Category: Featured Other Series

Last week, D.J. Kennington picked up his fifth consecutive NASCAR Canadian Tire Series victory at Saskatoon. The victory tied the NASCAR touring series record in the modern era among currently sanctioned series as he joins former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor and current ESPN analyst Ricky Craven in 1991 (NASCAR K&N Pro Series East), legendary West Coast driver Herschel McGriff in 1972 (NASCAR K&N Pro Series West), NASCAR Hall of Fame member Richie Evans in 1985 (NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour) and nine-time NASCAR champion Mike Stefanik (NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour) as winners of five straight races at the NASCAR touring series level.

The victory also put Kennington at the top of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series all-time win leaders list with 16 victories.

“It’s really been an amazing run,” Kennington says. “We’ve worked hard for it, but we’ve had some luck, too. You have to for a streak this long.”

This weekend, if Kennington is able to pick up his sixth win at Circuit de Trois-Rivieres in Quebec, he will become the only driver in NASCAR touring series modern era to win six straight races.

“We have stepped up our road-course program over the years, but I’m an oval guy,” Kennington adds. “The ability level of road racing in this series is really high with Ranger, (Robin) Buck, (J.R.) Fitzpatrick, (Kerry) Micks and the list goes on and on. The guys in front of me giftwrapped that Edmonton race. That’s the luck I was talking about. You can bet we’ll show up in (Trois-Riveres), though.”

Kennington has been good on the 1.530-mile temporary street course before as he scored a ninth last year for his fourth straight top-10 finish at the track. The 2010 series champion has yet to finish the race in victory lane as his best finish is a third in 2009, followed by a fourth in 2010. With his current streak of nine straight top five finishes and 10 consecutive top 10s, Kennington will look to continue that consistancy to keep the points lead. He currently leads by 41 points.

While Kennington has yet to find victory lane at Circuit de Trois-Rivieres, Ranger has found victory lane on three separate occasions. He won three straight races from 2008 to 2010, before finishing runner-up to Robin Buck last year. He is arguably the best driver in the Canadian Tire Series at Trois-Riveries as his worst finish is a second in five starts, while leading a series-best 48 laps. Ranger has been consistant during his time in the Canadian Tire Series as he has finished inside the top 10 in 28 of his last 30 series starts dating back to 2008. The two-time series champion sits third in points, 46 points behind Kennington.

Two other drivers have found victory lane at Circuit de Trois-Rivieres, those being Robin Buck and Kerry Micks.

Buck won last year’s event for his second career series victory while finishing outside the top 20 in his three other starts at the Circuit de Trois-Rivieres. Buck is known for only racing the road courses, scoring six top 10s in his last eight series starts.

Micks, meanwhile, won the series’ inaugural visit to Circuit de Trois-Rivieres in 2007. He finished 21st last year for his only finish outside the top 10 in five starts as he was the runner-up in 2010 while finishing ninth in 2008 and sixth in 2009. He has a top 10 in six of his seven last starts dating back to Montreal last year. Micks is splitting driving duties of the No. 02 PartSource/BDI/Leland Ford with Mark Dilley, hoping to win the owner’s championship. They currently sits fifth.

The one closest though to catching Kennington in the driver’s championship standings is last year’s champion Scott Steckly. He finished third last year at Circuit de Trois-Rivieres while his best finish is a second that came in 2008. The two-time series champion has top-10 finishes in four of his last five starts on the 1.53-mile Quebec track. He has eight top five finishes in his last nine series starts as he currently sits 41 points behind Kennington.

The World of Outlaws made their first visit to Cornwall Motor Speedway this evening. The high banked 4/10 mile track would hold many surprises for the drivers of the Greatest Show on Dirt; some would be pleasant and some would be not so pleasant. But at the end of the night all would leave with a new respect not only for the track but for the winner as well.

On Saturday Night during the A Main, teammates Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser got into a vicious tangle that would send Donny head on into the end of an inside retaining wall. The impact would send his winged sprint car into a series of wild and vicious flips leaving him in the infield. Schatz who climbed from the car under his own power took a few steps and then went down to his knees on the ground a short distance from the car. Although Schatz would be released by paramedics the impact and the flips were incredibly hard and bone jarring. Late Saturday night Schatz’s True Speed Communications representative would give the following update on his condition, “Donny is a little sore. But he is racing tonight.” During the broadcast by the World of Outlaws it would be reported that Schatz was competing with a shoulder injury. His performance through out the night would not give any indication that 4 time Outlaws Champion Donny Schatz was anything but on his A game.

Qualifying went quickly with the 22 cars turning 10 and 11 second laps. With this being a debut date the quick time would be the new track record and that time would be set by Lucas Wolfe with a lap of 10.246. The top 13 cars would all turn laps within the 10 second range with only .633 seconds separating first from 13th.

The Qualifying would prove eventful for the two female drivers in the field Jessica Zemken and April Wilson. Zemken would experience engine difficulties and have to change engines over to a 360 cu in rather than the 410 cu in engine she began the night with. April Wilson would scratch for the evening before even taking a lap on the track.

The three heat races were exciting and brought surprises of their own. With everyone transferring to the A Main the need to finish as far up as possible became critical to try to capture one of the 4 remaining dash positions to get in that precious top 10 starting spots of the A.

The first heat race was won by Joey Saldana but not without a hard fight from Australian Sprint Car Champion James McFadden. It would be a hard fought race that Saldana would win with no breathing room. McFadden didn’t have any either as he had 20 time World of Outlaws Champion Steve Kinser on his heels. The first big surprise came on lap 6 of the heat. Cody Darrah and McFadden would get together when McFadden would attempt a poorly timed slide job sending Darrah flipping wildly and coming to rest on the top of the back stretch retaining wall. Darrah would walk away but the car would not be so lucky. With massive front and rear damage the team went to the tree house for the back up. Pulling the back up would mean surrendering Darrah’s Dash spot and relegate him to the last starting spot in the A main. McFadden would somehow never come to a stop and continue on putting him back in the second spot that he was challenging Darrah for at the time of the wreck. When the checkers flew, it would be Joey Saldana holding off McFadden and Kinser but Saldana would hurt the engine on the final restart and have to change engines going into the dash his second such surprise of the day.

The second heat would start 4 time Champion Donny Schatz on the front row with Bill Rose. Schatz would pull to the lead and never look back. He would be challenged late in the heat by points leader Craig Dollansky but would hang on for the win. Finishing in third was Sammy Swindell.

The third heat would be the hardest fought of the heat battles. With Kraig Kinser holding off a hard charging Kerry Madsen and Chad Kemenah. Jessica Zemken would start the heat but would pull off at half way with more engine difficulties.

The Dash inversion draw was an 8. This started Schatz and Kraig Kinser on the front row with Kinser taking the pole. Schatz was on a mission and took the lead going into 3 on lap 2. Kinser would have his hands full with a hard charging Kerry Madsen for the entire 8 laps. Joey Saldana whose engine was changed in time to start the dash would pull off the track before half way with a broken rear end. Schatz would win the Dash to start on the pole and set up one of the hardest fought battles of the year with Kraig Kinser.

The A Main was a 40 lap hold your breath sit on the edge of your seat and yell for your favorite kind of race. Donny Schatz took the early lead but Kraig Kinser wasn’t going quietly. He charged at Schatz from the high side and Schatz held him off. He went to the bottom and slid up on Schatz but Schatz turned back under him. He got side by side. He tried everything short of contact to get around Donny Schatz to no avail. Schatz held on in traffic, on clear race track on the straights in the corners. With 8 laps to go Kerry Madsen would spin in 4 and Sammy Swindell would spin in 2 bringing out the only yellow flag of the evening. But not before Kraig Kinser would do a perfect 360 and drop to 5th. On the restart it would be Schatz and Dollansky with a hungry Steve Kinser in third. The green would be a drag race to 1 with Schatz going to the cushion and Dollansky to the inside Kinser would slide high and challenge Dollansky for the second spot and Dollansky would hold him off. All the while Schatz was getting away. Finally coming out of the 4th turn Steve Kinser pulled a perfect slider onto the straight to pass Dollansky and clear him at the line. The game had just changed. Schatz and his teammate would settle this feature. Who would it be, The King or his 4 time champion teammate. It didn’t take long to find out with 2 laps to go Schatz put a lapped car between he and Kinser and pulled out to a second lead. When the checkers fell Kinser would be just 3 car lengths off his bumper with Dollansky right on his and Sammy Swindell looking to Dollansky’s inside. . After the worst possible night on Saturday, Donny Schatz came back to win the debut appearance at Cornwall with the Outlaws. Shoulder pain is no laughing matter for a race car driver no matter what kind of car you drive but for a sprint car driver it’s twice as difficult. But Donny Schatz was there to win. He had the wing pulled all the way back and he was ready to fly. And fly he did. Schatz won every race he drove tonight and won it in convincing style. Proof that heroes are those among us that do what the rest of us don’t believe can be done no matter how bad it hurts or what the risks are.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Qualifying Results 1) Lucas Wolfe 10.246 New Track Record, 2) Craig Dollansky, 3) Kerry Madsen, 4) James McFadden, 5) Sammy Swindell, 6) Chad Kemenah, 7) Cody Darrah, 8) Donny Schatz, 9) Kraig Kinser, 10) Joey Saldana 11) Bill Rose, 12) Michael Parent, 13) Steve Kinser, 14) Devin Caron, 15) Kayle Robidoux, 16) Mike Stetler, 17) Lee Ladouceur, 18) Warren Mahoney, 19) Tyler Rand, 20) Curtis Bradshaw, 21) Jessica Zemken No time posted, 22) April Wilson No time posted.

Heat 1 Results: ‎1) Joey Saldana 2) James McFadden 3) Steve Kinser 4) Lucas Wolfe 5) James Stelter 6) Tyler Rand 7) Cody Darrah

Heat 2 Results: ‎1) Donny Schatz 2) Craig Dollansky 3) Sammy Swindell 4) Devin Caron 5) Lee Ladourceur 6) Bill Rose 7) Curtis Bradshaw

Heat 3 Results: ‎1) Kraig Kinser 2) Kerry Madsen 3) Chad Kemenah 4) Michael Parent 5) Warren Mahoney 6) Jessica Zemken 7) Kayle Robidoux

Dash Results: ‎1) Donny Schatz 2) Kraig Kinser 3) Kerry Madsen 4) Chad Kemenah 5) Lucas Wolfe 6) Craig Dollansky 7) Sammy Swindell 8) James McFadden 9) Bill Rose 10) Joey Saldana

A Main Results: ‎1) Donny Schatz 2) Steve Kinser 3) Craig Dollansky 4) Sammy Swindell 5) Lucas Wolfe 6) Chad Kemenah 7) Kraig Kinser 8) Joey Saldana 9) Michael Parent 10) Cody Darrah 11) James McFadden 12) Bill Rose 13) Kerry Madsen 14) Lee Ladouceur 15) Devin Caron 16) Jim Stelter 17) Warren Mahoney 18) Tyler Rand 19) Jessica Zemken 20) Kayle Robidoux 21) Curtis Bradshaw

KSE Hardcharger of the Race was Cody Darrah coming from 21st to 10th.

World of Outlaw Points standings as of Cornwall.

[media-credit name=”World of Outlaws” align=”alignright” width=”267″][/media-credit]Sammy Swindell recently found the problem for his so-called slump and he answered it with an emphatic victory on Friday during the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series inaugural visit to Autodrome Granby.

“We’ve kinda been struggling a bit, but we found out we had a car from some of those little skirmishes that we had was a little twisted so our setup wasn’t where it was supposed to be,” he said. “It’s nice to be back in a car that you can just run hard.”

Swindell did just that to dominate for his series-leading eighth feature win of the season in the Outlaws first of six races in Canada this season. He set a blistering pace while claiming the dash and then led all 25 laps of the main event, although it wasn’t decided until the checkered flag.

The fifth-and-final caution of the race came while Swindell was exiting turn four on the final lap, signifying a green-white-checkered finish and erasing nearly a half-a-lap lead.

“I thought well maybe they’d thrown the checkered and I kept looking,” Swindell said. “When I got there it was another yellow, so you have to endure that again. I’ve been bit a few times on that.”

He choose the outside lane and rocketed into a sizeable lead over Joey Saldana, who charged from sixth to second during the first nine laps.

“We chose a pair of 100 tires,” he said. “Sammy had a 200 on the right rear. I would say the longer the race went, the better he got. Early on to get from sixth to second, the 100s got me there and then they fell off at the end.”

There were four cautions, including two red flags, during the opening dozen laps to slow the pace of the main event. Donny Schatz stopped on the backstretch while running in the top 10 on the second lap. After a quick pit stop, he restarted last – 24th – and later finished 10th .

Rick Wilson brought out the second caution of the race on lap eight when he stopped in turn four. Three laps later Kerry Madsen spun in turn two while running 10th and fast qualifier Kraig Kinser tipped over in turn three as the caution started to be displayed, prompting the initial red flag of the event.

The second red flag happened after Alain Bergeron crashed into the frontstretch wall on the restart. Bergeron didn’t flip, but the fuel window was reached and all the teams were able to make changes during the red flag.

Swindell quickly sailed to a large lead on each restart while Saldana held off Cody Darrah for the runner-up position. Steve Kinser found grip on the bottom in the closing five laps and rallied to finish third.

“I was terrible at the beginning of the race,” he said. “I was just too tight. When you’re tight you can’t get no speed up going into (turn) one and lose a position every time. I made it all back up at the end, but not a good way to do it starting on the front row.”

Darrah was fourth and Dollansky placed fifth. Lucas Wolfe was sixth, James McFadden seventh, Chad Kemenah eighth, Jessica Zemken ninth and Schatz rounded out the top 10.

A-Main – (25 Laps) – 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [1] [$10,000]; 2. 9-Joey Saldana [6] [$5,500]; 3. 11-Steve Kinser [2] [$3,200]; 4. 4-Cody Darrah [7] [$2,800]; 5. 7-Craig Dollansky [4] [$2,500]; 6. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [3] [$2,300]; 7. 55X-James McFadden [13] [$2,200]; 8. 63-Chad Kemenah [9] [$2,100]; 9. 1Z-Jessica Zemken [10] [$2,050]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz [8] [$2,000]; 11. 11K-Kraig Kinser [5] [$1,500]; 12. 29-Kerry Madsen [11] [$1,200]; 13. 25-Michael Parent [14] [$1,100]; 14. 6-Bill Rose [12] [$1,050]; 15. 3-Dale Gosslin [23] [$1,000]; 16. 36-Mike Stelter [20] [$900]; 17. 24K-Devin Caron [17] [$800]; 18. 15AW-April Wilson [22] [$800]; 19. 84-Tyler Rand [18] [$800]; 20. 8B-Alain Bergeron [15] [$800]; 21. 46-Kayle Robidoux [21] [$800]; 22. 42W-Rick Wilson [16] [$800]; 23. X2-Curtis Bradshaw [19] [$800]; 24. 422-Etienne Girard [24] [$800]. Lap Leaders: Sammy Swindell 1-25. KSE Hard Charger Award: 3-Dale Gosslin [+8].

Qualifying – 1. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 16.040; 2. 11-Steve Kinser, 16.257; 3. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 16.269; 4. 1-Sammy Swindell, 16.298; 5. 4-Cody Darrah, 16.317; 6. 7-Craig Dollansky, 16.330; 7. 9-Joey Saldana, 16.339; 8. 63-Chad Kemenah, 16.377; 9. 1Z-Jessica Zemken, 16.494; 10. 29-Kerry Madsen, 16.633; 11. 6-Bill Rose, 16.634; 12. 15-Donny Schatz, 16.634; 13. 55X-James McFadden, 16.740; 14. 25-Michael Parent, 17.049; 15. 8B-Alain Bergeron, 17.332; 16. 42W-Rick Wilson, 17.670; 17. 24K-Devin Caron, 17.738; 18. 84-Tyler Rand, 17.961; 19. X2-Curtis Bradshaw, 18.499; 20. 36-Mike Stelter, 18.501; 21. 46-Kayle Robidoux, 18.565; 22. 15AW-April Wilson, No Time; 23. 3-Dale Gosslin, 18.299; 24. 422-Etienne Girard, 18.074.

Heat 1 – (8 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 9-Joey Saldana [2]; 2. 11K-Kraig Kinser [4]; 3. 1-Sammy Swindell [3]; 4. 29-Kerry Madsen [1]; 5. 55X-James McFadden [5]; 6. X2-Curtis Bradshaw [7]; 7. 15AW-April Wilson [8]; 8. 42W-Rick Wilson [6].

Heat 2 – (8 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 63-Chad Kemenah [2]; 2. 4-Cody Darrah [3]; 3. 11-Steve Kinser [4]; 4. 6-Bill Rose [1]; 5. 25-Michael Parent [5]; 6. 36-Mike Stelter [7]; 7. 24K-Devin Caron [6]; 8. 3-Dale Gosslin [8].

Heat 3 – (8 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 15-Donny Schatz [1]; 2. 1Z-Jessica Zemken [2]; 3. 7-Craig Dollansky [3]; 4. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [4]; 5. 8B-Alain Bergeron [5]; 6. 422-Etienne Girard [8]; 7. 84-Tyler Rand [6]; 8. 46-Kayle Robidoux [7].

Dash – (6 Laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [1]; 2. 11-Steve Kinser [3]; 3. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [2]; 4. 7-Craig Dollansky [6]; 5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [4]; 6. 9-Joey Saldana [7]; 7. 4-Cody Darrah [5]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz [10]; 9. 63-Chad Kemenah [8]; 10. 1Z-Jessica Zemken [9].

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Top 20 Championship Standings

[media-credit name=”ARCA Racing Series” align=”alignright” width=”320″][/media-credit]After going 75 races without a win, Frank Kimmel would get by rookie Mason Mitchell with 44 laps to go and held the field off in a late race restart for his 75^th career win in the Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 200 presented by Federated Car Care at Lucas Oil Raceway.

It marks the first win for the nine-time series champion since 2008. It marks the first ARCA win for ThorSport Racing after joining forces with Kimmel during the off-season.

“It’s hard to get here some times,” Kimmel says. “I’ve got to thank this team and sponsors Ansell and Menards. I’d like to take a lot of that credit but we had a good handling race car. I could turn and cut into traffic and run into the flat, whatever I needed at the end. That made the difference. This is a hard place to drive around and a really hard place to pass people. That’s what makes it special.”

Tom Hessert finished second after running in the top five throughout most of the night and making a late race pass on Mitchell for second after Mitchell spun the tires.

“We had a really solid night,” Hessert says. “Kenny  (Schrader) and the guys gave us a good car today. We worked at it in practice. At the start of the race, we were a little tight and got it back to pretty good by the end.”

Kevin Swindell was third after making his way through the field late in the race after getting off sequence, contact with Mason Mitchell and a late race pit stop to fix that. He’d drive from 11^th to third in the final 40 laps.

“We got off sequence and had to work our way through the field,” Swindell says. “Had an issue with the 32 (Mitchell) and came back to finish third.”

Brennan Poole finished fourth, just ahead of Mason Mitchell and Ryan Reed. Mitchell had battled for the lead for much of the race, though spun the tires on the late race restart with three laps to go.

Points leader Chris Buescher finished seventh, followed by Chad Boat, Spencer Gallagher and Mason Mingus. Buescher now leads Poole by 30 points.

Justin Lofton was battling for the ninth position late in the race, when he’d spin trying to make a three-wide pass by Mingus and Gallagher. He’d finish 11^th.

Chad Hackenbracht had run up front during the first half of the race, leading a number of laps, before engine problems put the No. 58 out of the race. He’d be credited with 25^th.

“Seems when everything is going good for us, we always find some bad luck,” he says. “Had an engine bad, don’t know what happened. After Kimmel got by me, it started going sour.”

Pole sitter Matt Crafton would also run into bad luck while leading as he led the opening 52 laps before the loss of brakes on his No. 88 Toyota would put him into the wall. Crafton would finish 31^st.

The next race for the ARCA Racing Series is the Pennsylvania ARCA 125 at Pocono Raceway on August 4^th.

[media-credit name=”ARCA Racing Network” align=”alignright” width=”345″][/media-credit]After practice was able to start following a rain shower, it’d be 15-year-old Erik Jones topping the charts in final practice late in the session at Lucas Oil Raceway. The rookie Venturini Motorsports driver lapped the 0.686-mile oval in 22.217 seconds in his No. 55 Chevrolet. Jones became the youngest driver to start an ARCA race earlier this year after ARCA changed the minimum age from 16 to 15.

Jones’ Venturini Motorsports teammate Brennan Poole was second, 0.026 seconds behind. Poole is looking for a good run to get himself back in the points lead as he currently sits 35 points behind Chris Buescher.  Clay Rogers was third, followed by Matt Lofton and Venturini’s Kevin Swindell. Swindell was last week’s race winner at Chicagoland Speedway, adding to Venturini’s 30th Anniversary ceremonies that took place throughout the weekend.

Mason Mitchell was sixth, followed by Chad Hackenbracht. Hackenbracht had led the charts in the first sesssion earlier today and was leading the charts before the rain delay in the second session.

Rain cut the first practice short by 15 minutes and then cut the second practice short by half of the 45 minutes allowed. Whether it will have an effect on the race tonight is yet to be seen.

Nine-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel was eighth ahead of ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton. Mason Mingus rounded out the top 10. Points leader Chris Buescher was 16th.

It was Hackenbracht topping the charts in the first session earlier in the day at a lap of 22.655 seconds, followed by Jones, Kimmel, Poole and Rogers. Buescher was sixth in that session.

Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell will start at 6 p.m. and set the field for tonight’s Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 200 presented by Federated Car Care. The race will air at 9 p.m. on SPEED.

Practice 2