Nearly three decades after his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car start, Kasey Kahne finally parked one in Victory Lane as a driver. Eighteen NASCAR Cup wins. Six World of Outlaws championships as a team owner. And still, until May 8 at Williams Grove Speedway, no Outlaw checkered flag of his own from the driver’s seat.

And it was a Lehighton native who helped steer him to that monumental win. That would be Joe Mooney, crew chief for Macri Motorsports.

With his regular driver, Anthony Macri, sidelined by T4 and T5 compression fractures suffered April 3 at Williams Grove, Mooney didn’t want the team’s cars sitting home while two big national tours rolled into Pennsylvania in May.

To ensure that, Mooney dialed up an old friend who just happens to be one of the most accomplished open-wheel-to-stock-car crossovers in the sport.

Right after the win, Kahne had high praise for Mooney.

“Man, this whole Macri Motorsports team. (Crew chief) Joe Mooney, he’s exceptional on the wrenches. He worked at KKR (Kasey Kahne Racing), and he’s done so much more since then with Anthony,” Kahne told NASCAR.com’s Reid Spencer.

The Williams Grove Wreck And A Trip South

Macri’s wreck came on a Friday night in April, and by the next day, Mooney had the car loaded on a trailer and pointed toward North Carolina.

“There seems to have been a rash of upper-back injuries in the sport in the last couple of years, and there’s a lot that you don’t hear about. But then a higher-profile driver like Anthony gets fractures in his back twice within six months, it raises a lot of eyebrows,” Mooney said.

Mooney spent the week parked at Kahne’s shop, pulling in safety industry minds and connections through the High Limit Series and World of Outlaws — including a good relationship with four-time Outlaws champion Brad Sweet — to study how drivers sit in these cars. Four days, side by side with Kahne. The subject of Kahne filling in for Macri never came up.

“I spent the week down there, probably saw him four days straight, and we never once talked about it,” Mooney said.

Once Mooney got back to Pennsylvania, the team started running names. They didn’t want a ride audition — Macri is coming back the moment he’s healthy — and Mooney wanted somebody who would race hard but respect the equipment. The list ran thin. Then he threw a name out there.

What about Kasey?

Mooney has known Kahne for years. He worked closely with him for four seasons, when Kahne owned the car Brad Sweet drove during a stretch of championship runs at KKR.

When Mooney was looking to step from car chief at KKR up to a crew chief role, it was Kahne who told him to take the Macri job. “Oh, dude, no brainer. You’d be stupid to stay here,” Mooney recalled Kahne saying.

So when Mooney called this time, Kahne thought he was just shooting the breeze about racing. Then came the offer. Kahne was immediately on board with the idea.

In Victory Lane, Kahne was still processing the speed of it all.

“This is crazy,” Kahne told NASCAR.com. “I couldn’t believe this would happen this weekend. Two weeks ago, I was still building my own cars to get prepared to hopefully race them later this year”.

Three Races, One Outlaw Win

The NASCAR legend got his feet wet in a couple of races. Mooney said he looked more comfortable and passed good cars in a feature. And then came the win at Williams Grove.

It was a great showing from Kahne and Mooney. Top of the chart in hot laps. Second-quick in time trials. Front row for the heat. Per NASCAR.com, Kahne held off Haudenschild in the closing laps to seal the victory on the half-mile.

According to SprintCarRatings.com, Kahne will sit at 304 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series starts after Saturday, with one win.

“I just genuinely couldn’t be happier for him,” Mooney said. “I would’ve been super happy whether he went out there with his own team or somebody else’s team to see him get his first outlaw win. … It’s just a guy who’s just dumped countless dollars, time, and effort into the sport to finally check that off. There wasn’t anybody who wasn’t happy with that win.”

Why Kahne Was

The Right Fill-In

Macri isn’t going anywhere. Mooney made that clear. So the fill-in had to be a driver who didn’t need an audition and wouldn’t tear up race cars. Kahne fit, and not just because of the resume.

Mooney tried to keep the setup close to where it would be with Macri, but they had to make some tweaks. One wrinkle: roughly 35 pounds of weight difference between Macri and Kahne, which moves the needle on a sprint car.

Mooney’s read on Kahne is the part that stuck. The crew chief said nobody loves sprint cars more than Kahne. “Even when he isn’t driving — even when he’s just an owner — he’s in the shop every day. He lives, eats, and breathes it,” Mooney added.

A Few More Races

Together With Kahne

Kahne will stay behind the wheel for a few more races. After that, the focus shifts back to Macri’s recovery.

Pennsylvania Speed Week, which generally runs the last week of June into the first week of July, is the question mark. Macri’s team has won the last three Pennsylvania Speed Weeks in a row.

Beyond that, Mooney has his eyes on a return to Eldora — where Macri took the King’s Royal last year — and Knoxville Nationals, where the team finished fifth two years ago and wants to get back up front.

“You can get behind in the sport pretty easily. Tires change, tracks change, and if you’re not out there racing, they can change the tires, and nothing ever gets said,” he noted. “You’ll be chasing setup when, if you’re out there racing, you kind of keep a better grasp on things”.

Mooney’s phone call to Kahne helped one of the most accomplished drivers of his generation finally cross something off a 29-year list. It was a win for the good guys.