MichiganCircleTrack.com is the online home of the MARC Times Racing News & Michigan Racing Scene and MARCTimesTV.

In the midst of the 2000 racing season, Kasey Kahne was asked a question on his web site: What would you do if you weren’t a racedriver?

“Learn how to become one,” was the response.

Kahne was still behind the wheel of a sprint car or midget then. After seeing his victory on the road course at Sonoma, it looks like Kahne has learned several things in the years since that statement.

When the 2000 season began, Kahne was driving his father’s No. 23 winged sprint car at Williams Grove, Pennsylvania and a week later competed in the USAC Western States midget opener at Bakersfield, Caifornia. Kahne won his heat race at “the Grove” and started on the outside of the front row for the main event. He gained the lead on the opening lap and went on to record his first Williams Grove feature win.

At Bakersfield, Kahne followed with a victory in his heat race and then took over to lead lap 26 of the 30-lap feature to record the midget win.

Kahne grew up around sprint car racing, as his father Kelly began driving in 1971. The Kahne team won many main events in the northwest, and took a title at Washington’s Skagit Speedway. Kahne first jumped behind the wheel as a 16-year-old high school sophomore.

Kahne was back in California on June 20 at Sonoma and led Tony Stewart to the finish in the NASCAR race. Both drivers have open wheel backgrounds and haven’t forgotten their roots. Both own teams that compete on the WoO and USAC sprint car tours. Stewart also owns Eldora (Oh.) Speedway, a premier 1/2-mile dirt track.

BACK IN TIME: The date was August 31, 1985 and it was the Phil Collins “Man in the Grandstands” Memorial at Butler Motor Speedway. The “Pink Panther” was on hand, with Don Taylor winning the Butler modified feature, wrapping up his third-straight points title in the class. Bill Tyler set quick time in the winged sprints at 14:44, with heat race victories going to Mark Stemen, Don Marsh, and Brad Wickham. On the pole for the $2000 to win feature event was Mike Horner, with Curt Kelley alongside. Scattered throughout the field were Mark Slade, Tom Jewell, Eric Slade, Mark Keegan, Mike Shaw, and Marvin Pifer. Kelley would win the feature, with Tyler coming from a sixth-row starting spot to take second.

YOUNG AND FAST: Litchfield’s Kyle Flint was awarded the honors for the 2008 AVSS Rookie of the Year in the midst of his junior year at Jonesville High School. Flint is off to a strong start in 2009. He was third in the AVSS standings following the June 12 Toledo race. Prior to moving to the pavement, Flint spent a season on the dirt at Butler.

DAGGETT DOES IT: Portland’s Dustin Daggett won four ASCS Sprints on Dirt (SOD) features this season before mid-June, topping the field at I-96 (twice), Crystal, and Waynesfield (Oh.). Daggett, the 2003 and 2004 SOD champion, isn’t planning on contending for the series title this season, but is always a driver to beat when at the speedway. He has won five-consecutive ASCS SOD features at I-96.

WINGED OR WITHOUT: Columbiaville driver Steve Irwin is strong in a sprint car with a wing or without. Irwin won the opener for the Michigan Traditional Sprints (MTS) on May 24,2009 at Crystal Motor Speedway and was also the winner on June 13 at Butler Speedway. He followed his Butler win with a top five finish a week later with a wing during a regular program at Butler. Irwin led the MTS points following the Butler event.