Why is Kasey Kahne famous?
Why is Kasey Kahne famous?
Kasey Kahne is arguably one of the more popular and famous NASCAR drivers in the Sprint Cup Series.
However, when it comes right down to it, he truthfully is more famous than he deserves to be. I would go as far as to say he one of the five most popular drivers in the sport, but his talent level isn’t even in the top 10.
The stats would seem to back me up on the fact that Kahne is vastly overrated.
After 11 races this season Kahne is 16th in the point standings. There are 15 drivers in the Sprint Cup Series, so far, this season that are having better seasons than Kahne. Those drivers are (in order of current point standings): Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Juan Pablo Montoya and David Reutimann.
There are also 15 drivers this season in the Sprint Cup Series that have a better or same average finish per race than Kahne. Kahne’s average finish per race this season after the first 11 races is 18th. Those drivers with a better or same average finish than him are (with their average finish in parenthesis): Stewart (9), Gordon (10), Kurt Busch (10), Hamlin (13), Burton (14), Johnson (14), Newman (15), Biffle (16), Kyle Busch (17), Bowyer (17), Edwards (17), Kenseth (17), Montoya (17), Reutimann (18) and Martin (18).
So, if the stats show that Kahne really isn’t one of the best drivers in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, then why is he so famous?
Well, Kahne is a good looking man. Everybody knows that we live in a world where it doesn’t matter exactly how talented you are as long as you’ve got looks. Drivers like Biffle, Burton, Hamlin and Bowyer are arguably more consistent and better than Kahne, but they aren’t quite the lookers as Kahne. Kahne’s popularity seems to be with NASCAR’s population of female fans. Demographics show that 41% of NASCAR fans are female. This is a pretty high number compared to other sports. Sure, some of these female fans actually love watching NASCAR for the racing and the action. However, there are those female fans who watch the sport for a certain driver that they admire for their looks. Kahne is one of these drivers.
Kahne is clearly famous because of his looks. His popularity seems to rely on this fact as his talent as a driver doesn’t match his extreme popularity. Kahne is in his sixth season in the Sprint Cup Series and has nine career wins. Kahne has been extremely inconsistent in his career thus far with six of those nine wins coming in the 2006 season. While Kahne has nine wins in six seasons it isn’t a bad total by any means. However, Kahne has been highly outshined by Kyle Busch and Edwards during his career. Kyle Busch has 15 career wins in five seasons. Edwards has 16 wins in five seasons. This means that in one less season than Kahne, Busch has six more career victories than him and Edwards has seven more career victories than him.
These numbers seem to prove that Kahne is more famous than he should be.
