Another strong year for Kenney

MANASSAS, Va. -- Phil Kenney had another good year in the Speedway division at Old Dominion Speedway in 2009. The 46-year-old Gainesville driver finished second in points. He now has two second-place points finishes and a championship from 2007.

This season, Kenney racked up five top-fives out of six races, including three seconds and a third. He was outmatched only by old pro James Lucas, who won five races and the championship.

"It was a good year," Kenney said. "Dr. Lucas has raced for quite a long time, so losing the championship to him wasn't too bad. He knows the track, the car and competes well."

Coming into the year, Kenney thought he might have at least one opportunity to beat Lucas. At the midpoint of the season, Kenney finally had that chance but couldn't make the pass and the opportunity didn't come again.

Perhaps Kenney's biggest victory last season was being instrumental in reviving the Speedway division. ODS officials shut down the division for 2008 because of so few cars. But that year, Kenney and fellow racer Dave Nobles began discussing how to restore the division.

The two men soon realized that ODS's 2007 rules for Speedway wouldn't let them come up with enough drivers to restart the division. So they decided to put together a Speedway rule package that was flexible enough to include cars that raced not only at ODS, but at Southern National and Shenandoah. Kenney focused on the rules package, and Nobles did the footwork of contacting potential drivers on the phone and the Internet and generally getting the word out to people who might race at ODS under these new rules.

Eventually, Kenney and Nobles found around 10 drivers who were willing to commit to the new division. That was enough to get ODS officials to set up some racing dates, and so the Mid-Atlantic Street Stock division came into being.

"The goal was to come up with a rules package that would enable cars from different tracks to compete without having to make a lot of changes, especially from year to year," Kenney said.

"Drivers' biggest complaint had been that too many rule changes every season increased costs. So we stuck with 8-inch tires and a two-barrel carburetor, and we had cars from Shenandoah, from Apex in North Carolina, from Saluda, a dirt track in Virginia, and from ODS competing in 2009."

Kenney was pleased that things came together and that he could be back on the track racing again.

"It was great putting it together," he said. "It was one of those things that if we were going to race, Dave and I were going to have to put something together ourselves."

Kenney was also happy that the division was more competitive last season than in 2007. Aside from people who crashed or had mechanical problems, every car finished on the lead lap in 2009.

Kenney is looking forward to 2010 at ODS. He expects a few more drivers in the division and some good competition.

Kenney said the hard work of putting a new division together was well worth it.

"Racing is a lot of fun," Kenney said. "And there are good people in our division and at Old Dominion. So it's just a fun time at the track."