Kasey Kahne Will Retaliate!

5/17/13

Kevin Abraham

 

            After this past weekend’s race and watching Kyle Busch wreck Kasey Kahne again in the Bojangles Southern 500 with 33 laps to go, many fans are wondering if Kasey will retaliate against Kyle after Kyle has wrecked Kasey, not once, or twice, but three times this year so far.  I understand this last incident was caused by two drivers who were both driving hard for the win late in the race; however Kasey has to be getting tired of Kyle wrecking him often.  This is not the first time that Kasey and Kyle have had problems on track.  There are too many incidents between Kyle and Kasey to not think that Kasey is going to retaliate against Kyle at some point. 

 

            The first incident between these two drivers was back in 2005 at New Hampshire, when Kyle driving the No 5 car and Kasey driving the No. 9 car were racing hard for the 13th position, and on lap 185, Kyle clipped Kasey in the right rear, and sent Kasey into the wall hard.  Kasey then under caution drove into Kyle and pushed Kyle up towards the wall.  In an aired interview after the wreck, Kasey even admitted to trying to get even with Kyle. For those who do not remember this incident, the incident can be viewed below.

The next incident these two drivers were in was in the 2009 Coke Zero 400.  Kyle Busch tried to block Tony Stewart on the last lap of the race, and Smoke clipped the No 18, sending the car hard into the wall, Kasey then rammed the back of the No. 18 car, and Kasey had Kyle’s car climb on top of his car.  Both cars did cross the finish line; however both cars were badly torn up. If you look closely from Kyle’s rearview camera, you can see the roof of Kasey’s car under Kyle’s car.

The next time these two drivers tangled in a wreck was in the 2010 Sprint Cup All Star race. Kyle and Denny Hamlin were racing hard late in this race for the win; however Kyle was pinched into the wall by Denny, causing damage to the right side of his car.  With 2 laps to go, Kyle blew the right front tire on his car, hit the wall, and came down and clipped Kasey in the right rear, sending both cars hard into the wall.  Kasey was in the wrong place at the wrong time, however the result of this was a badly torn up race car for Kasey.

Now we will fast forward to the 2013 Daytona 500.  Racing in a pack on lap 33, the No 18 of Kyle Busch clipped the left rear of the No 5 of Kasey Kahne car, sending Kahne spinning, and causing the first ‘Big One’ in this race.  Kasey ended up wrecking many good cars, including his own car, costing Kahne a chance to win the Daytona 500. Kyle was able to continue on in this race, until he blew his engine on lap 151. The wreck with replays can be seen here. 
The next incident between these two drivers was in the 2013 Aarons 499 at Talledega on lap 43.  Kyle Busch barely touched Kasey Kahne while racing in a pack, and it caused another large wreck, including both Kasey and Kyle’s cars.  Kyle did take full blame for this incident afterwards; however it resulted in multiple wrecked cars. To see how Kyle wrecked Kasey and many other cars, the video is below.

The latest incident between these two drivers happened last weekend at Darlington.  With 33 laps to go in this race, Kasey had just passed Kasey Kahne, and going into Turn 1, Kyle overdrove the corned and from my vantage point, Kyle barely touched Kasey, sending Kasey into the wall and out of contention for the win.  This latest incident can be seen here, and you can make your own judgment call as to if Kyle touched Kasey, or just took the air off Kasey’s spoiler.

After seeing all these incidents between these drivers, Kasey must be getting fed up with Kyle continually wrecking him.  I do realize that some of these incidents Kasey was just an innocent victim, however when a driver is regularly caught up in an incident with the same driver over and over, it does change how they race around one another. Drivers do have an extensive memory over past issues, (just look at the Jeff Gordon and Clint Boyer incident last fall).  Since we have seen Kasey retaliate at Kyle before in 2005, one has to figure at some point we will see the No 18 put into the wall or be spun out by the No 5 car.  Since this weekend is the All-Star race and there are no points on the line, we may very well see the retaliation sooner than later.

If you agree or disagree with me, please share your comments below.  I really want to know what YOUR thoughts are on this. All videos in this column are posted courtesy of YouTube.

 

 

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