, who had been in a bad wreck in 2011 at Williams Grove (Pa.) Raceway, flipping end over end and off the racing surface (see video below).

Fortunately, Kahne wasn’t severely injured. But after allowing Kahne to continue for a few more sprint car races, Hendrick pulled the plug in 2012, according to a story by Bob Pockrass at SportingNews.com.

After a more than two-year layoff, Kahne was able to convince Hendrick to let him get back behind the wheel of a sprint car at the recent five-day inaugural “Winter Heat” event at Arizona’s Cocopah Speedway over the past two weekends.

“It took what, two-and-a-half years, three years?” Kahne told Pockrass about finally getting Hendrick’s nod of approval to compete in the Cocopah event. “It took a while. He finally said, ‘Yes.’ I think he just realized it’s one of my passions.

“It’s something I’ve done my entire life since I started racing. It’s hard not to do something that you enjoy doing, especially during the offseason. I was really happy and fortunate he let me do it.”

Kahne eventually finished 10th overall in the event. Not bad for a guy who’d been out of a sprint car for more than two years.

He must especially eat his heart out, particularly since Kahne owns his own sprint car race team (but doesn’t drive for it).

Now, as for Kahne’s next time behind the wheel of a sprint car?

“I definitely won’t be waiting two-and-a-half years again,” said Kahne, who will be 35 in April. “I’m not sure when that next time will be. I think it’s definitely better to do it sooner than later so you can kind of keep with it and understand things.

“Me and Mr. H just talked about these five races and doing them. We did them and now I’m just focused on the Cup car. I would hope to get back in one (a sprint car) at some point within three years.”

Click here to read Bob Pockrass’ full story on Kahne and his sprint car exploits at SportingNews.com.

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports

Kasey Kahne’s hopes to do more sprint car racing again

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million