Kennington Covers Clarington 200 Field

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – Starting at the back of the pack did not deter DJ Kennington, as he charged to the front and dominated the Clarington 200 at the Speedway at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Saturday – scoring his 12th career win in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race.

Kennington, who qualified fifth in qualifying earlier in the day, had to drop to the back of the field for the start of the race after making unapproved adjustments to his car.

The 2010 series champion from St. Thomas, Ontario, charged ahead in his No. 17 Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge – moving into the top five by Lap 27. He took the lead a quarter of the way through the race and only relinquished it for a short time after a round of pit stops.

Mark Dilley finished second to Kennington, with JR Fitzpatrick finishing third. Jeff Lapcevich and Jason Hathaway were fourth and fifth, respectively. Steve Mathews, Andrew Ranger, Ron Beauchamp Jr, Steve Cote and Noel Dowler completed the top 10.

Kennington became the fifth different winner in six series visits to the half-mile oval formerly known as Mosport Speedway.

POS DRIVER
1 D.J. Kennington
2 Mark Dilley
3 J.R. Fitzpatrick
4 Jeff Lapcevich
5 Jason Hathaway

Defending series champion Scott Steckly, who won last year’s event, encountered mechanical trouble before the race started and was laps down to the leader throughout the race, finishing 14th.

Pete Shepherd III – who won his second career pole award in qualifying – led the early stages of the race, but experienced mechanical problems late in the event and was relegated to a 16th-place finish.

This was the third race of 2012 for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, the first of seven oval-track events on a 12-race schedule.

With his win, Kennington edged in front of Fitzpatrick by one point in the championship standings. Ranger is third, with Steckly fourth and L.P. Dumoulin fifth.

The Clarington 200 will be telecast by TSN on Sunday, June 24 at 1 p.m. ET and the RDS2 premiere is set for Wednesday, July 11 at 10 p.m. ET.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is right back on the track on Saturday, June 23 at Delaware (Ont.) Speedway for the EMCO 200 presented by Niagara Plumbing Supply and McKeough Supply