Kevin Manion Motorsports Shows Some Moxie in their K&N Pro Series Debut at Iowa

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Ben Kennedy, the driver of the #1 Menards Toyota, sits in his car during practice for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Casey’s General Store 150 at Iowa Speedway on July 28, 2017, in Newton, Iowa. Photo – Daniel Shirey/Getty Images

With Ben Kennedy behind the wheel of the No.1, Menards Toyota for Kevin Manion Motorsports they made their team debut in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series a memorable night at Iowa Speedway. Racing from his 18th starting position, Kennedy maneuvered his way through the field to second place challenging the leader, Todd Gilliland during the second half of the Casey’s General Store 150 on Friday night.

Gilliland dominated the race with Kennedy as the only competitor getting around his No. 16 Toyota with 34 laps left. But Gilliland rallied back to the lead before the start-finish line on the same lap.

With ten laps to go Kennedy’s night started to unravel. A red flag led to him having an issue stalling his car to restart the race. Once he started he had trouble getting up to speed, leading NASCAR to send the No. 1 to the back of the lead lap for failure to keep up his pace. Kennedy rallied back for a finish of seventh in the race and a fifth-place finish in the K&N East.

At the end of the race, Gilliland won, by 2.174 seconds over second-place Chase Purdy. Gilliland’s back-to-back Iowa victory expands his points lead to 18 points over second place Chris Eggleston in the West and closes the gap to just six points behind the leader, Harrison Burton in the East.

Kennedy is a two-time K&N Pro Series winner, with victories at Five Flags Speedway and Bowman Gray Stadium in 2013 and 2017.

Kevin ‘Bono’ Manion leads KMM as a NASCAR championship-winning crew chief with marquee race wins in the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400. As a part-time team owner in NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour and other regional series, Manion has nine victories and ten poles with drivers including Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, and Ryan Preece over a nine-year span with victories at New Hampshire and Bristol.

This season, Kennedy is also running a part-time schedule in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with Richard Childress Racing and in nine starts, he has the best finish of fourth-place at Talladega Superspeedway. Kennedy finished 23rd at Iowa Speedway in the No. 2 RCR Chevrolet.

The K&N Pro Series’ Casey’s General Store 150 will air on NBCSN on Thursday, August 3 at 7 pm. ET.