Fast Cars & Superstars: Kasey Kahne
"The first thing I drove was my dad's truck, just a pickup truck," he said. "We had kind of a long driveway, so driving up and down that I could barely see over the steering wheel. I was holding myself up, three feet off the back of the seat, trying to reach the pedals. I think that was pretty fun, back then."
Things have changed for the Gillette Young Gun, one of six Nascar drivers helping teach celebrities how to race against each other at Lowe's Motor Speedway for "Fast Cars & Superstars — Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race" reality show, which begins airing June 7 on ABC. Cars.com is a sponsor of the show. These days, his dad's pickup has been replaced by his own Dodge 1500 four-door pickup, a Dodge Durango and a Mercedes that he uses as "a nice car to go to dinner in."
Around town, though, "I usually drive the Durango the most."
We talked to Kahne before he'd had any seat time with the celebrities, but he wasn't worried about training the rookies.
"I think the celebs will be fine," Kahne said. "I think it'll be cool to work with them, see how they pick it up, see how long it takes them — and to see who winds up the fastest, most precise when they're on the racetrack."
Considering the history of some of the celebrities, like Super Bowl quarterback John Elway and professional surfer Laird Hamilton, would Kahne trade lives with any of them for a day?
"I think to switch positions with John Elway when he was throwing touchdowns left and right would be pretty awesome," he said. "That was pretty cool. I used to watch him do that all the time. So I think John Elway, or [rodeo rider] Ty Murray, maybe. Ty's a little tougher, maybe. Get on a bull, ride it for 8 seconds …”
Doesn't Kahne think two hours at 200 mph is harder than Murray’s 8 seconds?
"No," he said. "And it's definitely not as dangerous."
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i own a 2004 malbu Ls this car has ele steering, no powersteering pump. this car has been nothing but trouble after 9200 miles, cheve has put or worked on the steering around 8 to 10 times. when the car was about out of warrenty gm gave us 36000 more miles, still working on the steering. now at 70000 miles we are still having trouble with driving the car down the road, you have to keep moving the wheel back and forth to keep car on the road. we talked with gm they said they knew we had trouble and would get back to us the next day. one week went by, so we called them, they had closed the case with are car and was finished.I wonder if the people at the top of gm can figure why honda, or over sea car makers are takeing more shares of us auto makers. I will buy a honda or toyota the next time.
John,
And what does this have to do with Kasey Kahne?