LONG POND, Pa. – Just five laps into Sunday’s race, Kasey Kahne’s day was finished.
In Turn 3 at Pocono Raceway, Kahne’s No. 5 Aquafina Chevrolet SS got loose.
Before he knew it, Kahne was sliding down pit road, where he made contact with the inner wall.
“It was late exit -- a lot later than I would have expected,” Kahne explained. “That’s why I ended up so far down pit road and that was crazy because I have never ended up there. Yeah, I just got loose and basically spun and that was it. I tried saving it to try and avoid running into the wall, pit wall, then ended up hitting the one on the left and not the one on the right.”
As the No. 5 Chevy SS was headed toward the pit wall, things got even scarier when it appeared that fans were standing nearby.
Kahne said he was just hoping that everyone saw him coming.
“First of all I couldn’t believe I was clear over there this late in the corner and then all the way to the left heading towards pit wall,” he said. “Then I saw the people and I thought to myself that those guys need to take off running and get out of the way. I didn’t know. I hadn’t done anything like that before so it was kind of crazy the way it all happened. I don’t know why we were so far up and what the deal was right there.”
No injuries were reported and Kahne said that he was “fine” after he was evaluated and released from the infield care center.
But his No. 5 Aquafina Chevrolet SS couldn’t be repaired, ending the driver’s afternoon.
After starting the race 16th, Kahne’s early incident left him with a 43rd-place result.
“Yeah, that’s really bad for points,” he said. “It’s been a rough last month for our Aquafina team.”