3 Down 32 to Go!
by DJ Kennington - Staff Writer
NASCAR Nationwide Series Driver
03/08/2008

Hello to everyone! My name is DJ Kennington, driver of the 81 MacDonald Motorsports Dodge in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. I want to thank Catchfence for providing me an avenue to tell me weekly adventures in the Nationwide Series.

First off, let me tell you a little about myself. I am from St. Thomas Ontario, Canada and have been racing in the Canadian Tire Series/CASCAR for the past 15 years. Last season, I was given the opportunity to run some Busch Series events for my fellow Canadian and good friend, Randy MacDonald. The experience provided last season has only increased my desire to compete against the worlds best drivers in stock cars.

In the Canadian Tire Series, I have had some great seasons with my sponsor Castrol which I have been with for 15 consecutive seasons in the series. Our sponsorship is the longest in the series as I also hold the "Iron Man" title for most consecutive starts.

The 2008 season looks to be a promising one as MacDonald Motorsports plans on running the entire season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. I will have to miss a few races due to my commitments up North but will still race in nearly 30 races this year.

We entered Daytona among a 53 car field understanding that we must qualify on time. With a new sponsor, STP Tools on board, it would be a dream come true to start this event. With little testing, our team worked hard to place us 16th on the starting grid. To state that is was an emotional time, would not be fair as we remembered our fallen owner, "Doc" MacDonald in the achievement. We finished the day 33rd but the experience gained was even bigger.

As we entered California, I once again was visiting a track for the first time. With the buckets of rain that fell, we started 31st and improved through out the day in 26th. Practice would have benefited us greatly but we cant argue with Mother Nature.

Our team packed up and headed to Sin City. WOW! Las Vegas is something else! Once again we made the field at a track I haven't seen other than on TV. The day went sour immediately as we got spun from behind on lap two, and tore up the left rear of the car. This great team never gave up and got me back on the track only to me run over some debris that ultimately tore off the right front. Still we never faltered and the team made the repairs. Oddly enough, we ran faster laps with a beat up car than we did in qualifying that only gave me confidence in the guys turning the wrenches. We finished 29th at Vegas and headed back home.

So here we are now in Atlanta, and once again, I have never seen this place either. The only thing that is familiar is the rain. The guys have worked really hard to get the car ready and I only hope we can make our newest sponsors MC2 Energy and Mahindra Tractors proud.

As the weeks go by, I will try to explain just how special our MacDonald Motorsports team really is. Until then, I will leave you with some snippets.