Truckin’ Thursdays: Welcome Back, Kasey Kahne

When I became a NASCAR fan in the early 2010s, Kasey Kahne was at the back end of his career, though nobody knew it at the time.

His pairing with Hendrick Motorsports never bore the fruit many likely thought it would, though I will always remember his incredibly clutch victory at Atlanta in 2014 and his chaotic win, and his last in the Cup Series at that, in the 2017 Brickyard 400.

Since his retirement from full-time NASCAR Cup racing in 2018 due to health reasons, we’ve seen Kahne race and win in the World of Outlaws.

Still, it felt like a pipe dream that we’d ever see Kahne race again in NASCAR, much less in a full-time capacity. But then came his one-off with Richard Childress Racing in the 2025 Xfinity Series race at Rockingham, where fans got to see the veteran race one more time … or so they thought.

Kahne, 46, will race for Spire Motorsports in the NASCAR Truck Series in 2027, returning to full-time NASCAR competition for the first time in nine years. He’ll also be putting his 83% win percentage in the series on the line, as he’s won five of the six Truck races he’s run in his career.

“It’ll take time to get back to making sense of all the things that happen throughout an entire race,” Kahne said Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I know that the driving part and some of the stuff will come back really quick and feel really good off the bat, and then you just have to put the rest together. So yeah, I think it’ll take four or five races before I feel super comfortable throughout an entire race and everything that’s thrown at you in a truck.”

So, fans, don’t be placing bets on Kahne to win 15 or 20 races next year. It’s been a while — 11 years, to be exact — since he last competed in a Truck race.

Still, he’s a capable driver who will be with a very capable organization. Making The Chase and potentially getting back to victory lane won’t be at all out of the ordinary in what will be his rookie year as a full-time Truck Series competitor.

“I’ll dig in a lot here over the wintertime and preparing for each race, each track, and just putting everything into it,” Kahne said. “I want to do the best I possibly can in 2027 … so, I’ll have to put a lot of time in to make sure that happens.

“I think it’ll be a pretty big learning curve at the start. But I’m really looking forward to it and I know it’s gonna be a challenge, but I’m excited for that as well.”

In a series full of promising young talents such as Layne Riggs and Kaden Honeycutt, Kahne will be a throwback to the old days of the Truck Series, when the likes of Mike Skinner, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Jack Sprague dominated the division. Only over the last decade and a half has the series morphed into a more developmental rung on the NASCAR ladder, albeit with some veterans still sprinkled in.

Having a veteran, and a very talented one at that, in the series can only be a good thing for a division that has been criticized for its racecraft and relative lack of driver etiquette at times.

For Kahne fans, however, his return to full-time NASCAR competition will be a glimpse back into the glory days. There are few better stories in sports than the grizzled veteran making an unlikely return, especially when he has some success.