Delaware: DJ Kennington race report

CASTROL/MAHINDRA TRACTORS/HITACHI TOOLS DODGE DRIVER DJ KENNINGTON WINS AT DELAWARE

June 6, 2010. St. Thomas, Ontario's DJ Kennington, driver of the #17 Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge put name at the top of the contenders for the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Championship with a victory in race number one of the season. At the Keystone Light 200 Saturday evening at Delaware Speedway near London, Ontario Kennington made it his second consecutive victory at his home racetrack.

The day started off with a huge challenge for the #17 Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge team when after only five laps of practice a problem was noticed with the motor. Not wanting to take any chances the team swapped engines and were ready to make their scheduled qualifying run. Kennington set the tone when he put in a blistering lap of 19.22 seconds and scored pole position with an average speed of 93.652 MPH around the half mile oval. "What an effort by the whole team" said Kennington. "All my guys worked so hard that was a great reward for their efforts" he added.

As the green flag waved and wet weather loomed Kennington took off in the #17 Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge and had little trouble leading the first seventy five laps of the scheduled 200. "I think that Castrol Edge gave us an edge" he smiled and stated. "The car was so good right from the start of the race. It's a great feeling as a driver".

Rain was looming around the track and the #17 Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge team debated when to make their scheduled pit stops. "We weren't sure if we'd get the all the laps in but as we got close to half way we decided to make our stop so we'd still have to time to get back toward the front" explained Kennington.

Deep in the field the #17 Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge driver then had to avoid the many racing incidents. "It got a little wild sometimes" said Kennington but I just kept going and pretty soon we were back up at the front". he added.

Kennington would take over the lead for good on lap 160 but a late race caution period made things tense. The event would end under a green, white checker sprint and Kennington faced a hard charging #84 car. "I just took off and we body slammed pretty good going into corner one" said the driver. "But he went a bit high going into turn three and we managed to hang on for the win.

It's just feels so good to win here at home" stated the #17 Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge driver. "When you have a day like we did you really find out how many friends you've got and we've got a lot of them. I just want to thank everybody on the team, our great support as always from Castrol, Mahindra Tractors, Contact Welding, and Hitachi Tools who have come on board with us this year. This is a fantastic way to start off the season" he concluded.

Round number two of the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season will take place next weekend, June 12th & 13th on the famed Road Course at Mosport International Raceway.

-source: tls