Kennedy Eyes Rebound at Texas
Ben Kennedy of Daytona Beach, FL enters Friday’s WinStar World Casino and Resort 350 looking to stop a trend. With four top 10s in his last 12 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts, Kennedy has dropped from sixth to eighth in standings since Iowa in July. A string of bad luck has hampered Kennedy’s finishes lately including brake problems, a broken hub and running out of fuel.
“We’re looking forward to Texas because we brought a brand new truck here and we’ve got some new stuff that we’re going to try out,” Kennedy said. “So I’m looking forward to it and really the next three races we’ve got Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead ,which I ran last year so I’ve got experience at all three of those racetracks, which is kind of uncommon for me this year.
Kennedy will only have multiple starts at six tracks through the end of the season: Bristol, Chicagoland, Homestead, Iowa, Martinsville, and Texas. Kennedy has three NASCAR K&N Pro Series West starts at Phoenix in 2011-12.
“…. I’m looking forward to the next three and trying to finish off with a good spot in the point standings and hopefully see if we can’t get a win or top five to end the year.”
The Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender drives the No. 31 Heater.com Chevrolet for Turner Scott Motorsports.
“I think my goal coming in was to learn as much as I can and finish as many laps as we can and I think we’ve done just about that,” Kennedy said. “Obviously things haven’t really gone in our direction at some of the races, running out of gas or flat tires or this or that, but at the end of the day I think I’ve kind of lived up to my expectations of learning as much as I can about these trucks, about the air, about the new body style and it’s been a pretty good year overall.”
Reports of turmoil surfaced in August, eventually including the No. 30 team of Ron Hornaday, Jr. shutting down. Despite internal affairs being brought to public attention, Kennedy has concentrated on improving his efforts.
“We’ve been just trying to focus as much as we can on going out there and performing in the race and really kind of sitting down the week before the race and trying to really decide what our game plan is going into it, what we need to focus on and how we can achieve our goals,” Kennedy said. “And honestly the motivation and energy from our team in the garage area has been pretty remarkable the second half of the season as much as it has the first half of the season. A bunch of these races we’re coming to it feels like were coming to Daytona again and there’s a little bit of a renewed excitement and energy behind it.”
Kennedy is working on next season, providing the timeline of “the next month or so” for an announcement for his plans.
“There’s still some questions that we need to figure out and just trying to piece our way together for next year and there’s a bunch of different options on the table and we’re definitely going to take everything into consideration,” Kennedy said. “Trying to figure out what makes the most sense to us right now and hopefully we’ll be able to make some announcements on that pretty soon.”
Kennedy was profiled by NASCAR Hall of Famer and former champion Dale Jarrett in September for the Sunoco Rookie Report.
“To be able to do that interview with him was really cool,” Kennedy said. “I’ve always looked up to him as a driver, as a commentator for all the Cup races and to be able to do something like that – there’s a bunch of cool media opportunities that NASCAR lets us get involved in and that was definitely one of ’em.
“It’s great for us as up and coming drivers to not only get exposure to that and get comfortable to it, but also get exposure of ourselves and our brands and try to ultimately make fans out there ’cause fans is what really drives this sport and makes it go around.”
Kennedy reflected on his time with the NASCAR Next in 2013, a program designed to highlight NASCAR’s emerging drivers.
“It’s been really cool and to be a part of that program last year,” Kennedy said. “I had the opportunity to travel to really cool places like Chicago and Homestead for (the) championship and do a bunch of other media appearances. … It was a really calm atmosphere because everyone was friends with each other. All the drivers we all had good relationships with each other, so it was really a lot of fun more than of a headache than anything.”
A graduate of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, Kennedy scored wins at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL and Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC. After advancing to the Camping World Trucks, Kennedy has continued to field his own team. Kenzie Ruston of El Reno, OK drove for Ben Kennedy Racing No. 96 during her sophomore campaign in the series. Ruston also belong to the NASCAR Next team.
“She was a part of it for the second time this year and seeing her be a part of it, being involved with a lot of different opportunities, it’s really great and it’s really good to see something like that that NASCAR’s built to kind of get us integrated to face to face with a lot of top media members,” Kennedy said.
“It’s been a really great experience to see Kenzie go out there and run and be so competitive,” Kennedy said. “It kind of seems like their season has been on the same track as ours in the Truck Series, a flat tire at Pensacola. I honestly think they could have had a couple of wins this year and luck just didn’t go their way, but it’s been great working with Kenzie. She’s a great person not only on the track, but off the track as well and she handles herself very professionally and knows what to say and when to say it. And to see her finish second and beat her own record for top finishing female in the K&N series says a lot about her talent and where her career is probably going to take her in the future.”
Kennedy said that an announcement would be made on the new bodies at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) on Monday in Las Vegas. “Once that gets out, we’ll be able to start getting bodies in and start getting the plates on our cars and start getting ready for next year.”
“With the new bodies coming out and everything, it’s a lot of excitement around the series and to be able to continue a team and really make ourselves efficient down in Daytona,” Kennedy said. “We have to outsource a couple of things here and there engines and transmissions and stuff like that, but we can do a lot of the repair and maintenance down there in Daytona, which is really cool and to have that operation and to have it build each offseason and get better and better. I think it will definitely start showing over the next couple of years how strong our team is and how capable our cars are of hopefully getting out there and winning races and championships.”
Kennedy understands the magnitude of this change as a driver and owner.
“I kind of experienced it secondhand this year with the Truck Series going to new body and kind of understanding the challenges that we had with it internally and trying to learn from it,” Kennedy said. “I think it will kind of carry over a little bit to the K&N car next year, but ultimately I think it’s a great decision. I think it’s going to bring a lot of brand identity to the series and a lot more legitimacy, I think you could say and even though it might be a little bit of an initial cost over the next couple of years, you’re definitely going to want to be with it and it will start saving a lot for the repair and maintenance of the bodies over the next years to come.”
Kennedy will have a new driver for 2015 in Kaz Grala of Westborough, MA. Grala drove the No. 31 car for Turner Scott during his rookie season.
“We kind of helped each other back and forth on the K&N side a little bit, but I’ve been really trying to focus on my truck stuff at TSM and having Ben Kennedy Racing there as well. It’s been kind of a cool medium for us to communicate back and forth from the Truck stuff to K&N stuff,” Kennedy said.
“I’ve already started working with Kaz a little bit,” Kennedy said “I’ve seen him race this year in the K&N series and he finished second at Dover, which we were all really amazed by. So we’re looking forward to working with Kaz and really seeing what he can do and he’s got a lot of enthusiasm for the sport and trying to be successful in it”
Kennedy views this offseason as a major opportunity for his team to improve. Kennedy said the team has raced the Redeye at New Smyrna or Snowball Derby at Five Flags in Late Models in past years. By forgoing those events, Kennedy believe his team’s performance will be stronger next season.
“This is the first true offseason that we had that we can really tear down the bodies and chassis and take a good hard look at ’em and see what we can improve on and clean ’em up and really be ready next year,” Kennedy said. “Kind of coming out of the box with all these teams like when we come to Daytona initially or whatever, we’re always just a step or two behind. … A good three or four months for them to kind of get everything back on the same playing field again, I think we’ll be more competitive this year than we’ve ever been.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com