It was a total team effort by DJ Kennington and the Castrol Dodge team at round number nine of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec this past weekend. In fact due to his Nationwide series racing commitments Kennington didn’t even arrive at the race track until Sunday morning.
Doug Brown who normally drives the Haldex Dodge would practice and qualify the Castrol Dodge during the early sessions of the weekend. Brown only ran a total of five practice laps and didn’t even complete a full lap of the circuit during the qualifying session. “I told Doug I wanted him to come back with stickers still on the tires” joked Kennington. The plan was to use the car as little as possible, since I would have to start at the back.”
Since Brown qualified the car for Kennington DJ did fall to the back of pack as per the rules but he didn’t stay there for long. “I’ve got nothing to wait for, it was go right from the start” said the driver.
As Kennington worked the Castrol Dodge through the field he was quickly into the top-ten. “Before the race we figured that if we could get up to about eighth place that would really be a tremendous showing for us. Since we achieved that goal I just kept pushing to try and pick up even more ground, especially since the #4 car was having a tough day it was a real opportunity to boost our position in the championship.”
Kennington continued to work the Castrol Dodge forward in the field and eventually into the top-five. With a late race caution setting up a green, white checkered finish Kennington knew he had one more opportunity to gain position with the field bunched up for the restart. He would take advantage and complete the pass to claim a fourth place finish, and his eighth consecutive top-five finish on the season.
Afterward DJ was quick to praise the efforts of all those that made this remarkable weekend possible. “I’ve got to thank Doug Brown enough for practicing the car and getting it into the race. My dad of course for all he does and to Dave Wight for working so hard preparing the race car. He’s really done a tremendous job and grown so much in this position I’m really proud of him. It’s great for Castrol and all of our supporters. We didn’t gain on the #22 in the standings but we did pick up some ground.”
DJ Kennington jumps up one position in the overall championship standings is now second overall with four races remaining.
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