Kasey Kahne Named to Drive for Leavine Family Racing in 2018

Kasey Kahne will pilot the No. 95 Chevrolet Camaro for the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Kahne, who has driven for Hendrick Motorsports since 2012, will be Leavine Family Racing’s (LFR) primary driver for the 2018 season and will compete for the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.

This season LFR has recorded an impressive string of finishes including a fourth place finish at Daytona in July and feels that Kahne would not only be a top driver for the team in the MENCS series in 2018, but will also attract new sponsorship in the future. Kahne of course is one of the 16 drivers in this years playoffs, with a victory at Indianapolis.

“I want to thank Leavine Family Racing for this opportunity and will work as hard as possible to help them continue improving,” said Kahne. “I am ready for this challenge and look forward to making a fresh start. Bob and everyone at Leavine Family Racing put a lot into their program and I’m excited to become a part of it.”

“We look at this as an opportunity to go to the next level,” said LFR team owner, Bob Leavine. “This deals partially with performance, because obviously, Kasey is a playoff-caliber driver. He has a wealth of information being with a larger organization like Hendrick Motorsports, and we think that will help us. We also look at this as an opportunity for marketing to be able to sell sponsorship.”

Michael McDowell currently pilots the No. 95 Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and has been with the organization since 2014. There is no word on McDowell’s future in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series but as right now he joins Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, and Darrell Wallace Jr. on the free agent list.

“Overall, we think Kasey is a good fit and felt we needed a change. There is absolutely nothing that Michael (McDowell) did, it was just a matter of us having to make some changes to help us move up the ladder and be a factor in the playoffs. I know Kasey will bring things that will help us, and I believe our environment will be conducive to his confidence level, which will in turn raise our confidence level. It just seemed like the right time and the right fit for our team.”