Catchfence

Kasey Kahne - Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images

No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion

LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway

• Kasey Kahne and the No. 9 Budweiser Ford team will make their seventh start at Chicagoland Speedway in Saturday night’s LifeLock.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

• In last year’s race at the 1.5-mile speedway, Kahne and the Budweiser team scored their best-ever finish at Chicagoland by coming home third. Kahne has an average start of 11.7 and an average finish of 25^th at the track.

• On Saturday NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will compete on a 1.5-mile track for the fifth time this season. In the previous races on tracks of similar length, Kahne has scored finishes of ninth (Las Vegas), fourth (Atlanta), fifth (Texas) and 12^th (Charlotte), giving him an average finish of 7.5 so far this year on 1.5-mile tracks. That average is second only to series point leader Kevin Harvick who has a 7.25 average finish.

• Kahne enters Saturday’s race on the heels of scoring a second-place finish last weekend at Daytona International Speedway. The finish was Kahne’s third top-five result in the span of four weeks, and his fifth of the season. The second-place effort moved him up four spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings to 16^th. He currently sits 154 points out of the top-12 cut-off point for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

• Halfway through the 2010 season, Kahne has scored one pole award, five top fives and six top-10 finishes. His average start is 11.1 and his average finish is 18.7.

• On Wednesday, July 7, Kahne will visit to Hartford, Ohio to compete in the 2010 Lou Blaney Memorial Classic race at Sharon Speedway in honor of Dave and Dale Blaney’s father. Kahne will join fellow NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Tony Stewart and Dave Blaney in racing 410 sprint cars against some of the best sprint car drivers in the region. The drivers will also participate in a 30-minute autograph session prior to the race. For more information on the event, visit www.sharonspeedway.com.

• Before traveling to Joliet, Ill., for Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, Kahne will spend Thursday, July 8, 60 miles southwest of the track at LaSalle (Ill.) Speedway for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series race. There Kahne will serve as co-promoter of Kasey’s King of LaSalle presented by Budweiser, the fourth and final race of the Showdown for the Bud Crown. Kahne competed in two of the previous events, but will focus on his role as co-promoter at LaSalle. Kasey Kahne Racing’s Joey Saldana won the opening event in the four-race series, and his teammate Paul McMahan currently sits second in the Showdown for the Bud Crown standings heading into the final race. Tickets for the event are available at www.worldofoutlaws.com/tickets.

• Follow along each weekend with Kahne and the team on Twitter. Check out @kaseykahne for behind-the-scenes information straight from the driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Ford. Get live updates from the track each weekend from @kk9team, the PR team for Kahne. Also, follow @RPMotorsports for additional information about the Richard Petty Motorsports organization.

• Become a fan of Budweiser on Facebook. Exclusive information on Kasey and the No. 9 Budweiser Ford Team can be found on the Budweiser Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/Budweiser.

Kasey Kahne discusses his Budweiser Ford Team and the World of Outlaws event at LaSalle:

On the No. 9 Budweiser Ford Team: “It’s nice to work with (Kenny Francis and the No. 9 Budweiser team) because they just keep plugging away and keep doing everything they can to get our Budweiser Ford into Victory Lane and give me the best cars that we can have. We’ve had fast cars and the guys are working really hard and doing a really good job.

“Whatever you need to do during the week to be prepared on the weekends as a driver, as a team – we’re doing all of that stuff and we’re trying hard. So, I think we can run really good the rest of this year.”

On working with the World of Outlaws and the event at LaSalle (Ill.) Speedway: “My dad was involved in sprint car racing, so we went to those races a lot and I grew up around it. I started racing mini-sprints and then moved on to racing sprint cars. I’ve raced ever since. I try and give back to the World of Outlaws series whenever I can. Fortunately we were able to work out a deal for me to promote a few World of Outlaws events, with LaSalle being the final race in the four-race series.

“The Chicago area has always been a great market for NASCAR and I look forward to seeing the Outlaws at LaSalle. We had a great crowd at Sedalia (Mo.) and the fans really showed their support for the World of Outlaws series. I anticipate another good showing at LaSalle to wrap up the race for Bud Crown.”

- Elevation Group of Companies for Budweiser Racing, Press Release