NPP: DJ Kennington prepares for NASCAR Nationwide race at Las Vegas

The 2009 race season of the Northern Provincial Pipelines Late Model Series is still two months away. But south of the border, NPP is flying the Alberta and Canadian flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

KENNINGTON EYEING TOP TEN IN NATIONWIDE STANDINGS

LAS VEGAS, NV (February 26th) – With the lights of Las Vegas shimmering in the distance, Canada’s DJ Kennington hopes he can deal his way into a top 10 position in the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings. Las Vegas Motors Speedway is the next stop for the St. Thomas Ontario driver this weekend. Kennington currently sits 12th in points after finishing16th and 24th at the Daytona and California races.

“I think we have come out of the box pretty strong this year,” says the St. Thomas, Ontario driver, “we have had two pretty good runs. I am hoping we can get the No. 81 Dodge in to the top 10 this weekend at Vegas.” Last year, in his first ever visit to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kennington finished 29th after qualifying his race car in 34th. “There is still a bit of a learning curve running these big tracks,” adds Kennington, “but we are starting to see results from what we learned last season. We’re heading in the right direction that’s for sure.”

Veteran NASCAR racer Michael Waltrip sits just 6 points ahead of Kennington in the Nationwide Series point standings. Kennington is only 18 points back of being in the top 10. “Last year at this time we were sitting 27th in the standings.” After Las Vegas, Kennington and his Northern Provincial Pipelines Ltd sponsored team and the rest of the Nationwide Series competitors have almost one complete month off after four consecutive weekends of racing.

SAM’S TOWN 300 (200 laps/300 miles)
>Friday, February 27th
Practice Session #1 – 11:30am (Edmonton time)
Practice Session #2 – 2:45pm (Edmonton time)
>Saturday, February 28th
Qualifying – 10:00am (Edmonton time)
RACE – 2:30pm (Edmonton time)

Northern Provincial Pipelines, based in Edson, Alberta is title sponsor of the NPP Late Model Series which brings big league racing to Western Canadian race fans. Northern Provincial Pipelines is also proud to be one of the major sponsors of the #81 Dodge driven by Canada’s DJ Kennington in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

From Gord Craig

DJ Kennington finishes 17th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona (2/14/09)

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Canadian DJ Kennington finished 17th in today's NASCAR Nationwide Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway. The St. Thomas, ON racer started 16th in the field of 43 but quickly fell back into the mid-20s with a severe loose-handling condition on the #81 DH Griffin Dodge.

After three rounds of pit stops - each for tires, fuel and significant setup adjustments - Kenningon's car finally tightened up and he was able to advance, making it as high as 12th with 23 laps to go. Eventually, the MacDonald Motorsports Dodge came home in 17th spot.

Tony Stewart won the race, driving for Rick Hendrick. Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer were second and third, respectively.

Photos by Greg MacPherson / Inside Track

Joe Gibbs Racing to be punished

Penalties are expected to be handed down to the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 (driven by Tony Stewart) and the No. 20 (driven by Joey Logano) NASCAR Nationwide cars after being caught attempting to alter their dyno results with 1/4 inch thick magnets under their gas petals.

Toyota has won 15 of 25 races this year in the Nationwide series, 14 of which have been Camry's for Joe Gibbs Racing. This resulted in NASCAR mandating Toyota Nationwide teams to use a smaller spacer to cut about 15 horsepower in their motors.

"The intention was to manipulate the numbers that we get when we get our information and data off the dyno," NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said.

The magnets prevented the throttle from going 100 percent wide open.

"Let me just say that, first and foremost, that that was a really poor, foolish decision on the part of our key guys there at JGR," Gibbs said. "I want to apologize to NASCAR, to our partners, to Toyota guys. A couple guys chose to make a decision there that really impacts all of us."

NASCAR officials are to meet Monday or Tuesday to decide on possible penalties.

More can be found here: http://tsn.ca/auto_racing/story/?id=246681&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_auto_racing