Kahne is a 2-time Skagit Speedway winner of the Annual Jim Raper memorial Dirt Cup (2002 and 2003) and currently holds the fastest lap record there.

He was hired by Steve Lewis, who had also employed future NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Jason Leffler, Tony Stewart and Kenny Irwin Jr.

On May 26, 2007, Kahne won the Busch Series' Carquest Auto Parts 300 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway for his first win of 2007.

On January 24, 2025, NASCAR announced that Kahne would return to the drivers seat for the Xfinity Series race at Rockingham Speedway on April 19.

Kahne has six career starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, winning five of them; his lone non-victory is a second-place run at Pocono Raceway in 2010.

That clause also stipulated, that if an agreement could not reached by either party, then Kahne could seek a ride with a different manufacturer, without breaking the terms of his contract with Ford.

[3] In 2005, Kahne scored his first career Nextel Cup victory in his sophomore season of 2005, after a dominating performance in the Chevy American Revolution 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

He edged defending Nextel Cup Champion Tony Stewart out by 16 points, but a disappointing 16th-place finish at New Hampshire, a crash at Dover, and running out of gas at Kansas ended his hopes for his first championship title.

Kahne finished strong with five Top 10's in the remaining seven races including winning the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The ceremony has been ongoing since 2003, and involves a different Seattle-area sports hero and/or beloved member of the community kicking things off before every Seahawks home game.

At the start of the last regular season race, at Richmond International Raceway, he, David Ragan, and Clint Bowyer were vying for that 12th spot.

During the Pep Boys Auto 500 on September 6, 2009, Kahne made a late race pass and held off Kevin Harvick for his second win of the season.

During the following couple of months, Kahne would be unable to compete for race wins as mistakes and wrecks put a dent into the team's Chase hopes.

Kahne rebounded from the disappointment at Pocono by leading laps in the following race at Michigan and finishing second, behind the dominant Denny Hamlin.

He did not make it into the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup, resting at 21st in points following the cut-off race, the Wonderful Pistachios 400 at Richmond International Raceway on September 10, 2011.

Kahne qualified and ran well in his Gatorade Duel, but in the Daytona 500 was taken out in a crash on lap 188 involving Jamie McMurray, Regan Smith, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Tony Stewart, and Aric Almirola.

Kahne announced in late-March that he would compete for Turner Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series at Rockingham Speedway in April, driving the No.

[18] On July 15, 2012, Kahne won the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at Loudon, and along with teammate Jeff Gordon made the Chase through the two Wild Card spots.

Kahne's season also started with a number of run-ins with Kyle Busch, who wrecked him in three of the first 11 races: at the Daytona 500, Kahne was running in the Top 5 when Busch turned him approaching turn 1 on lap 33, resulting in a seven-car wreck also collecting Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jamie McMurray, and other cars.

Kahne bounced off the wall and back into Busch and collected an additional 14 cars, including Kevin Harvick, David Reutimann, Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart, Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, David Stremme, and Scott Speed.

At Daytona, Kahne was running behind Jimmie Johnson for most of the race until he got tagged by Marcos Ambrose on a late restart, sending him into the inside wall on the back straightaway and relegating him to a 32nd-place finish.

[24] His form didn't carry to Watkins Glen, though, where he was wrecked by Matt Kenseth on a late restart that saw him collide with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and finish 34th.

Kahne began ending rumors of his departure from Hendrick Motorsports with a sponsorship extension with Farmers Insurance for 12 races in the 2015–2017 seasons.

In July 2017, Kahne returned to Victory Lane at the Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400, surviving a crash-laden race that took out many contending cars, including holding off Brad Keselowski on an overtime restart that ended under caution.

[27] After the opening race in the chase at Chicagoland Speedway, crew chief Keith Rodden was replaced with Darian Grubb after many lackluster finishes.

[28] In the offseason, Leavine announced he would pair up with Hendrick Motorsports team engineer Travis Mack who previously substituted for Greg Ives when he Crew Chiefed for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to his best run in 2017.

After a very disappointing first half, that included his best run of 17th place on three occasions and a firing of crew chief Travis Mack for lead engineer John Leonard.

He led a season high 17 laps and scored the most points at the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, on the final restart, Kahne tried to make a move to the lead but stalled out due to not getting help.

[32] On March 29, 2019, Kahne was injured in a hard sprint car accident at Williams Grove Speedway, and Australian driver James McFadden replaced him.

Footage covers the stock-car racer's open-wheel roots and successes leading up to his June 2009 win at Infineon Raceway, his first for Richard Petty Motorsports.