ST. THOMAS, ON – Driver DJ Kennington and the #17 Castrol Edge Dodge team certainly do enjoy racing at their home track Delaware Speedway. Saturday night at the half-mile oval near London, ON, Kennington posted his second victory of the 2012 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season and with it climbed into the overall championship point lead.
The #17 Castrol Edge Dodge was at the top of the time sheets for much of practice but endured a technical hiccup in the timing system during qualifying. “NASCAR had a problem with the timing system during out run,” said Kennington. “Once they got it fixed we ran our two laps again and put it on pole.”
Demonstrating that the #17 Castrol Edge Dodge would again be a tough to beat Kennington proceeded to lead the first 55 laps. “The car felt good right from the beginning,” said Kennington. “I wanted to lead some laps early to pick up the bonus point and we did that.”
Following a pit stop for fuel Kennington would relinquish the lead but the #17 Castrol Edge Dodge was never far from the front. “It’s important to save a little for the end of the race and I didn’t get too aggressive in the middle stages” he explained.
Kennington would work his way up to second prior to scheduled pit stops and put himself in position to score another victory. “We had a long green flag run and we needed to change tires on the #17 Castrol Edge Dodge,” said Kennington. The crew would perform flawless service during the stop and return Kennington to the race in second.
It’s then an unusual sequence took place. First the track lights went out on the front straightaway. Once power was restored the #84 car leading the race made an unscheduled pit stop to repair a brake issue and surrendered the lead of the race. “That’s a tough break for them. I never want to see that happen to anybody. It was shaping up to be a great battle in the closing laps with the two of us” he said.
Once the race resumed Kennington showed the strength of the #17 Castrol Edge Dodge and claimed his second consecutive race victory. “What a day for us. It’s extra special winning here, I’ve raced at Delaware so often, my Dad was here tonight too and he’s at the top of the list of people I have to thank. Castrol of course, Mahindra, Hitachi Tools, Bryan Cathcart and this great group of guys, I’m so proud of this whole team!”
The race victory combined with bonus points now gives Kennington the overall championship point leader after four events.
DJ Kennington and the #17 Castrol Edge Dodge team begin the annual trek through western Canada for round number five of the series on July 14 at Motoplex Speedway near Vernon, BC. Fans will be able to watch the race from Delaware Speedway on Sunday July 8 at 3 p.m. EST on TSN.
Race fans are encouraged to keep up to date with the latest team news in several ways. Race fans should bookmark the team website www.djkracing.ca and follow them on twitter, @djkracing and fans are also suggested to join the Facebook Group DJK Racing.
Discussion about this post