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Ben Kennedy holds fond memories of his family’s connection to Bowman Gray Stadium. His ancestors planted some of stock-car racing’s earliest roots at the quarter-mile track, and he put his own stamp on the place as a touring-series winner in 2013.
That victorious moment from his second and final NASCAR K&N Series (now ARCA Menards Series) East win is commemorated by a photo that sits in Kennedy’s office. Alongside him in the picture are his mother Lesa France Kennedy and his great-uncle Jim France, both members of the NASCAR board of directors but more importantly in that moment, family.
My memories of that moment nearly vary quite a bit, but it was a family occasion all the same. Getting my summer weekend schedule to align with my father’s isn’t the easiest task, but once or twice a year, the planetary alignment syncs on a Saturday night to make the trip from Charlotte to Winston-Salem for an evening at the stadium. June 1, 2013 was one of those nights.
Kennedy’s victory at the track known as the Madhouse is nearing its 10th anniversary, here during a time full of commemorative years. As NASCAR celebrates its 75th anniversary, Bowman Gray Stadium prepares for its 75th season of racing with Saturday’s opening night (8 p.m. ET, FloRacing), including the Hayes Jewelers 200 main event — the year’s longest race for the featured Modified Division.
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It’s a renewal of weekly racing in North Carolina’s Twin Cities, but also another chance for the full-contact competition, the wild rivalries and fan fervor to spark anew. Kennedy has had the opportunity to experience it from more angles than most — as a driver, a fan and now in his role as NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Racing Development and Strategy.
“I think the Madhouse is probably a very good name for it,” Kennedy said this week. “I don’t even know how you would describe it. It’s incredible racing. I think it’s one of the most entertaining races to watch, and I would say that applies to both on the race track and off the race track. And I think the neat thing about it is, with the coliseum kind of style footprint that they have with the grandstands all around and every time I’ve been there, it’s just been a completely packed house.
“It’s an energy at that place. It feels like it’s almost a blend between what you’d expect at a traditional short track and a big marquee Cup event that we have on the schedule, the energy at that place is unbelievable. And I think it’s fueled by the drivers and the competitiveness that exists on the track, and I think vice versa. I think the drivers are fueled by the fans’ energy there, too. So it’s really, it’s such a cool place for racing. It’s incredibly unique. And I mean, as soon as you walk in there you can feel the stories and the history that have happened at that place. It’s really kind of difficult to describe, but it’s a one-of-a-kind place.”
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When my dad and I settled into our seats in the south turn, the middle of the horseshoe bleachers, I hadn’t planned on covering the race. I was off the clock and attending as a fan, leaving the reporting to our capable NASCAR Roots group. Still, I brought along a notepad and a voice recorder, in the event a special moment might prompt another news story. Jotting notes is kind of a personal habit anyway, like the scorebook I keep for baseball games.
Bowman Gray Stadium hosted five East Series races from 2011-15, with fields stocked with many drivers who made it to the upper reaches of NASCAR’s national tours. Four of those races were won from the front row on a tight track where passing is difficult. When Kennedy qualified 10th that night, I figured I was in the clear. Still, Kennedy — 21 at the time — was fresh from his first K&N East victory just six weeks earlier at Five Flags Speedway. I kept notes anyway.
“We had a decent car most of the weekend, we had speed, but we didn’t have the fastest car there, but we felt like we had a top-five car and felt like we had a shot at being in the top five,” Kennedy said. “And for Bowman Gray, it’s always so important that when you restart, you restart on the inside as much as you can. I feel like in a lot of those K&N races, we had a lot of cautions, thus a lot of restarts. And thankfully, we lined up on the inside for most of those late-race restarts.”
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Kennedy’s No. 96 Chevrolet had moved up gradually, but bore the scars from the stadium’s brand of close-quarters racing. He had mixed it up with Daniel Suárez, Johnny VanDoorn and Jesse Little along the way, but reached his projected top-five plateau with 60 laps remaining in the 150-lapper.
Further up front, pole-starter Brett Moffitt had shown the way with an uninterrupted lead, free and clear of the spins and crack-ups behind him. But when Moffitt’s car started to sputter with a battery issue in the waning laps, it opened the door for other contenders.
Kennedy had pushed through the contact and made his way past a faltering Moffitt in the 124th lap, but had to withstand a furious challenge from Dylan Kwasniewski — that year’s eventual series champion — down the stretch. Kennedy said he recalled his car being better suited for longer green-flag runs, which were sparse on a night with 13 yellows. Kennedy withstood every charge and bump, sealing it when Kwasniewski overcooked the north turn just before the white flag flew.
“I still talk to him about this race every now and then,” Kennedy says. “… He raced us hard but raced us clean. I think he nudged us a little bit, but he didn’t move us out of the way. I give him credit for that, but we ended up winning the race.”
By then, I’d told my dad it was time to go to work, left my seat and worked around the concourse to get down to the trackside Victory Lane. Kennedy’s battered No. 96 had completed a burnout before venturing into the infield to keep the celebration going. “I don’t know how many drivers get to say that they’ve done a doughnut on the 50-yard line of a football field,” he said. “There’s not really anything like it.”
Once he emerged from his car, Kennedy’s family was waiting. He said his mother was disappointed to have missed out on seeing his breakthrough win in person at Five Flags, but because his first victory was such a new, whirlwind experience, he said he found himself able to appreciate the moment more with win No. 2. That meant a hug from his teary mother, who had also worked her way through the stands to soak in the scene.
“The night at Bowman Gray was very special for our family,” Lisa France Kennedy said, reflecting on the evening in a series of 75th anniversary interviews with industry figures. “What sticks out for me is that my uncle was there, and he was the one that got Ben started in racing. And for him to see that firsthand meant a lot to me, meant a lot to Ben, and it was really fun to see my uncle experience it. He loves racing, and I think he was living vicariously through Ben that night.”
I have never been more underdressed to interview our top executives. Still, they were generous with their time during such an intimate family celebration. I volunteered my side of the story from that night with Kennedy years later, at the end of a test session for the Next Gen car at Bowman Gray in October 2021. We shared a laugh about how I’d foolishly minimized his chances from the 10th starting spot and confessed that I was wrong to have counted him out.
If there was another lesson to be learned from that night, Kennedy offered some sage advice that could apply to anyone.
“Anything could happen at the Madhouse,” Kennedy said. “Be prepared for the unexpected, because the unexpected is bound to happen.”
