Hey ya'll, this is a new article I wrote for Girl's Garage. I know it's kinda short, but it still gets the point across.

Sea of Red?

During Sunday’s broadcast, Benny Parsons made a comment about the “sea of red” in the stands. He said that they were all Dale Jr. fans.

Now I don’t want to cut down Junior or his fanbase. Especially not with how upset they all already are about the finish to Sunday’s race.

But has BP never heard of Kasey Kahne?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I went to the Brickyard this year, I saw tons of people in red. And about half of them had on Kahne shirts.

It’s not like Kasey is some lower-rung driver. He’s not a field-filler. He might not be up to Dale Jr’s popularity, but he is still one of the most popular drivers in NASCAR.

Kasey Kahne has won a series-high 5 races this year. He’s 9th in points. He won the spring race at Charlotte and evicted Jimmie Johnson from “his house.”

The kid has mad talent and his fans, including myself, all know it.

I belong to one of the biggest and best Kasey Kahne fan boards there is, and let me tell you, we’re all a bit peeved. It’s not like this is a one-time thing. The announcers say things like that all the time.

Like I said before, I don’t want to cut down Junior or his “Nation.”

But a lot of that red belongs to the Kahne Train as well.

LOVE IT. About time the Kahne train gets attention. I forget if it was this week or last but they were talking about merchandise trailers in the prerace show and they said one of the most popular with longest lines wasn't JR but KASEY

Oh it so pissed me off when BP said that. I was yelling at the tv, "a hell of a lot of those red shirts are Kahne Dodge Red NOT Bud Red.

You already know I love it. Great job, girlie!

Great job, Katy.. I love it!!

Thanks for sharing that article and you know its so true! Even when I heard him say that, I was like you idiot, Jr. isn't the only driver whose main color is red. I wore red at Chicagoland and my red was definitely Dodge red and not Bud red. I had some people assume I was a Jr fan until they saw that it was Kasey on my gear and not Jr.

Great article! You know those pork commericals about the other white meat? Well I've always wanted a Kasey t-shirt that said "No, I'm the other red fan." :hehe :nod

~ Mary

I loved it, but you knew that already. I liked how you finished it.

Nice job dude. :good

Awesome job Katy!

They stole the sea of red from the Calgary Flames!!!!!!!!

but ya good story, but BP...here is the REAL sea of red...
be aware, this is amazing..... yes we love our dang hockey!







and lets play a wheres waldo game
can you spot the calgary flames mascot?

Great article! I was saying the same thing during the race!

Awesome article Katy!!

great article!

I said the same thing! go dodge red! lol

Great article, Katy!

Awesome job, Katy!

I think we as fans get dissmissed by the media because of the precieved ignorance that they have of Kasey's fan base. The media assumes that we are all 12 year old teenies that have gone from *NSYNC and BSB to Kasey Kahne. They couldn't be further from the truth. Yeah, there are a lot of female fans on the Kahne Train, but not all of us are women. I'm seeing just as many men wearing the great #9. A lot of fans have carried over from Awesome Bill and have admired how well Kasey is filling Bill's shoes.The media believes that there are only a few good drivers in NASCAR. They get tunnel vision and believe that red can only be Jr.'s colors. Well, slowly that's changing, 'cause I can tell you from my own expierence, that sea of Bud red is changing to Dodge red faster than anyone can imagine.

When I was at Michigan for the race back in August, I saw a lot of people wearing Dodge Red and Kasey shirts, many of which were men. I had one man even acknowledge me and give me a nice comment (don't remember exactly what it was anymore) because he and I both were Kasey backers. I even remember seeing at least a few guys in the infield where we were wearing Kasey shirts. I hate that some reporters/journalists often jump to conclusions or use sweeping generalizations for a collective group and sometimes that's why I hate having a journalism degree because I know especially with the insight into the sport and the fans that I have gotten so far, that I would not use generalizations and jump to conclusions if I could avoid it.

That's what it was like at Dega in the spring... you could have probably taken half the red and split it in half, half would have been Dodge red and the other half Bud red. Just because these annoucers see a sea of red doesn't mean it's all for Junior anymore.

I was there, too, and I noticed that same thing... same with the June race. The three biggest fan bases there are for Kasey, Jeff and Jr.. but I saw more Kasey things than Jr.

Thanks guys.

I'm really glad ya'll liked it.

:)

That is a great article. I think I say or think that every race that I watch.

I was at the Kansas race and every time we walked by the merchanise haulers Kasey had the biggest group, and Jr. was right across and there wasn't very many people there. I actually stood in line for 45 minutes on Sat. to make a purchase, and didn't even know it was that long. When I finally made my purchase and was leaving I looked at the crowd and it was almost to the other haulers across the way.

I know that Kenny Wallace at some point this year made the comment that about half of the red shirts in the crowd were 9's.

yep the red shirts i wear on raceday are for KASEY :)

Well I am very proud to report that Charlotte has jumped soundly on the Kahne Train. I don't know how well it picked up on tv, but Kasey easily got the second-most cheers -- he was barely beaten out by Junior. (And, for the first time ever, I heard Junior booed!) -- tonight at qualifying. And when Scott beat him for the pole it was like, "Noooo... OKAY!" Hee!

Great article, Katy! Every once in a while (usually when Fox was doing the broadcasts) they would mention the ever-growing sea of Kahne fans rivaling the Junior fans (it was usually Larry Mac), but lately it's been all Junior when it's mentioned.

My favorite memory of when I knew that Kasey had 'made it' I guess, was at Darlington this Spring. My friend and I were wearing our 9 jerseys and literally everywhere we went, somebody was yelling, "KASEY KAAAAAAAAAAAHNE" at us. It had to have happened 9 times that day alone. It was really exciting to see how people have taken to him.

Much different from my first race at Charlotte 2 years ago this weekend. The Kahne Train is growing all the time.

I'm rambling but superproud of our boy and his fans and this fanbase in general. Superhappy! WOOHOO!

ahah that happened to me at the race too, some guy was like NICE HAT!! im like ya i know! then another guy is just like KASEY KAAAHHHHNNNEEEEE!!!!!! the guy rippin tickets looks at my dads Jeff Gordon jacket hes like sorry sir, no Jeff Gordon fans in here, but she can come in, shes got a ncie shirt on!

hahaha I almost died

:lmbo

I like the sound of that

The security dude at LMS looked at me tonight and was like, "Kasey?" and I was like, "KASEY KAHNE WOOHOOO!" and he yelled "WOOOOOO!!!!!"

People are starting to notice! Yeah, buddy!

This past race in Fontana I saw more people in Kasey stuff than I did in Junior stuff... I know it's partially a west coast thing, but Kasey has a TON of fans around here.

At lot of it is the sprint roots. This area is huge into that... I mean I have 7 dirt tracks within an hour of my house...

Regardless of why, Kasey is quickly becoming the new Junior, Jeff, Tony, etc...

I agree, but it's refreshing to see he doesn't forget where he came from even though he's making it big time in this sport. That's one of the many reason I'm proud to be a fan!

:nod

Katy, I'm interested to know what kind of feedback you get from the article. Let us know if you can. :)

Thanks!

I carried over from being an Awesome Bill fan and I am definitely not a teenybopper that has gone from *NSYNC and BSB to Kasey Kahne. I am a 37 year old that went from Rick Springfield to BonJovi to Kasey Kahne. Ha Ha, just kiddin. (Although I really did listen to Rick and BonJovi) I just never was someone to get all crazy and fall in love with a celebrity (did I spell that right?)

I don't watch and cheer for him cause he's a hottie, I watch and cheer for him cause he can drive.

Dude, they did it again tonight, saying that the crowd was a sea of red for Jr. BLAH!

I got news for them..........where we were sitting, we had as many Kahne fans as Jr fans around us

When Kasey took the lead from Jimmie on lap 309, section 245 went crazy. Everybody stood and cheered. And it just followed him down the backstretch.

So. Yeah.

Woohoo for people showing Kasey the love in Charlotte! I can't wait to see the reactions I hear/see next weekend at Martinsville. It should be interesting beacause the friend I'm going with is a Jr fan.

Yeah, I noticed that! Dorks!

HEHEHE, I couldn't agree with you more. I am 38 and Kasey is my first fav Cup driver. Although I have been a racing fan since I was a kid, my dad raced some when I was @ 5 and I have gone to local races all my life, I didn't get into Nascar unitl 2004. I got into it because I was very impressed by how Kasey handled a race car. I had no clue what he looked like until halfway through the season.

(I loved Rick and Bon Jovi too. LOL)

Loved that article! Short but got the point across. Its about time we got recognized! :kahnetrain

Again, it seemed as if the NBC crew tried to say that all the red in the stands at Lowes consisted of only Jr. fans. Seriously they need to get their facts straight.