Kenzie Ruston looks for redemption at RIchmond

Kenzie Ruston heads to Richmond International Raceway with redemption in mind. After having one of the fastest cars at Greenville Pickens Speedway a few weeks ago, Ruston is ready to perform at Richmond.

“I am ready to get back on the track in Richmond. We had one of the best cars, certainly a top 3 car, at Greenville Pickens last month and had a good run taken away from us. I think that will be a huge motivating factor for the team and certainly myself when we get to RIR.”

Redemption for the Greenville Pickens race isn’t the only thing Ruston will be using as motivation. Last season at RIR, Ruston had climbed to sixth position after starting fifteenth. An unfortunate situation occurred late in the race when a fellow competitor missed a shift on the restart. Ruston found herself spinning as she was caught in a chain-reaction accident.

“We got caught in something that wasn’t our fault last year,” said Ruston. “I went to the back and managed to work back up to thirteenth before getting the black flag because we were smoking.” The black flag would drop Ruston to a nineteenth place finish in the Blue Ox 100.  

Similar to Ruston, when Crew Chief Mike Fritts was asked about Richmond, he had this to say: “We’ve been fast the last couple of times at Richmond, just getting caught up in other peoples wrecks costs us solid finishes. We have one top 10, but we have had a top 10 car every time at Richmond.”

Fritts says, “The key to Richmond is having a car that can really rotate through the sweeping turns, but not so well that it wears out the right rear tire too early in the event. A driver has to understand that they are going to start the race a little tight, but as the race goes on and the right rear goes away, the car will start to loosen up. You have to save enough in your car for the last 20 laps of the race. I think that will play into Kenzie’s strengths.”

After starting the season with two top 10 finishes, Ruston has battled some horrendous racers luck. After battling hard at Bristol, a top 10 finish evaporated after another competitor got loose coming of Turn 2 with only three laps remaining.

Running in the top 5 most during the majority of the Kevin Whitaker 150 at Greenville Pickens Speedway, Ruston found herself spinning after questionable contact from another competitor. Ruston feels confident that her team will put her in a position for the win on Friday night.

“The guys have given me a strong car everywhere this year,” said Ruston. “Things outside our control have cost us top 5 finishes and a shot at a win. Hopefully we have our bad luck out of the way, and we are going to start getting the solid finishes we’ve earned. I know the guys at Ben Kennedy Racing work way to hard, and they deserve way more than what we have been getting this year.”

Ben Kennedy Racing PR