Canada’s Kennington lands spot in Daytona 500

D.J. Kennington is the iron man of Canadian stock car driving, a veteran of 204 straight races who won 26 of them for good measure. He is a two-time national champion and a regular in NASCAR’s minor leagues.

Now, he can tack another accolade to his resume: Daytona 500 qualifier.

Kennington outgunned the drivers he needed to beat in the CanAm Duel at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday night in Daytona Beach, Fla., securing the last of 40 starting positions in NASCAR’s biggest race. The 39-year-old from St. Thomas, Ont., finished ahead of Elliott Sadler and Timmy Hill, the two other racers in his heat who arrived at Daytona without a guaranteed spot.

Kennington lined up 19th of 21 drivers to start the second of the duel’s two heats, behind Sadler in 18th and ahead of Hill in 21st. Hill was lapped and pulled out midway through the 150-mile race.

Sadler, who assured himself a spot in the 500 through his performance in a time trial last Sunday, would have eliminated Kennington by topping him in the duel. Instead, Kennington slipped past Sadler on the final lap and beat him to the line by four-100ths of a second.

Kennington is the first Canadian to make the Daytona 500 since 1988, when Trevor Boys of Calgary qualified for the fifth and final time in his career.

Kennington nearly earned himself a spot in the 500 before the duel, but fell 0.445 seconds off the mark Sunday in the one-lap time trial. His time of 48.175 seconds slotted him back of Sadler (47.730) and Brendan Gaughan (47.545), who were the first two drivers without a confirmed spot to advance to the main race.

North Carolina’s Corey LaJoie claimed the second-last spot in the field in the first heat Thursday.