Kasey Kahne Leads Team Mopar® Charge into USAC's 'Turkey Night Grand Prix'
Fans of Midget racing will get a holiday bonus when they show up at Southern California's Irwindale Speedway for this year's "Turkey Night Grand Prix," set for Thursday, Nov. 27. Once again, NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and Team Mopar® team owner/driver Kasey Kahne will return to his roots for the 68th annual classic, sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC) as part of the Mopar Midget National Championship Series.
Kahne will steer a Mopar-powered Seymour Paints entry for his Kasey Kahne Racing squad. Last autumn, driving the very same machine, Kahne thrilled the Irwindale crowd by charging to second place after a dismal 25th-place qualifying effort.
The "Turkey Night Grand Prix" is one of America's most renowned short-track races. Its former champions include legends like A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Gary Bettenhausen and Mel Kenyon, and more recently Tony Stewart, Jason Leffler and defending champ Dave Darland. Kahne hopes to add his name to that estimable group, and past history would seem to mark him as a solid bet. In just five "Turkey Night" outings, Kahne has been the runner-up three times.
In addition to steering the Seymour Paints No. 67 entry, Kahne will have a couple of other cars on his mind as he takes part in Thursday night's racing program. Partnering Kasey in two more KKR Midgets will be USAC stars Brad Sweet and Brady Bacon, who campaigned the team's Mopar-themed entries throughout the course of the 2008 season. Sweet, the 22-year-old charger from Northern California, currently sits third in the Mopar Midget National Championship on the strength of four USAC victories. The popular Bacon, an 18-year-old out of Oklahoma, is fifth in the season-long standings.
Dating back to the 1930s, midget racing is one of the oldest forms of automobile racing in the United States, combining power-to-weight ratio with small frames to create action-packed racing events. In recent years the series has been the battleground for younger drivers establishing professional careers as racers. The four-cylinder engines powering midgets today are developed using the latest technological advances from automobile manufacturers supporting the series. In 2008, Mopar assumed the title sponsorship of USAC's Midget tour, thus establishing the Mopar Midget National Championship Series. For more information, visit http://www.usacracing.com.
