Last Friday it was announced that Kasey Kahne had come out of retirement to compete for Spire Motorsports in the NASCAR FedEx Freight Truck Series full time in 2027.
On Wednesday, both Kahne and Spire confirmed the stunning news.
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Kahne will drive the No. 77 Spire Chevrolet full season in the Truck Series in 2017, the first time in 46 years that it competed on a full basis in NASCAR with the last Cup Series season in 2018.
Kasey Kahne Details Story After Joining Spire Motorsports
Kahne appeared as a guest on “SPEED with Harvick & Buxton,” the show co-hosted by NASCAR Cup champion Kevin Harvick, to confirm that his retirement is officially on hold.
He began the conversation with owner Jeff Dickerson at the Knoxville National Spire last August, the most famous race car race of the year.
Kahne, who finished third in the event, said Dickerson took the idea off guard.
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“It was like, ‘Hey, we want you to come and run full time.’ What was I like, full time? It was a big miracle for me,” Kahne said.
Kahne has been away from NASCAR competition for nearly a decade. Aside from a one-off O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race last year at Rockingham, the 18-time Cup Series winner left the NASCAR scene after his 2018 retirement.
When Dickerson approached Kahne with offers to race in the Truck Series, there was one Washington native he couldn’t turn down.
“I’ve been there for eight years — eight or nine, somewhere. To get that kind of opportunity to run a truck and be associated with a lot of success, I was like, ‘Man, I can’t pass this up,'” Kahne said.
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Kahne is not a poor person to get a chance. After conversations with his girlfriend Amy Long, Kahne jumped at the chance to sign with Spire Motorsports.
“I got excited pretty quickly. Amy talked a lot about it and it makes a lot of sense. We’re excited to do it,” Kahne said.
Kahne has only six career Truck Series starts, but has won five of them and had another runner-up finish. His last Truck Series race was at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2015, where Eric Jones finished in a photo shootout to win.
Spirit of the Lord edition of the Kahn NASCAR Return
This article was first published in GRAVIS
The post Kasey Kahne Makes NASCAR Official With Spire Motorsports appeared first on The Heavy.