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Early red flag at Pocono: Kasey Kahne slams into and damages pit road wall (VIDEO)

kahne pocono 2015 au 2 etty

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Sunday’s Windows 10 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race was placed under a red flag on Lap 4 after a wreck involving Kasey Kahne, stopping the race about 15 minutes for pit wall repairs.

Kahne was exiting Turn 3 when he lost control of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and skidded left through the entry to the pits, slamming into the wall just in front of AJ Allmendinger’s stall.

“I just got loose, a late exit, a lot later than I would have expected,” Kahne told NBCSN after being treated and released from the infield medical center. “That’s why I ended so far down pit road.

“I just got loose, basically spun and that was it. I tried saving it. Just a rough last month for the team. ... I tried to avoid running into the pit wall. I’m not sure why it happened. It happened so quickly.”

The impact of Kahne’s car sent several helmets sitting atop the wall flying 25 feet into the wall of a building bordering the pits. There also were three people in street clothes standing in front of Allmendinger’s pit box near the impact, but NASCAR confirmed later that no injuries occurred.

“First, I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m over here this late in the corner and all the way to the lead, heading toward the wall,’ ” Kahne said. “Then I saw the people. I was like, ‘Man, you guys better take off running. Get out of the way.’ ”

The crash left part of Kahne’s fender embedded in the pit wall. It took about 15 minutes for track workers to remove the debris and weld the wall into place.

Kahne’s wreck was almost identical to Jeb Burton’s wreck in Saturday’s final Sprint Cup practice session at Pocono, as evidenced by the overlapping tire marks in both crashes.

Follow @JerryBonkowski