BRISTOL, Tenn. – Ben Kennedy stole the lead from William Byron with 20 laps to go in Wednesday night’s UNOH 200 and later withstood an intense six-lap shootout with Brett Moffitt to the finish line to earn his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
With his triumph in his 63rd career series start, Kennedy, the great-grandson of NASCAR Founder Bill France Sr., became the first France family member to win a NASCAR national series race.
“I can’t put it into words,” said Kennedy, the son of International Speedway Corporation CEO Lesa France Kennedy. “Someone asked me earlier today what it’s like going to Bristol for your first time and to win here is just so cool. I’m speechless. The guys gave me an awesome truck. Everyone at GMS Racing, Jacob Companies, the fans in the stands, everybody watching on TV, gosh this is just the coolest day of my life.”
With two laps to go, Moffitt, driving the No. 11 Toyota Tundra – the truck piloted earlier this season by Kennedy – gave the Daytona Beach, Florida native a shot in the bumper, but Kennedy refused to be rattled and stretched his lead to 0.274-seconds at the checkered flag.
“I was just thinking go as fast as possible on this last lap,” Kennedy said. “I knew Brett was putting pressure on me from behind. I appreciate him racing me clean. This is just so cool. These guys deserve it. They work so hard.”
Moffitt, who earned a career-best second-place finish, didn’t have quite enough for Kennedy’s No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado when it counted most.
“We had a good truck, a strong truck all day,” Moffitt said. “We ran top-five, top-10 most of it. He had just enough to get away from us on that last restart. After that, we got to him once but couldn’t get around.”
Although Bristol has been widely known for its bump-and-run racing, Moffitt, continuing to fill-in for the recovering Matt Tifft, said he tried once, but couldn’t get to Kennedy to try again.
“I’m going to race people the way I want to be raced,” he said. “It is Bristol, so if you need to move someone, you got to move them. I just wasn’t quite good enough in the center to get to him. He slipped up a few times and I was able to get to his bumper once, but didn’t get to him hard enough. I was really waiting for him to make a mistake so I could shove my nose in there, but he executed when he needed to. He hit his marks and I just wasn’t able to get to him.”
With the victory, Kennedy virtually secures a spot in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase with three races remaining in the regular season.
“We put this deal together (with GMS Racing) a couple months ago and I never imagined – I never would have imagined going into this race that we would be here today,” Kennedy said. “I thought we were a top-15 truck or a top-10 truck, but to actually be here in Victory Lane means the world to me.”
The race was delayed nearly an hour after showers and thunderstorms soaked the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” Pole sitter Tyler Reddick led the opening lap before Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Daniel Suarez wrestled the lead away and led through a Lap 29 caution for rain.
Suarez would continue to lead until Bell took command following the competition caution on Lap 42 and lead a race-high 101 laps before the complexion of the race began to change dramatically.
While battling for the lead on a Lap 143 restart, Bell got loose and spun underneath Suarez. 37 laps later, Suarez was challenged by Byron who took the lead for one lap before slipping out of the groove on the high side allowing Kennedy to sneak by on the bottom and never relinquish.
Truck teams were the first to experience a modified racing surface Wednesday after track officials applied a VHT traction compound – it is a custom formulated resin – to the bottom groove in the hopes it will return the high-speed half-mile oval to its former on-the-bottom greatness. The change generated most positively comments from Kennedy and those participating in the race and others NASCAR drivers watching on television.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action next Saturday, Aug. 27 at Michigan International Speedway for the running of the Careers for Veterans 200. Kyle Busch is the defending champion.
Source: Chris Knight
RACE NOTES:
Average Speed: 74.387 MPH
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 25 Mins, 59 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 0.274 Seconds
Lead Changes: 7 among 5 drivers
Cautions: 9 for 55 laps[table=3375]# = Rookie, Fin = Finish, Str = Start, Pts = Total Points, BPs = Lap Leader Bns Pts, TLd = Times Led, LLd = Laps Led. (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series[table=3376]BPts – Bonus Points, -Ldr/-Nxt = Points behind Leader/Next higher, PPos = Previous Position, G/L = Points standing gain/loss, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Source: Timing and Scoring provided by NASCARMedia/NASCAR Statistics
