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TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ben Kennedy said he needed to “knock the rust off” his restrictor-plate prowess during Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.
For the 25-year-old driver, that meant posting a career-best fourth-place result in only the second XFINITY Series start of his career.
“Really happy with the finish,” Kennedy said post-race. “Got to Joey (Logano) there at the end — you’re really only as good as whoever’s behind us and how close they are behind us when they’re all single file there for a while. We even lost the pack, just running wide open. So, it was a lot of fun and got a lot of out of it.”
Kennedy has a nearly-full plate this season, splitting 21 races between driving Richard Childress Racing’s No. 2 Chevrolet (nine races) and with GMS Racing (12 races). His next turn behind the wheel comes up quickly at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 27 with GMS Racing.
“I’m just looking to be competitive,” Kennedy said. “My goal was, laying out the options over the offseason, to go be in something that we could go win races in, no matter what series.”
While Kennedy has three full-time Camping World Truck Series seasons (2014-2016) on his resume, Saturday’s Talladega race was his first start in one of NASCAR’s three major series this season.
Waiting for his turn has been “long,” he joked.
“It kills you sitting on the sidelines watching Truck and XFINITY races,” Kennedy said. “But at the same time in the back of my head, I knew good things were to come, with RCR cars and running GMS as well. I’m really looking forward to the season. It was tough — I still stayed busy with some Legends stuff — but it’s good to be back at the race track for a reason.”
With the 300-miler at Talladega marking only the second XFINITY Series race of his career (his series debut was at Iowa in 2016), Kennedy does believe he’ll experience some growing pains as he continues throughout his season.
“Honestly, just trying to get back in the car and get used to things again,” Kennedy said. “This XFINITY car drives so different from what I’m used to. That’s going to be a whole new learning curve.”
That being said, a fourth-place at always-menacing Talladega doesn’t hurt a driver’s self-confidence behind the wheel moving forward.
“This (finish) gives you a lot of confidence and momentum and it’s just one of the first times I’ve had some good fortune here at Talladega,” Kennedy said. “So, it’s rare, but I’ll take it.”