After the initial shock wears down, should anyone be surprised by this move?
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Kasey Kahne will drive for Hendrick Motor Sports in 2012 presumably taking the #5 ride which is currently Mark Martin's who is under contract through 2011. So much for Danica Patrick being groomed to move with her Go Daddy sponsorship to #5 two years down the line.
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This move sure puts the hurts on Richard Petty Racing. Adding the Yates component and Ford engines and support surely helped make the future a bit brighter for a team that has never risen above the second or third tier of quality teams. Surely, A.J. Allmendinger, Paul Menard, and Elliot Sadler are not seen as potential champs or even strong candidates for the Chase.
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This move further strengthens the Hendricks organization's death grip on the top of the Sprint Cup field. Since Jeff Gordon won his first championship in 1995, the team has nine championships, nine out of fifteen championships, and with that two drivers with four championships each, Gordon and Jimmie Johnson who are only bettered by Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty.
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Kasey Kahne is a very marketable, sponsor-friendly, squeaky clean competitor. He'll take the Hendrick star power to yet an even higher level. Meanwhile, the pressure gets tougher on Richard Petty Racing -- not to mention Roush-Fenway and Joe Gibbs Racing.
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While we don't like cross-sports metaphors, it surely could be an understatement to call Hendrick Motor Sports the New York Yankees of NASCAR. Since the end of Dale Earnhardt's reign, they have been the most dominant organization by far. They were but a small glimmer of what they would become in 1992 when much outrage ran through out the world of NASCAR when Rick Hendrick signed a promising young driver who had been tearing up the Busch series for Bill Davis that year. Jeff Gordon was that driver. He would be the 1993 rookie of the year and winner of the 1994 Coca Cola 600 and the inaugural Brickyard 400 before winning his first championship in 1995.
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Kasey Kahne is pulling into the prime of his career. How far he can go with Hendricks is hard to imagine.
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