Kahne gets Sprint Cup ride for ’11

Kasey Kahne has finally secured a ride for 2011.

The 30-year-old NASCAR Sprint Cup driver will spend next season with Red Bull Racing before moving to Hendrick Motorsports.

Kahne has signed on to replace Mark Martin in the No. 5 Chevrolet at Hendrick in 2012, but team owner Rick Hendrick needed to find a place to keep his new driver until then. After negotiating for more than three months with different teams, Hendrick put together a deal for Kahne to drive one of Red Bull's two Toyotas.

"This opportunity places me with an established, competitive team that has proven they can win races and make the Chase," Kahne said Tuesday. "The opportunity to drive for Red Bull Racing Team in 2011 is a great fit for me, both personally and professionally."

Kahne is expected to finish this season with Richard Petty Motorsports. He is 17th in points with the team's No. 9 Ford.

Red Bull did not specify which of its cars Kahne will drive next year.

The team fields Camrys for Brian Vickers and Scott Speed, but Vickers has been sidelined since May after being treated for blood clots. Vickers, who got Red Bull's first Chase berth last season, has insisted he'll be ready to drive by the start of 2011.

■ CUP SCHEDULE -- More pieces to the 2011 Sprint Cup schedule puzzle fell into place Tuesday with the official announcement that a race from Atlanta would be moved to Kentucky Speedway and one from Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., would be shifted to Kansas Speedway.

That leaves Atlanta, Kentucky and the Southern California track with one race each, while Kansas will have two for the first time. The race in Atlanta will be Sept. 4, the Kentucky stop July 9 and Kansas will have races June 5 and Oct. 9.

The California race will be moved from the week after the opener at Daytona in late February to March 27. Filling California's slot as the second event on the 36-race schedule will be the first of two races at Phoenix on Feb. 27.

The third race of the season will remain at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and will be March 6, the week after Phoenix.

The full Cup schedule is expected to be completed by Aug. 18.

■ NATIONWIDE -- Iowa Speedway is on track to host two Nationwide Series races next season.

A copy of the tentative schedule obtained by The Associated Press shows the racetrack in Newton, Iowa, hosting NASCAR's second-tier series May 22 and July 23.

The series will visit Las Vegas on March 5 for the Sam's Town 300.

The schedule shows two open spots in which NASCAR is trying to schedule events to make it a 35-race season.

Late last month, Dover Motorsports Inc., the parent company of Gateway International Raceway, announced that the track near St. Louis would not host its two Nationwide races and one Camping World Truck Series event again next season.