off of Kenny. T ere aren’t a whole lot of them who are like him. To me, he’s as good as they get. I’m pretty lucky to get to work with him as long as I have.” Likewise, Francis clearly holds Kahne in
high regard. Asked about Kahne’s strengths, the former driver takes his time and analyti- cally runs through them. “Where do you start? He’s got a lot of
good qualities,” Francis says. “He’s not afraid to search around on the track for new lines. When conditions change, he’s looking around for a fresh place to run. “He’s got a real good feel for what the car
is doing. Some guys are fast but they don’t have a good feel. Some guys have a good feel but they don’t have speed.
who guided Jeff Gordon to three champi- onships while a crew chief at HMS. “It’s probably the easiest organization to fi t into. “T ere’s enough centralization to where
you get the benefi t of being part of a big team, but it’s not so centralized to where you don’t have some identity and freedom.” Fitting in is one thing, but will Kahne
and Francis be able to run with the other three Hendrick teams? Five-time champi- onship-winning crew chief Chad Knaus has no doubt. “T ey are going to be challenging every-
body really, really soon,” he says. “It’s going to start at the Daytona 500. I like Kasey and he is walking into the best equipment in the garage, the best facility.
started winning races. T ey still run a lot of the stuff that Kenny was doing.” T ere are no certainties, of course, but
the move to Hendrick should provide Kahne and Francis with the stability that’s been lacking for so many seasons and in turn lead to better results on the track. “Both of them are capable of winning the
championship,” Evernham says. “T ere’s no doubt about that in my mind. T e talent and the work ethic are there. “It’s time to get it done. T e next three
to fi ve years for them are going to be criti- cal. If they aren’t knocking right on that door, then it’s probably never going to hap- pen for them.” Francis would like nothing more than to
end the 2011 season strong with Red Bull, but there’s no masking his desire to make the move to Hendrick and turn the page on what has been a frustrating run. “Hopefully, having a fresh start is
going to be good for us both,” Francis says. “We sure hope it will smooth things out. Hopefully we won’t have to worry about that much anymore and we can just focus on race cars and making stuff better.” As for Kahne, he knows there will be
a lot of buzz leading up to his fi rst start at Hendrick. But after the countless distrac- tions he’s endured during his seven-year stint in the Cup Series, he’s more than pre- pared to handle the extra attention. T e 31-year-old is focused on turning his
“Some people seem like they just naturally have speed. He’s always looking to get the throttle down.” —KENNY FRANCIS
“He’s always had speed. I don’t really
know what makes that quality in someone, but some people seem like they just naturally have speed and some people just naturally don’t quite have as much speed. He’s always looking to get the throttle down.” Next season, Kahne and Francis will take
their talents and move to one of the best, if not the best, organizations in NASCAR. T ey have proven that they can handle tough transitions, and Evernham believes they won’t have any problems at Hendrick. “It will be easier to fi t in there than if they were going somewhere else,” says Evernham,
“I’m a huge, huge Kenny Francis fan. He
is one of the best crew chiefs out there.” And as if HMS wasn’t mighty enough,
Rodney Childers, crew chief for David Reutimann, says Francis will make the team even stronger. “When Kenny goes over there, it’s going
to make every [Hendrick] team better,” he says. “He’s just really good. “Roush probably wouldn’t admit it, but
you look at what happened last year. T ey were down in the dumps; they weren’t run- ning very good. T ey basically just took everything Kenny was doing, and then they
career around. He has 11 wins in 275 starts, but hasn’t won since 2009 and has never really been a threat to win the championship. T e move to Hendrick marks a new
beginning, and Kahne is relieved Francis, 41, will continue to be at his side. “It seems like we’ve always been on the
same page,” Kahne says. “It’s really tough to do because everyone sees and says things dif- ferently. We always see things the same way. “I’m just anxious to win. I know what
I’m getting into is the best opportunity I will ever have in NASCAR, and you just have to take advantage of it. “You have to do the best you can and
fi gure out how to win races, fi gure out how to be competitive every week. We’ll have the opportunity to do it, and it’s up to us whether we do it or not.”
OCTOBER 2011 51
Opposite: Geoff Burke/Getty Images; Photo: Dale Mattila
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