BOWMANVILLE, ON – Canada’s DJ Kennington was North America’s busiest race car driver on the Fathers Day weekend. The St.Thomas Ontario driver completed a weekend double play by racing in two different Series in two countries. Kennington was behind the wheel of the Mahindra Tractors/Northern Provincial Pipelines #81 Dodge Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway. Less than 24 hours later, Kennington would spend Sunday afternoon racing his Castrol Oil/Northern Provincial Pipelines sponsored #17 Dodge on the road course at Mosport International Raceway. For the American race, this would be Kenningtons first ever attempt at running the 1.5 mile facility in Kentucky. After qualifying a disappointing 34th, Kennington quickly moved into the top 10. A costly pit stop however would drop him back to 30th. “We were running 7th,” indicates Kennington, “our times were comparable to the top cars all day long but we had some problems with the tires on a green flag pit stop and it cost us big.” Kennington would claw his way back and eventually finished the Kentucky race in 26th.

Kennington currently sits 25th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings, less than 150 points out of the top 20. Before the engine even cooled down on his #81 Dodge, Kennington was headed back to Canada to compete in the Canadian Tire NASCAR Series. There would be no private jet for the Ontario driver this night. “It would be great to have a jet for these things,” smiles Kennington, “but let’s be honest, this is who I am. I work on my cars, I tune my engines and I drive to racetracks.” Nine hours after leaving Sparta, Kentucky, Kennington would arrive at MIR near Bowmanville, Ontario for his next race. “As we were running the Kentucky race (Saturday) Ken Worth was shaking down the car on the road course and qualifying it for us in Canada. He passed along some valuable information.” Due to current Series rules, a driver change would force Kennington to start at the back of the 29 car field. Once the green flag dropped, DJ stormed his way to the front. In only 14 laps he would make his way up to 10th. With clouds threatening, Kennington pitted and it was decided to put rain tires on the car. “This was our chance at victory, and a great call, no doubt.”

On the final lap, with rain falling, Kennington would slide into second finishing right behind the race winner J.R. Fitzpatrick. Kennington’s finish propelled him to 7th in the Canadian Tire NASCAR Series point standings. “It was an exhausting and exhilarating weekend. I’m very proud of the teams on both sides of the border.” Kennington will have to endure 13 international double duty weekends the remainder of the season. In the meantime Kennington has only one race to worry about this weekend. The NASCAR Nationwide Series competes in Wisconsin at the Milwaukee Mile this Saturday, June 21st. “That first top-10 finish is getting closer. We are coming into a stretch of great races for us (Milwaukee/New Hampshire/Daytona) where we can show our improvements!”

NEXT NATIONWIDE SERIES EVENT
The Milwaukee Mile – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Camping World 250 (250 laps)

> SATURDAY, June 21st
Practice #1: 8:00am – Edmonton time
Practice #2: 9:45am – Edmonton time
Qualifying: 3:35pm – Edmonton time
Race: 6:30pm – Edmonton time