Kahne slams NASCAR’s appeals process

Asked Wednesday for his take on NASCAR’s appeals process, Kasey Kahne took the atypical approach of skipping the politics and stabbing straight to the core.

“My take is you don’t have a shot when you go in," he said, stone-faced, other than a slight grin at the corner of his mouth.

He isn’t kidding. Kahne felt Evernham Motorsports carried a solid argument into the March 5 appeals hearing for the unapproved aerodynamic devices found on his No. 9 Dodge during prequalifying inspection for the Daytona 500, which resulted in hefty sanctions by NASCAR.

NASCAR penalized Kahne 50 driver points, docked team owner Ray Evernham 50 owner points, fined the team $50,000 and sent crew chief and team director Kenny Francis home for a month. That penalty was upheld at the appeal hearing.

What was the reasoning given for upholding the penalties?

“There was no answer [why]," Kahne said. “I did talk to a few people that were part of that [appeal], and they said you basically have a losing cause. If you’re not going to take the best case in the world you’re not going to win."