Crash takes Kennington out of competition, Busch wins
Nineteen years after his first professional race — a 150-mile loop on a May Sunday in Delaware, Ont. — D.J. Kennington reached the pinnacle of his sport at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.
Inbetween,heentered204straight races in NASCAR’s Canadian series. He won 26 of them en route to two season championships. But whenever he retires as one of the greatest drivers this country has produced, the highlight of his years in stock cars will be a 16-car wreck — the circumstance that ended Kennington’s debut at the Daytona 500.
Kennington ran a clean race until the 127th of 200 laps, when he was caught in the tail end of the pileup and knocked out of contention. He nearly slipped to safety along the inside of the track, but the front right wheel of his Toyota Camry rammed into the skidding Jimmie Johnson, who had spun out in the middle of the speedway seconds before.
He wound up 36th of 40 drivers after the damage was accounted for, two spots behind Johnson.
Premature exit aside, Sunday’s action capped a breakthrough week for the St. Thomas, Ont. driver on NASCAR’s biggest stage.
Kennington,39,arrivedatDaytona several days ago without a guaranteed spot in the main field. He qualified for his first 500 on Thursday by the slimmest and most dramatic of margins: on a last-lap pass in a last-chance preliminary race, winning himself the last of 40 starting positions by four-hundredths of a second.
In doing so, he became Canada’s firstdriveratthe500in29years,and achieved something no Canadian had ever done before: qualify for Daytona with only one prior start in NASCAR’s top-tier Cup Series.
“Thanks to all who helped make this possible!” Kennington tweeted Sunday afternoon, about 40 minutes after he left the race. “Just couldn’t clear the wreck we did our best.”
Kennington wasn’t involved in the first of several significant wrecks on Sunday. Kyle Busch’s sudden spinout on the 103rd lap sent himself and three other drivers to the garage, including Cup Series veterans Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Canadian also avoided mistakes that befell other newcomers to the 500, like fellow “open” qualifier Corey LaJoie, who slid into a wall early in the race while trying to exit onto pit road. Three-time runner-up Kurt Busch moved from second place into first on the final lap to win his first Daytona 500. Ryan Blaney was second and A.J. Allmendinger third.