By Bill W
August 23, 2012 – It was a busy two weeks for the Keneric Racing #29 team and driver Kerry Madsen. After a bit of a disappointing Knoxville Nationals, they competed in three events with the World of Outlaws last week, with a pair of seventh place finishes. The WoO is back in Canada this weekend at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton, Alberta.
Things started with mechanical difficulties in both qualifying and in the main event on Kerry’s Nationals qualifying night on Wednesday. “We would have been o.k. points-wise, without our mechanical DNF on Wednesday night,” he says. “That’s what put us in our hole. That’s pretty unusual for our program to have something like that happen. That’s the way it goes.”
A new Friday format gave Kerry a second chance at the championship main event Saturday night. A top four finish on Friday amongst the 67 competitors would have locked him in. But he would fall a spot short after making a late pass for the fourth and final transfer. He also drove from 15th to 6th in the Speed Sport World Challenge. “I thought I had it on Friday night,” says Kerry. “I apologized to everyone. I should have shut the door on Cody (Darrah in the pass for fourth), and I didn’t. I passed him (for the final transfer to Saturday’s A), and I went by him so quick. I’ve raced at Knoxville a long time, and usually when you go by someone like that, you don’t see them again. Unfortunately, I should have shut the door on him. That was a mistake.”
The fifth place finish set Kerry up to start eleventh in Saturday’s B main. With 22 laps to get to the top four, it was still very realistic. But a first lap tangle with Dusty Zomer flattened a tire and sent Kerry to the rear. He would charge back up to ninth at the checkers in the non-stop event. “On Saturday, we got into the incident with Zomer,” he says. “We had a flat tire and it was over from there pretty much. We definitely had a fast car. When there are 100 cars…the best in the nation, you have to have everything going for you. You have a hiccup, that’s what happens.”
Hopes were high for the team going into the Nationals. “To be honest, it’s a tough pill to swallow,” says Kerry. “After winning the June Outlaw show there, of course, you’re thinking you have a shot. That’s natural.”
At Junction Motor Speedway near McCool Junction, Nebraska, on Tuesday, August 14, Kerry timed in sixth, was fourth in his heat and drove from 11th to 7th in the feature. “We had an awesome racecar at McCool Junction,” he says. “The race went non-stop. We were coming on really strong actually.”
Last Friday night saw a DNF at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota. “I had my usual bad luck at River Cities,” admits Kerry. “I think we started 13th, and on the first lap, I was following Joey (Saldana) on the top about half throttle. Someone put a big slide job on me and we disintegrated a car. That was bad.”
The weekend concluded at the Nodak Speedway in Minot, North Dakota. “It seemed like there was a right rear on me the whole night. We started in the front row of the Dash, and ended up third. We were running third in the feature, and (Jason) Sides put a slider on me that knocked me off the track.”
He would avoid disaster and climb back to seventh. “We drove back up to fifth,” says Kerry. “On a restart, with a few to go, I lost a couple of spots. We were o.k. We actually came back to Knoxville to switch out the car we destroyed at Grand Forks. We’ll be back in Canada by Friday though.”
Follow Kerry Madsen on his Website and on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter!
Follow Kerry Madsen at his website located at www.KenericRacing.com! Also keep up with him on Facebook and Twitter (which also can be accessed at the website) at the following links…
Facebook link = http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Official-Fan-Page-for-Kerry-Madsen/101145169933686
Twitter link = http://twitter.com/#!/kmr29
Kerry’s Releases
To receive Kerry’s Releases, send an e-mail to sprntcar@hotmail.com with “Madsen” in the subject line!
The Team
Kerry Madsen (KMR / Keneric Racing), Bob & Peter Gavranich (Keneric Racing), Earthex, Morrison Motors, KPC Chassis.
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