Kevin Canter has won Mod-4 class championships at Kingsport Speedway every year since 2016. He’s found success at several tracks across Virginia and Tennessee, but there’s one track that has eluded him throughout his career.
Ten years ago, Canter’s dad won a track championship at Motor Mile Speedway, a NASCAR-sanctioned paved oval track in Radford, Virginia. It’s been Canter’s goal since he began racing to win one there, too.
“I bought my car off of my dad and he won one up there in 2012,” Canter said of Motor Mile. “And he always said it’s hard to win your first race up there, and it’s even harder to win the second one. But it’s even harder to win the championship up there.”
Unlike Kingsport – a NASCAR-sanctioned paved oval in Kingsport, Tennessee – where Canter has been racing for a long time and feels comfortable, it’s taken him time to find that same comfort at Motor Mile. After starting there in 2019, before this season he had only won one race at the Virginia track.
This year was different. Despite starting the season slow, Canter and his team caught fire in the final month, winning the final three races in Motor Mile’s Mod-4 class.
He went into the final night 15 points out of the lead, and finished with two wins and a 15-point lead in the track championship.
“My dad won the points up there and never finished off the podium all year long, and I think we kind of had that same similar season up there except for one or two races we finished off the podium,” he said. “To do it 10 years apart from when he did it is pretty wild because he always said this is one you always want to win, and we finally got it.”
Not only did Canter win at Motor Mile, he continued his streak at Kingsport, too, winning a track title by 44 points.
“It all kind of played out the way it was supposed to,” he said. “I was happy either way. With the group of guys we race against, they’re all good guys… I couldn’t ask for a better group to race against every weekend, and I’m just glad it played out the way it was supposed to.”
The competition at Motor Mile was always something that made winning at the track difficult for Canter, but it also made the chase much more fun.
“I just like the competition up there,” he said. “It is wild. You’ve got five or six different people that can win at any time. Make sure you really do your homework. You have to pay attention to these people in practice. Where you’re beating them at, where they’re beating you at, and try to make adjustments to key on that in practice to help you better in the race when it comes to race time.”
Canter first started racing in 2016 when he was 24 years old. He’d been going to the race track since he was a toddler with his grandfather, Hershel Robinette, who, at 78 years old, still races at Kingsport.
After Robinette was injured during a race at Kingsport this summer and couldn’t finish the season, Canter switched his grandfather’s motor with his own, which helped ignite his quest for his track titles.
Canter’s dad and grandfather both still help him on the car, getting it ready to race in Tennessee on Fridays, and then changing everything out that night to travel to Motor Mile and race on Saturdays.
The entire family is part of the race team, including Canter’s mom, sister, nieces and wife.
“My dad, any time I need any set-up information or stuff like that I can call him,” Canter said. “He’s the one that’s really the mastermind behind any of the setup stuff on it. I just hold the steering wheel.
“A lot of people can say they go out there and race as a father and son together, but there’s not a whole lot of people that get to go out there and do it with their grandpa every weekend.”
Winning another title at Kingsport, and his first championship at Motor Mile, is a big accomplishment for Canter and his small, family-run race team, “and all the people that make it go around in circles,” he said.
He had a special thank you for the many sponsors who helped make this season possible.
“I know they’re getting exposure every weekend with us just on the track every lap, but putting them in Victory Lane and putting all their businesses on social media and Facebook and getting talked about every weekend in the winner’s circle, if we didn’t have them we probably wouldn’t be able to do it, and I’m just glad to have a great group of people to back us,” Canter said.
The work and effort that goes into racing at two different tracks, often times two nights a week, isn’t easy, but it’s the friendships Canter has made at both Kingsport and Motor Mile that make it worth it.
“I’ve gained more friendships than I have enemies. That’s the good thing,” he said. “It’s just like we’re one big family. You get to where you hang out with these people at the race track and you put your heads together.
“I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have any friends there. That’s what makes the race track fun. Winning races is fun, but at the end of the day you can call these guys your brothers and sisters. It’s just unbelievable what friends you can bring from the race track.”