Jon McKennedy has won a lot of races and a lot of championships throughout his racing career, but one place that had a zero in the win column was Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway. That all changed after Monday’s 50-lap feature when McKennedy pulled Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s No. 7ny into victory lane.
McKennedy ran in the top three for much of the race before inheriting the lead from Ryan Preece after Preece had a mechanical issue with less than 10 laps to go under caution. McKennedy dealt with one more restart before driving away from Kyle Ebersole and Chuck Hossfeld.
“I almost followed (Preece) down pit road,” said McKennedy on the FansChoice.TV broadcast. “I’m just glad I didn’t. I’m not sure what happened. Ryan had a good car. Me and him were really even. At times I could gain a little bit and then he’d pull away. The race probably would have come down to me and him either way. I’m just happy to get a win here. It’s a great way to start 2018.”
Preece started from the pole position after a favorable post-qualifying invert. The three-time defending World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing champion had led every lap prior to pulling his car down pit road under caution with just a handful of laps remaining.
“It’s just a tough deal,” said Preece after the race. “I’m just going to blame it on luck. Bad luck, of course. I don’t know what it was. It was just something we couldn’t control.”
Just a couple of weeks prior to heading to Florida, McKennedy inked a deal with Tommy Baldwin Racing to pilot the legendary No. 7ny machine. McKennedy said he expected the team to be strong, but a win right off the bat in their first race together was more than anybody expected.
“I knew we’d run well,” said McKennedy in victory lane. “Tommy has great equipment. He’s a smart guy. I feel really comfortable running these cars. The last couple of years have been really good to me winning with Modifieds and (Supermodifieds). The whole package was there and I’m glad we were able to capitalize on it.”
The Tour-type Modifieds will be in action at New Smyrna Speedway four more times this week.
For an on-demand replay of Monday’s Trackside Now coverage presented by Riverhead Building Supply and Anthony Campi Racing, click here.
-By Rob Blount, Speed51.com Southeast Editor – Twitter: @RobBlount
-Photo Credit: Speed51.com
Tour-type Modified 50 Unofficial Results
Pos. # Driver
1 7NY Jon McKennedy
2 5 Kyle Ebersole
3 22 Chuck Hossfeld
4 60 Matt Hirschman
5 07 Patrick Emerling
6 2 Ronnie Williams
7 17 Danny Bohn
8 25 Calvin Carroll
9 58 Eric Goodale
10 4 Jeffrey Gallup
11 83 Mike Willis, Jr.
12 40 Kyle Trayner
13 63 Austin Pickens
14 75 Jeremy Gerstner
15 71M Matt Montineri
16 64 Amy Catalano
17 23 Joe DeGracia
18 45C Timmy Catalano
19 10T Tom Tohn
20 46L Craig Lutz
21 6 Ryan Preece
22 32 Tyler Rypkema
23 179 Jimmy Blewett
24 16 Timmy Solomito
25 94 Al Ermmarino
26 25N Nikki Carroll
27 46G Jeff Goodale
28 71 Jimmy Zacharias
29 33 Ron Silk
30 2X Tim Lento
31 70 John Gerstner
