“He wanted you to learn in the process,” Donny Schatz states with particular emphasis. “You know, we used to go to Chico back in those days, back in 2000, 2001. And Chico was all heavy and wet and, you know, everybody was always on two wheels. And we always used to think back then that you gotta have 1050‘s (1.050 torsion bars) down the right and inches (1.000 torsion bars) down the left, because that helps the car lay left and it frees it up. And I remember having this discussion with Kenny when we got there. And Kenny was a reverse-split guy. You know, he was a 50‘s down the left and inches down the right and wind up the right rear. That was his claim to fame.
“I remember having a discussion with him at Chico and he‘d say, ‘Well bud, we‘ve got 50‘s down the left and inches down the right, and the first thing that come to my mind was I‘m gonna flip this thing. Like, I‘m gonna flip over when I go into the corner. So, I had that in my mind before I ever hit the race track. And we went out and hot-lapped and, you know, I had that in my mind so I didn‘t hot-lap very good. And I came in and I was upset and I told him, ‘See, that ain‘t gonna work. You‘ve gotta put 50‘s down the right and inches down the left!‘ And he said, ‘OK. I‘ll do it.‘
“So, I went up in the trailer and I got my helmet ready to qualify, and he went and did whatever he did to the car, and I came back out and we went and qualified and we qualified quick time. And I came back in and I said, ‘See?‘ And he said, ‘Bud, you need to get down on your hands and knees and you need to go look at what bars are in that car right now.‘ He never took a damn thing out of that car! He just made me believe he did. So, we went out and qualified the exact same way that he told me he was gonna qualify and I had the mental block out of my mind. So, you know, that‘s what Kenny did. And if you didn‘t do things like that, you didn‘t learn it.”
“A great guy,” Davis adds. “Very, very, very, very dedicated to what he was doing.
“When you were racing for Kenny, you could trust him 120 percent. He always had good equipment — it didn‘t matter who he was racing with, with the Gambler house car or with the Lunas. He always had good equipment; he always kept it updated. He was always on time. He got up early every day. I wanna just specifically say how dedicated he was to what he was doing, and he definitely was that.”
Donny Schatz is known for his loyalty to chassis manufacturer Jack Elam of J&J, engine builder Ron Shaver, and a host of other component manufacturers he utilizes on his cars. He credits that to Kenny Woodruff. “Back then we had tire choices, so you had all these choices. And you thought if this guy won one night with a Maxim car and this guy won one night with a J&J, and this guy had an Eagle, or whatever it might have been, it was kind of like flavor-of-the-day. And, that‘s something that…Kenny never was that way. He was a loyal person.
“He was loyal to Ron Shaver and he was loyal to Jack Elam. He was loyal to Dave Moyes at KSE. You know, the people that he got the opportunity to race with he was loyal to. He believed in their products and he didn‘t go out hustling and trying to oversell them every night. And that‘s what his attitude was that he instilled in me.
“That‘s 100 percent his mentality and his way of life, and the way he did things. So, I‘m glad I got that opportunity to learn that from him, because I don‘t know that there‘s many people like that in this business.”
“If you did something right, yeah, he was gonna tell ya, but if you did something wrong, damn sure you were gonna hear it! And I praise him for that. Cause we all make mistakes. And sometimes we try to hide them, we try to sugarcoat ‘em. But Kenny wasn‘t gonna let you slip with that, and I don‘t blame him. That‘s what makes you tough as a driver. That‘s what makes you tough mentally in this sport. I can honestly tell ya, without his background and his beat-down on me and his praising of me, I don‘t think that I‘d have been able to get to the point that I did, because the mental side of this is the tough part.”
“A lot of people said I kind of…I really softened him,” Natalie Sather concludes. She cites a point nearly two-and-a-half years into their relationship, when their working relationship and burgeoning friendship took a hefty leap forward. “I finally just started getting more honest with him,” she remembers. “And the more honest I was with him, the better our relationship got, and the better our results became. Cause, at first, obviously I was super intimidated by him. And I credit Kenny with just shaping who I am as a person today. And for the relationships I have.
“I‘ve had so much fun with him, and one of the life lessons that he taught me — and this pertains to on the track, off the track — was, he always used to say to me, ‘Welp, you should have never allowed yourself to be in that position.‘ And it would probably be about 10 years ago now, when I was moving into my new house, my sister was there helping me move and says, ‘I want to paint you something. What can I paint you?‘ And I was like, ‘I want you to paint me one of my favorite quotes.‘
“And it‘s been hanging in every place I‘ve ever lived in, it‘s a K.W. quote: ‘You should never have allowed yourself to be in that position.‘ And that‘s with anything in life. And, that‘s one of the good one-liners that he‘s told me that I will never forget. Never forget! And I‘ve told myself that a lot, with people that have used me, friends, *ssholes that I‘ve dated,” she adds, as she pauses to laugh. “You should have never allowed yourself to be in that position.
“I mean, Kenny was very protective of me with anybody I ever talked to. I told him one day, and he actually kinda got a little teary-eyed. I said, ‘Kenny, when I go to ever get married, they‘re gonna have to ask you and Dad.‘ And he smiled and his eyes started getting a little sweaty and he said, ‘OK. I think I can handle that.‘”
Rest in peace, Kenny.