Kennington Drives Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota to Career Day in Talladega
TALLADEGA, Ala. (April 30, 2018) — Gaunt Brothers Racing (GBR) and driver D.J. Kennington finished 20th in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. The result serves as Kennington’s best in 10 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
The finish also continues a trend of improvement in restrictor plate races for GBR dating back to the team’s first start in the 2017 Daytona 500; the GBR No. 96 finished 36th in that race, followed by a 24th-place result in this year’s 500 and the top-20 score on Sunday.
“A top-20 finish for our team, in our sixth race, is incredible,” said GBR owner Marty Gaunt. “We couldn’t have made this happen without the support of Toyota Racing Development and all the hours the GBR crew put into this car.”
After a race in which most drivers complained about handling, Kennington praised his No. 96 Toyota Camry.
“We had a really good car,” said Kennington, twice a champion of NASCAR’s Canada-based Pinty’s Series. “We couldn’t quite get it to suck up in the draft the way we wanted but it held its own, and Mark [Hillman, crew chief] made some awesome calls, ensuring we stayed on the lead lap.”
Kennington completed all 188 laps of the 500-mile event.