From Steve Pegram, Frank Smith photo
Mooresville, NC (November 12, 2009) – Kasey Kahne Racing (KKR) announced today the permanent addition of young sprint car racer Cody Darrah as the driver of the No. 91 Great Clips / Sage Fruit / ASE / Mopar sprint car in the 2010 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. Darrah, 20, of Red Lion, Pa., served as a fill-in driver for KKR’s No. 19 entry for the last three World of Outlaws races of the 2009 season.
“I remember how excited I was when I left home to race sprint cars full time,” said team owner Kahne, who left his native Washington to race sprint cars out of Indiana at a similar age. “I’m thrilled to give the same opportunity to Cody, who I see a lot of similarities to me at that age.”
Darrah, a proud member of the Pennsylvania Posse group of short track racers, comes from an accomplished racing family that includes his mother Kitty, a former local stock car winner. His uncle, Rick Eckert, a leading driver on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, is a former Pennsylvania dirt track legend. Darrah cut his own teeth aboard micro-sprints at age 14 and then started racing 410 winged sprint cars at age 16 in the ultra-competitive, racing-rich market of Central Pennsylvania at tracks like Williams Grove Speedway and Lincoln Speedway.
For the 2009 season, Darrah has recorded six victories, including a career-first World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series race win at the rescheduled Summer Nationals event on Oct. 3 at Williams Grove Speedway. That win led Kahne to offer Darrah the opportunity to race the No. 19 DirecTV / Sage Fruit / ASE / Mopar sprint car at the remaining World of Outlaws events at Rolling Wheels Raceway in Elbridge, N.Y. in mid-October and The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, NC last weekend, where he finished 14th in the World Finals finale.
“I am honored to be given the opportunity to run a full season on the World of Outlaws circuit with such a top notch team in Kasey Kahne Racing and sponsors in Great Clips and ASE,” said Darrah. “I have been able to get to know Kasey by racing against him at Williams Grove, and now the crew at KKR over the past few weeks, so it will be amazing to be a part of the team next year.”
Darrah joins KKR teammates Brad Sweet and Joey Saldana. Sweet is currently battling for the USAC Mopar Midget National Championship, 14 points shy of first in the driver standings. Saldana, who drives the No. 9 Budweiser / CURB Records sprint car, won a series-leading 20 races in the 2009 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, including the finale at the World Finals last weekend to finish third in driver points.
“My biggest obstacle next year is going to be race tracks,” Darrah added. “I won’t be just racing the World of Outlaws drivers; I will be racing race tracks. So, I will have to learn tracks and surfaces that I have never been to or seen. Kasey [Kahne], Joey [Saldana], and the crew at KKR have all been through it before and will help me learn and adapt.”
Great Clips, the largest single-brand hair salon in North America, sponsored Kahne when he raced for Stringer Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series over three seasons from 2003 to 2005. Great Clips has been active in motorsports since 1998, sponsoring cars in both NASCAR and ARCA. 2010 marks the company’s first year sponsoring KKR and its No. 91 World of Outlaws car.
For more information on Kasey Kahne Racing, visit http://www.kkr9.com/.