$1 million richer, Kahne races in Iowa

Northwest racing

Craig Murphy | • Published May 21, 2008

Congratulations, Kasey Kahne. You've just won NASCAR's Sprint Cup All-Star Challenge and the $1 million that goes with it.

What are you going to do now?

Race the next afternoon in Newton, Iowa, of course.

The Enumclaw native didn't even qualify for Saturday night's All-Star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina, but got in due to fan votes.

Kahne parlayed that into a surprising victory, beating fellow Washington native Greg Biffle of Vancouver in the process.

A few hours later, Kahne was practicing a car at Iowa Speedway for a Sunday afternoon NASCAR Camping World Series East/West Challenge race.

"I got to bed about 3:15 (a.m.) or so, got up at 5:15," said Kahne, who made the trip to Iowa along with car owner Ray Evernham.

After running a late Saturday night race, Kahne could have been forgiven for wanting to sleep in the next morning.

"Sometimes you take the weekend off, other times you find races to do," Kahne said. "I've always really enjoyed trying to find races. Today we're racing, and we'll have to celebrate the big win from last night maybe tomorrow or next week."

Spending time with fans the next day wasn't a bad way to celebrate, especially since fans got Kahne into the main event.

"I've always enjoyed my fans, but they sure are the reason we got the win last night," Kahne said Sunday. "They're the reason we got into that race. It's great to have a lot of awesome fans. Our Budweiser team is really happy they support us like they do."

Kahne wasn't the only one with Washington roots in Iowa on Sunday. Among the others was Kasey's mom, Tammy, who manned a souvenir trailer. The trailer left Enumclaw on Wednesday and arrived in Iowa on Friday.

Tammy Kahne flew up from North Carolina, where she has been spending time with Kasey's sister's newborn baby. Tammy flew prior to Kasey's win in the North Carolina on Saturday night.

As such, Tammy was asked if she had been kicking herself for leaving early.

"Oh, totally," Tammy said with a laugh.