By T.J. Buffenbarger
One year ago at the Chili Bowl Nationals Ross Wece captured a moment that the time seemed innocent enough at the time, but ended up going viral on social media throughout the world of open wheel racing.
Keith Kunz’s driver Christopher Bell had gone to the work area. As the feature was about to go back to green flag conditions Kunz felt he had not had the allotted time to fix Bell’s car and showed his displeasure with both arms in the air.
While reviewing the night’s video with Tyler Thomas to see how much time Bell’s crew had been given in the work area Wece paused the video on Kunz with his hands up in the air. Everyone in the trailer at the time found that moment amusing. Wece promptly saved the image realizing they had a funny image. Now Wece and his friends had to ponder what to do with it.
Ironically Wece was not the first to use the image as a meme of sorts. That distinction Wece’s friend Kevin Holley.
“I was actually really apprehensive/nervous about putting out for fear of embarrassing Keith or anyone on his crew,” said Wece. “But when (Holley) used it, and the reaction was fantastic, then we all jumped in on the fun.”
The instant reaction caught Wece off guard and people were instantly amused at what became affectionately known as “Frustrated Keith”. Throughout 2015 the image of Kunz with his hands in the air became a universal image for various frustration, real and sarcastic, on the internet. The popularity of the image caught Wece off guard.
“I figured folks would get a laugh from it, but I never imagined it would become as popularly used as it has.”
The image became popular enough that even Kunz himself has used it on Twitter and for the Chili Bowl Nationals asked Wece about using it on t-shirts for Keith Kunz Motorsports for 2016. Shortly after the Frustrated Keith shirts were an instant sensation and shortly after being announced were available online at R&R Racewear website prominently displayed on their front page.
Despire internet memes cycling through popularity at a fast rate frustrated Keith does not seem to be going away anytime soon. Along with the shirt lap five at this year’s Chili Bowl is being sponsored by Frustrated Keith via Wece.
“When they called me this year and asked about using it on their KKM shirts, it brought it back full circle and shows that “Frustrated Keith” is a quite permanent part of the Motorsports social media world,” said Wece.
Starting @cbnationals off on a high note. They gave me the first Frustrated @KeithKunz Shirt! pic.twitter.com/q5eQMJk1cq
— Ross Wece (@RossWece) January 10, 2016