DAYTONA BEACH, FL – The start of the NPP Late Model Series season is still two months away. On Friday afternoon, about 4,600 kilometers from Edmonton, Alberta, a Northern Provincial Pipelines sponsored #81 Dodge was turning some heads. Canadian DJ Kennington overcame long odds to qualify for Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (formerly Busch Series) race at Daytona International Speedway. The 30-year-old from St. Thomas, Ontario was the 52nd of 53 racers who participated in time trials in advance of Saturday’s season-opening Camping World 300. Kennington’s NPP / STP Tools Dodge Charger posted the 18th-fastest lap. After qualifying concluded it was revealed that two drivers ahead of Kennington had their qualifying times revoked so the Canadian will start on the outside of row eight on Saturday.

Kennington plans to participate in the bulk of the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ events in 2008, as well as in the full NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. In 2007, he finished second in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series points on the strength of two wins in the 12-race series. Kennington’s qualifying lap of 50.278 seconds (179.005 mph) was better than that of many of NASCAR’s most well-known and well-funded stars, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards. “It’s just a dream come true. Honestly, I don’t know what else to say. Worked my whole life to get here and we did it… we did it. It doesn’t matter what happens from here because we’re in the race and that’s all that matters to me. I feel like we won.” Toyota driver Tony Stewart posted the fastest time during qualifying, at 49.741 secs. / 180.937 mph and will sit on the pole for Saturday’s race. “We made a bunch of changes last night,” says Kennington, “I guess Randy [MacDonald] made the right calls. We were just trying to free it up so we could run as fast as we could alone in qualifying. Now we need to get it dialed in for tomorrow.”

>with files from Greg MacPherson / Inside Track Motorsports News