Story By: A2DPR / KEEN MOTORSPORTS – ABBOTTSTOWN, PA – Kyle Keen has been working as hard as anyone in the pit area. So far in 2023 that hasn’t translated directly to the results one should get in return for the effort.
Mechanical issues, a learning curve behind the wheel and some flat out bad luck in the form of pill draws just haven’t worked in his favor.
That’s racing though. Everyone goes through it.
Teams have to keep chipping away and grinding it out to be ready when everything comes together. That’s exactly what Kyle Keen Motorsports is doing. The recent weekend brought two more tests for the young wheelman.
Keen started 4th in his heat race Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway and with the top four making the redraw for the 358 Sprint Car Summer Series event, he was in a good position to kick off the night.
At the halfway mark of the 8-lap qualifying race, Keen lost the spot and slipped to 5th. He was unable to recover the position and missed the redraw.
Instead of having a shot at starting in the front few rows of the A-main, he lined up 15th for the night’s finale. In the early going, Keen slipped back as far as 19th but battled back to finish 15th at the end of the night.
“We were off a little in the heat race and it showed. Had a good start and just couldn’t capitalize on it. In the feature I thought the car was pretty good, just got stuck on the bottom early in the feature and took too long to get going.”, Keen said.
Another unfavorable pill draw put Keen 9th on the grid to start his heat race Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, PA, but the Fine Line Auto Body, Keen Parts/CorvetteParts.net, Doubling Gap Ranch, Shetron, Auction & Equipment, LLC., Wicked Dog Grille, Heishman Racing Fuels, Wicked Cushion, DL Lehman Construction, Gearhead Coffee, Jeremy Zarfos Photography, Coyle’s Lawn Maintenance, 2B Wrapped, 4 Leaf Clover Farms, Turn 2 Terribles Podcast & Media, Kyle Keen Motorsports No.17 was up to the task. He charged his way up to 6th and into a transfer spot a few laps into the race. Although his progress stopped there, his effort was good enough to transfer directly to the A-main.
Starting deep in the A-main field, Keen was hoping for forward progress similar to his heat race. It never materialized. He was mired in traffic and ended up 18th at the end of the night.
“Another rough pill draw had us start pretty deep in the heat. We had an awesome car for the heat race and we’re able to shoot up to 5th from 9th. In my opinion, we should have ran 3rd but I made a few mistakes that probably cost us a handicap spot.”, Keen shared.
“In the feature, the track was very blown off and start position was really important. Disappointed we weren’t able to do much passing, but that’s par for the course sometimes as the second feature on the racetrack.“
“Thanks to Ant Bay for coming up and serving as crew chief for us this weekend, we had a lot of fun!“
Kyle and the team will look to rebound from last weekend when they return to Williams Grove Speedway this Friday, August 4th for another 358 Summer Series event!