Ben Kennedy No. 96 Weber Grills Chevrolet Camaro Kentucky Recap

Ben Kennedy and the No. 96 Weber Grills team arrived at the newly-repaved Kentucky Speedway on Thursday hoping to get in two practice sessions for Friday night’s Alsco 300, but inclement weather forced the team to prepare with just one session before qualifying on Friday.

 

Kennedy fought a free handling condition in practice and qualifying, with the team getting enough speed out of the Weber Grills Camaro to earn a 16th-place starting position. Unfortunately, more weather moved him following qualifying with NASCAR rescheduling the race for Saturday afternoon. 

 

When the Daytona Beach, Fla., native finally took the green flag for the race he reported to crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz that he was battling an extremely free Chevrolet on entry and exit. He worked his way up to the 15th position before pitting for the first time during the competition caution on lap 25 for a chassis adjustment. Kennedy’s handling woes continued, with the team visiting pit road during cautions to tighten up the No. 96 machine as the track continued to heat up in the afternoon sun.

 

Stankiewicz brought his driver to pit road one last time during the final caution on lap 168, giving him two tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment to provide more rear grip. Kennedy restarted within the top-15 and maintained his position until reporting to the team that he believed he was experiencing engine troubles. Not being able to fix the issue on pit road, the team went to the garage with less than 20 laps to go, ending their day in the 32nd position.

 

Quote

“Today was a tough day for our No. 96 Weber Grills team. We felt like we had a decent car going into the race but we just couldn’t get the handling comfortable on a long run. I think we had finally made some progress after that last stop, but unfortunately we began to have an engine issue and didn’t want to chance staying out any longer and messing up the race for anyone else.”

 

GMS Racing PR