Courtesy D.J.K. Racing
(Barrie, Ontario) – Almost 10 years to the day, the CASCAR Super Series returned to the newly remodeled Barrie Speedway. D.J. Kennington and his Castrol Canada Dodge were looking to turn their season around following a disappointing run at Mosport, and climb back into championship contention.
The weekend started with practice for the Dodge Charger 300, and Kennington struggled to stay in the top-ten. “Our setup is off, and I think we have a lot of work to do before qualifying”
In time trails, the Castrol machine didn’t pick up at all, as Kennington recorded the 19th-fastest lap of the session. “We missed it today. We came with a different setup, because at this new track we thought it would work. We’re going to go back to our old setup for tomorrow and see what we can do.”
Sunday’s Dodge Charger 300 rolled off under sunshine and beautiful skies, with Kennington on the outside of the ninth row. Saturday’s action had started to tear the track up and despite a concrete patch job, Sunday wasn’t much better for the CASCAR Super Series racers.
“The track was tight to begin with, but as soon as the asphalt started to come up there was no upper groove. As soon as you tried to get someone on the outside in turn four you would slide right into the wall.”
D.J. figured that track position would be much more important than new tires and under yellow on lap 22 he came to pit road to top off the fuel tank on his Charger, giving up 13th-place in the running order. The plan worked as he climbed into the top-ten after restarting at the back. Kennington would come to pit road again just before the lap 106 red flag to sweep the marbles off the racetrack, and Kennington hoped it would be his final appearance of the day in his stall.
After restarting ninth, D.J. passed a few cars under green and gained a number more spots when the leaders pitted just after halfway. Kennington was third on a lap 160 restart, behind Don Thomson Jr., and Jim Lapcevich, but Lapcevich was hit by a lapped car, and D.J. slid into second position. On lap 208, Kennington took advantage of Thomson slipping up while trying to lap a car, and D.J. took the top spot away, opening up a two second cushion on second-place Mark Dilley before another late race yellow packed the field. Kenningon couldn’t hold off Dilley, as both he, and Kerry Micks got by, relegating the # 17 machine to a third-place finish.
“After all the cars that wrecked today, we’re just happy to have ours in once piece. We pitted early for tires, because I knew track position was going to be everything, but at the end, Dilley and Micks just had fresher rubber, and we were probably a third-place car. The car was so much better today than yesterday, and we took a shot at the win, but just didn’t get it."
With the finish Kennington jumped from 11th in the standings to eighth, just a single point behind Jeff Lapcevich, and 33 markers out of the top-five.
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