NEWTON, Iowa — Ben Kennedy wasted no time showing speed in a NASCAR XFINITY Series car.
In his first track time in the series, Kennedy topped both practice sessions at 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway ahead of Sunday’s American Ethanol E15 250 presented by Enogen (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Even with that strong early showing, Kennedy is keeping his expectations in check.
“I’d be pretty happy with a top-10 finish,” Kennedy said on Saturday at Iowa Speedway. “I’m not trying to do anything crazy here. I’m going to give it 100 percent. I gave the guys 100 percent yesterday in practice. It’s great to work with (crew chief) Danny Stockman and the entire Ruud team.”
Piloting the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Kennedy, who is the son of International Speedway Corporation CEO Lesa France Kennedy and the great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., is driving the car that typically sees NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regulars Paul Menard and Austin Dillon in the cockpit. The No. 2 team currently ranks third in the XFINITY Series owner standings and has one win on the season (Dillon at Fontana).
With stand-alone events beginning to pop up on the XFINITY schedule, Kennedy is one of four drivers who will fill in for Menard and Dillon on the No. 2 team over the coming months. Sam Hornish Jr. (Iowa and Kentucky) as well as Sprint Cup Series regulars AJ Allmendinger (Mid-Ohio) and Michael McDowell (Road America) are scheduled to be behind the wheel later this year.
Every lap turned has been a learning experience for Kennedy.
“We did a 20-lap run in the XFINITY car yesterday and I learned more than I’ve learned in a long time,” Kennedy said. “Just in that 20-lap run about different things and tools that I can use inside the car and different tools that I can use during the race as far as line and momentum.”
Kennedy has been busy this weekend as he pulls double duty driving in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, wheeling the No. 33 GMS Racing Chevrolet in the Speediatrics 200 on Saturday. He finished seventh, but ran the majority of the race in the top five.
Bouncing between two different types of NASCAR vehicles in one weekend can present an interesting set of circumstances, and Kennedy experienced that firsthand on Friday in the practice sessions.
“You just got to attack the corner differently, different mindset,” Kennedy said of the differences between driving both vehicles. “I did the XFINITY car and kind of got used to that pretty quick, I felt like. They just don’t have more side force to lean on so you got to close up your entries, close up your exits, drive it a little bit straighter and then the bumps are a little bit different seeing how the package underneath is and anything.
“You get in the truck and I messed up and I forgot how deep I drove in the truck when I went from XFINITY to the truck and I was a half a second off. I realized that I was driving 10 truck lengths deeper into the corner than I was in the XFINITY car.”
Challenges are nothing new for Kennedy. In the Camping World Truck Series, Kennedy has run a full schedule but has done so running three different trucks. He started the year in the No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota for three races before moving over the GMS Racing, where he has driven the Nos. 24 and 33 Chevrolets for the past five events. On top of that, he has constant change on his pit box with four different crew chiefs in the past six races.
The Florida native sits eighth in the standings and owns the final spot in the inaugural eight-driver NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase. His best result of the year so far came last weekend at Texas with a fourth-place finish.
“I think the first couple of races were just kind of getting our feet wet with learning how we work and how they work as well,” Kennedy said of his move to GMS Racing. “Now I think we go out and attack this weekend and next weekend full force and run for wins.
“We had a good run last weekend, and that’s just a taste of what we can do over here.”