Fans' vote puts Kahne into Sprint All-Star Race at LMS

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NASCAR.COM - Fans' vote puts Kahne into Sprint All-Star Race at LMS - May 17, 2008

By Bill Kimm, NASCAR.COM
May 17, 2008
09:51 PM EDT

CONCORD, N.C. -- In the end, all the politicking that took place the past couple weeks didn't mean a thing.

While Robby Gordon had sponsor support, Patrick Carpentier made "naked" promises and Elliott Sadler had the backing of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne intentionally stayed under the radar and ultimately became the fan vote winner for the 2008 Sprint All-Star Race.

"That's awesome," Kahne said. "I'd love to race my way in and get in that race by winning a race, but we have great fans and it's pretty cool that they got us in the race. We need all the fan support we can have, and they stuck behind us.

"I was gonna head home, drink a couple Budweisers and watch the All-Star Race, but thanks to the fans I get to race."

Kahne finished in front of Gordon, who had the second-largest total. Kahne's teammate Sadler had the third-most votes. The driver of the No. 9 Dodge was appreciative of the support.

"We should be loading up and going home and the fans have put us into the race," Kahne said. "The fans are a big part of this race weekend, they're a big part of the All-Star weekend here at Lowe's and its cool they put us into it. They didn't have to do that and they did."

The focus immediately shifted to the million-dollar All-Star Race, and Kahne said the team hurried to make some adjustments in the short time they had during driver introductions. Kahne wasn't sure if he had the car to win the $1 million grand prize, but he planned on giving it everything he had.

"We have to pull out a little bit of the fender and the handling, we need to work on that," Kahne said. "I don't think they are going to give us enough time to do what we need to do to win the million, but we'll get enough time here to work on it and get it good enough to hopefully run in the top-10."