DJ Kennington and the Castrol Dodge Team prepared for the final third of the NASCAR Canadian Tire series racing season with the intent of putting on a charge for the championship title. The team made a great step forward collecting a podium position this past weekend at Cayuga Speedway.
DJ Kennington also brought along a little help this weekend with veteran racer Randy McDonald behind the wheel of another Castrol Dodge sporting the number 71. Kennington has run several Busch series events already this year in McDonald’s prepared car and plans to take part in several others. “Randy is very good at getting a handle on the cars performance quickly and it helped us out for sure” said Kennington. “And hey I guess I owed him after he put me in the Busch car so much this season” he joked.
The Castrol Dodge was quick right from the first practice session at the 5/8 mile oval located near Hamilton, Ontario. Kennington would post the third quickest qualifying time and line up the Castrol Dodge on the inside of row two for the main event.
Following an early incident that collected several top cars Kennington found himself at the front of the field. “We were on the pole for the first race of the year at this track and didn’t have the finish we wanted but the way the car felt early I thought we could really have something. As the laps ticked away and the hard fought competition continued the handling of the Castrol Dodge began to change. “I’m not sure exactly what it was, we thought at first maybe a flat spot on the tires, but the car developed a bad vibration in the middle part of the race” said Kennington.
The Castrol Team made their scheduled pit stop for fuel and tires and hoped to put the difficulties behind them. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. “It didn’t really improve for a while and I was just hanging on during the middle part of the race” said the driver who fell out of the top-ten but stayed on the lead lap.
Fortunately for the Castrol Dodge team the problems began to subside in the latter stages of the race. “It’s kind of funny how it happened but the car definitely got better again later in the race and I was able to gain some spots” said Kennington who fought back and climbed into the top five.
Good fortune continued for the Castrol Dodge team as a last lap incident collected two of the front runners and allowed Kennington to leap ahead and score a third place finish. “It was a pretty strange night out there” he concluded. “We were good early, not so great in the middle and better at the end. I’m pretty happy winding up on the podium for all the people that support us. We couldn’t do any of this without Castrol and Dodge and everybody else who helps us out. My dad built a great motor that was strong all night”.
After nine races DJ Kennington and the Castrol Dodge Team sit third in the overall championship standings.
The NASCAR Canadian Tire series resumes action this coming Saturday night at Barrie Speedway. The twelve race NCATS schedule features events from coast to coast in Canada including stops at the best ovals in the Country along with temporary street circuits in Edmonton and Trois Rivieres. Look for more information all season at www.nascar.ca All twelve races of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will also be broadcast on TSN.
This release prepared by TL Sports & Entertainment
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