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SONOMA, Calif. – Kasey Kahne came away uninjured from a hard last-lap crash Sunday at Sonoma Raceway that left his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 24th in the final rundown.
“No. 15, no clue who he is,” Kahne said of Kevin O’Connell, driver of the No. 15 Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports in the Toyota Save Mart 350.
“I saw him a lot today lapping him, but he went low down the front stretch and then … I was going to his outside and he just turned right and just hit me, put me straight in the wall getting the white flag there.”
Big hit. I was passing 15 to his right down front stretch. He panicked & turned right instead of left for the corner and destroyed us ♂️
— Kasey Kahne (@kaseykahne) June 25, 2017
O’Connell was making his first start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. He has eight career starts in the XFINITY Series, all on road courses, and one career top-five finish.
“No clue what he was thinking,” Kahne said.
Kahne ran in the top 10 for much of the first two stages Sunday, opting for track position and pitting after the start of each stage. A final stop with 18 laps remaining left him a lap down, but he regained the lap before the last-lap contact.
“We had a better car the longer the day went,” he said. “Just really tight early and the guys kept working on it and we got better and better.
“I have no clue where we were running but we were definitely much better at the end than we were at the start.”
The @Windows team did a great job of making adjustments and we kept getting better. I’m fine. Back is just a little tight https://t.co/S2Pp1AvAoT
— Kasey Kahne (@kaseykahne) June 25, 2017
