His success led to an invitation to compete in the May 8 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series event, which marked the series’ return to racing without fans at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway.
“I got invited because of that,” Kendall said. “We were an alternate and got invited. I’d never even seen Knoxville other than the video game or watching the Nationals on my phone. I’d never even seen the place. That’s the reason why we went, and we want to go to the Nationals this year. We wanted to go out and make laps, so I know what to expect when I go out again.”
Kendall believes the game helps keep a driver’s minds sharp.
“Just your mind in my opinion,” he said. “You can feel tire spin and stuff like that. You feel when the tire breaks loose. It’s as close as you’re going to get to be honest other than being in the real thing. It does help in some aspects and some aspects it doesn’t.”
Now, Kendall wants to get that national recognition racing for real.
“It didn’t faze me,” he said about the iRacing success. “I want to do it in a real car. That’s what my mindset is on. Just do it in the real car. I think we’re on the right track. We just have to put it all together.”
Kendall was born into racing as his family owned late models. Two weeks after being born, he was in victory lane at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway when Denny Bonebrake won the Hub City 150 in 1991.
“My pop owned a late model for 30-some years,” he said. “Pop and them won that race back in 1991 and I was born two weeks before that and I was in victory lane. He owned a late model and Denny Bonebrake drove for him through the ’90s.”
When Kendall began traveling for quarter-midget racing, the family sold the late model equipment. He almost got into late model racing but local sprint car racing pays better. He’s slowly gaining traction with his No. 55k sprint car.
“We’re getting better,” he said. “We struggled the first weekend out before COVID hit. Then we went to Knoxville just to learn. We have speed at Port Royal, we just have to put it all together. Port’s probably my worst race track in Pennsylvania in my opinion, but I feel like we’re gaining on it there, especially when it gets slick.
“We have a mindset on where we want to go. Hopefully, we can put it all together one of these nights.”
Kendall will be a regular in the central Pennsylvania sprint car pits, especially during higher-paying, time-trial races.
“If there’s a big race, we’ll be there,” he said. “Any time-trail show, we’ll be there. Speedweek we’ll be at seven or eight of the nine. Any big show, we’ll be there. We plan on hitting Lernerville again against the Outlaws like we did last year. It depends on the schedules. We’re not married to one race track. We want to go to all of them and try to get a win.”
Kendall showed speed and consistency during Pennsylvania Speedweek in 2019. He missed two races and still finished seventh in Speedweek points.
Kendall began racing 410 sprint cars in 2014 when he purchased the equipment used by Lance Dewease when he drove Donny Owens’ No. 30c. He started racing at Lincoln Speedway, winning a pair of features, and only recently began competing at Williams Grove and Port Royal.
Kendall’s team is one of many family-owned operations in central Pennsylvania.
“My grandfather (Bob Hynes) owns everything,” Kendall said. “I’m trying to run two nights a week. Some weeks we can and some we can’t. We play it by ear basically. We go to every time-trial show because of the payouts. Port has upped their payout this year even though we drive right past Lincoln. We look at everything.”
Kendall is a good qualifier, including top-10 efforts against the World of Outlaws during the Williams Grove National Open a few years ago.
“We time trialed good a couple of nights, but we didn’t race well,” he said. “We’re focusing on our racing. We can time trial good. The National Open a few years ago, we time trialed fifth the first night and sixth the second night.”
Kendall hopes to carry confidence and momentum into the second half of the season thanks, in part, to a successful iRacing season.