Hendrick Motorsports proved once again that it can get whomever it wants, whenever it wants.
With good reason, of course.
Kasey Kahne and Richard Petty Motorsports will part ways after this season, the organization announced Tuesday. He reportedly has signed a multi-year deal with Hendrick Motorsports.
“Drivers like Kasey Kahne are the very reason we got into this sport,” said George Gillett, part owner of Richard Petty Motorsports. “Kasey has helped us get to where we are. We wish him well in his future, however we have the rest of this season to race together and we’re looking forward to a successful remainder of the year.”
In January, Kahne, 30, said it would take action by RPM to keep him with the team. He made no secret that his contract situation was in his control and he had no interest in staying with a losing organization.
Kahne has won only four races in the last four years. He won six times in 2006 on the way to an eighth place finish and has not been as good since.
RPM has spent the last two years rewiring itself to be a winning team and rise at least to respectability, if not the historic excellence it enjoyed in its past.
It apparently hasn’t worked to Kahne’s liking. He is 26th in the points standings and has finished in the 30s four times this season — at Daytona, California, Bristol and Phoenix. The only Richard Petty Motorsports team that contended early in the season has been Paul Menard, who is in 15th place. A.J. Allmendinger is 23rd and Elliott Sadler is 29th.
It’s early enough in the season that this could change, which makes this early announcement interesting. But there aren’t any limitations on when negotiations can begin or when they must end in NASCAR, which meant this off-season’s top free agents, Kevin Harvick and Kahne, could begin negotiations whenever they wanted.
Hendrick Motorsports declined comment.
But given the opportunity to race for the best owner, best shop and best team in NASCAR, what driver in his right mind would pass on that?
What better place could a driver find than the organization that created two four-time champions and the only organization in contention for a championship late last season.
If Kahne’s goal is winning, very little RPM could have done would have swayed him. Nor should it have.