CHAMPioN: dJ KeNNiNgToN HoW do you ToP THAT? Two-time NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champ dJ Kennington set the bar extremely high in 2012
It never gets old. In 2012, seven of the twelve NASCAR Canadian Tire Series races ended with DJ Kennington celebrating in victory lane. And he’s looking forward to doing it all again this year.
Perry Nelson
By Greg MacPherson
In the history of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Presented by Mobil 1, there have been just three champions. Interestingly, DJ Kennington, Andrew Ranger and Scott Steckly have each earned Canada’s top rac- ing honour twice. No one else has even one. In 2013, Ranger will be contesting a partial schedule with the Canadian Tire Series, leav- ing Kennington and Steckly to battle it out to see who will become the tour’s first three-time champion.
And while they’ll have each other to deal with as they chase history, they’ll also have a full field of equally motivated rivals, all search- ing for their first NASCAR championship. As has been well documented, Kennington
enjoyed incredible success in 2012, earning victories in seven of the series’ 12 events, in- cluding a mid-season run of five consecutive wins. And following an uncharacteristic me- chanical failure in the season’s tenth race, at Barrie Speedway, he closed the door on all challengers by winning the final two events en route to the championship trophy presentation. Looking ahead to Kennington’s 2013 season forces us all to look back at 2012 and contem- plate if it’s even possible to top that stellar per- formance. And while it’s very likely that one day when Kennington is retired from racing he’ll look back at his 2012 Canadian Tire Series campaign and its 11 top ten results as the high- light of his career, he’s not shying away from the challenge to try and do even better this season. And really, what else do you expect from
20 NASCAR CANAdiAN TiRe SeRieS
Kennington but to approach the task with the same quiet determination and effort that has served him so well over the years? “It’s going to be awfully hard to top 2012 in terms of winning seven races,” smiled Ken- nington, just days before the season opener at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. “But we have the same crew back again and they’ve worked very hard through the winter and we’re going to do our best.” Asked about how he views the prospect of
becoming the first person to win three Cana- dian Tire Series titles, Kennington said, “That’s what we race for, to win championships. You try to win races and do as well as you can every week. I’m confident on the track because I know I have a good team behind me and a great engine-builder in my dad (Doug Kenning- ton). I’m not one for talking about goals a whole lot but with those things in place, it makes it enjoyable to go to the racetrack.” But while he and his Castrol Edge /
Mahindra Dodge team have done their homework to put themselves in position to compete for a third title, the St. Thomas, Ontario racer knows he’ll have to deal with unique challenges along the way. For example, after winning his first champi-
onship in 2010, Kennington ran into some tough luck in the first few races of 2011, which knocked him off his stride. That sea- son, Scott Steckly collected his second driver’s title. How does DJ plan to avoid those pitfalls in 2013? “A lot of it has to do with luck,” Kennington
continued. “It’s hard to explain but you just approach every race with the mentality that you’re going to try to win. We know we’re going to have a big target on our backs after last season and I don’t expect anyone to give us an inch. The one thing we know is that everyone has been working hard to try to im- prove, so we can’t stand still.” Another motivating factor for Kennington came in the form of a engine rule change, dur- ing the off season.
DJ jokingly refers to it as ‘The DJ Kennington
Rule.’ Specifically, competitors who use the optional ‘spec’ motors were able to reduce the total weight of their cars by 80 pounds. In Kennington’s opinion, this was a response to his seven wins in 2012, but he contends that it was handling and reliability – rather than horsepower generated by his father’s leg- endary powerplants – that were primarily re- sponsible for last year’s success.
While there is a wide assortment of racers
who Kennington will have to overcome to win races, the list of championship rivals is shorter. Going into the season, DJ knows who he’ll have to beat all summer long if he’s to claim the big prize again. “There are a lot, but obviously it’s likely going to be Scott Steckly and J.R. Fitzpatrick. Hopefully, we’ll be there, too. And there are more. Ron Beauchamp Jr. has had a few tough seasons but he’s a great race car driver. There are a bunch of newcomers and young guys, too, with good equipment. I think some of them will be interesting to watch.”
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