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Chad Kemenah
No Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series driver has had more success at Virginia Motor Speedway than Chad Kemenah. He is one of just three series drivers that has competed at the track located in Jamaica, Virginia. He set the track record for a 410-sprint car in time trials in his lone trek to Virginia Motor Speedway, also winning a heat race and then finishing second in the A-Feature.
The 2006 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year will look to use this experience at the high-banked half-mile on Saturday, May 24 as the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series makes their inaugural visit to the state of Virginia for the Armed Forces Appreciation 30. It will mark just the second 410-sprint car event ever held in the history of the track.
“The facility is beautiful and the racing was pretty good the time we were out there,” said Kemenah of his visit to the track with the All Star Circuit of Champions in 2004. “It’s been a while since we have been out there. The main thing I remember is that the facility was phenomenal. It’s a really nice place.”
While the track is a high-banked half-mile like Eldora Speedway in Ohio and Lebanon Valley Speedway in New York, it does not really resemble those tracks other than in the height of the banking. Kemenah hopes that his experience at the track will be beneficial when the cars roll out for time trials, which is always vital to having a good night at a big, fast half-mile. It will be one of four tracks the series visits for the first time this season and the only new half-mile on the schedule.
“It’s not really similar to anywhere else we go,” noted the native of Findlay, Ohio who drives the Kantor Oil Company Maxim. “It’s a very big track. I don’t know if it really helps having raced there against these guys, because they all adapt pretty quick. Hopefully it won’t hurt us either.”
Kemenah enters this weekend solidly in the Top-10 in World of Outlaws championship points, as he is eighth on the strength of four Top-Five finishes. He is just 46 markers out of the Top-Five, and earned a season-best third-place finish at Lernerville Speedway on May 13. He also has one fast time honor to his credit this year, stopping the clocks first at I-55 Raceway in Missouri last month, the same track he earned his first career World of Outlaws A-Feature win at in 2005.
“It’s going right now a little better than we had hoped,” said the four-time All Star Circuit of Champions title winner of the start to the 2008 campaign. “Other than a couple of times we have had some misfortune and not finished, it’s been going pretty good. We want to win, but if we can stay consistently in the Top-Five and Top-10, the wins will come.”
