Kyle Keen Making Strides in the Seat, Makes Third Straight Main Event

Keen started his night at The Grove with a subpar qualifying run, putting him 7th in his eight-car group.  However, he quickly proved it’s not all about qualifying.

The Carlisle, PA native raced to a 5th place finish in his heat race to secure the final transfer position into the night’s 25-lap finale.   For Keen, it was his third consecutive A-main, which notably have come at three different tracks.  That is a positive sign.

At this stage of his young 410 sprint car career, every main event means an extra 25 to 30 laps of seat time.  That is valuable experience.  Not only does it allow the driver to learn what works and what doesn’t concerning his driving and his car’s setup, but he also gets to learn from those around him.  Even getting lapped has its benefits if you are paying attention.  Getting to watch how Danny Dietrich or Anthony Macri wheel their machines in front of you can be very valuable.

Keen raced inside the top twenty through the midpoint of Friday’s feature event, then slipped backward a few spots.  He eventually recovered some track position to finish 21st officially.

“It never looks good on paper that we went backward, but we made pretty large gains on our feature setup that made us a lot more competitive and more up to race speed.”, Keen shared.

“We didn’t just give up spots but guys had to race us to get by. I was happy with how much better the car felt but we still have work to do. For only our second time in a 410 at the grove, I was pleased with our performance. We will keep working hard to start moving forward!”