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Kwasniewski Nabs Second K&N West Win

Two victories in 7 days for 16-year-old

KALISPELL, Mont. – It took Dylan Kwasniewski just nine races to pick up his first NASCAR K&N Pro Series West victory. And it took just seven more days to get his second, with a win in the Toyota/TTC 150 on Saturday night at Montana Raceway Park.

At 16 years and 2 months old, Kwasniewski became the youngest driver to win a NASCAR K&N Pro Series race – with his victory at Colorado National Speedway on Aug. 6. It did not take the Las Vegas teenager long to get back to Victory Lane.

He dashed from third on the grid at Montana to take the lead from his Gene Price Motorsports teammate, Greg Pursley, on Lap 52. He set a tremendous pace in charging around the cozy quarter-mile oval in his No. 03 Rockstar/Royal Purple Ford, putting all but five other cars a lap down in an event that remained green for the final 106 laps.

“He made a little bit of a mistake and we were able to get our nose in there and make a clean pass,” Kwasniewski said of his race-winning pass. “Once we were ahead of everyone, we knew we were going to pull out a little bit and get a comfortable lead. And that’s what we did.”

Kwasniewski battled heavy traffic as he began to put much of the field a lap down – running three wide on more than one occasion.

“I was definitely trying to push the limit at the beginning,” he said. “I like having a comfortable lead, knowing that everyone else is far behind. Once we got out there and I knew that we had a straightaway lead, I kind of backed off a little bit.”

Once again, Kwasniewski said he was confident of having a car to contend for the win.

“I knew we had the car to beat right off the bat,” he said. “Once we passed Greg, we got a comfortable lead. The Rockstar Energy Drink/Royal Purple Ford was amazing. Gene Price Motorsports did a great job of putting together another fantastic car. We came out with another win, which is awesome.”

Kwasniewski maintained a margin of just over three seconds through the late stages of the event and crossed the finish line with a winning margin of 4.301 seconds.

Just a week after Kwasniewski set records as the youngest driver to win a NASCAR K&N Pro Series race and the youngest to win a pole in the series, he saw one of his other records erased.

Cameron Hayley, making his series debut, finished in the runner-up position. In the process, the Calgary, Alberta teenager became the youngest competitor in the history of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, at just a few weeks past his 15th birthday. Kwasniewski held the previous mark, having made his first series start earlier this season at 15 years 10 months.

“We just came out here with an open mind,” Hayley said. “Rob (Dixon), my crew chief, had it dialed in ever since practice. We went out there and qualified seventh. We rolled around there for a bit at the beginning, just to save my tires. I experimented with different grooves to see what was going to be best at the end. We had something for Dylan, but we were just a little too far back.” 

Defending series and race champion Eric Holmes came home in the third position. He was followed by points leader Greg Pursley, who won his fifth Coors Light Pole Award of the year in qualifying with a track record of 13.712 seconds (65.636 mph). Michael Self closed out the top five. Brett Thompson, Michael Waltrip, Ben Kennedy, Carl Harr and Moses Smith rounded out the top 10.

In a special engagement, Waltrip, a two-time winner of the Daytona 500, made his fifth career NASCAR K&N Pro Series West start.

Pursley stretched his commanding lead in the championship standings to 284 points. He leads with 1,885, to 1,601 for Smith. Luis Martinez Jr. is third with 1,534 points, followed by Holmes with 1,532 and Thompson with 1,490. Completing the top 10 are Self at 1,487, Kwasniewski at 1,464, Daryl Harr at 1,331, Ryan Philpott at 1,293 and Carl Harr at 1,191.

The Toyota/TTC 150 from Montana Raceway Park will air on SPEED on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 3 p.m. PT.

The next event on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule will be at Spokane County Raceway in Airway Heights, Wash., on Saturday, Sept. 3.

RESULTS | LAP-BY-LAP RECAP | AUDIO: DYLAN KWASNIEWSKI | AUDIO: CAMERON HAYLEY | AUDIO: ERIC HOLMES

Dylan Kwasniewski en route to his win in the Toyota/TTC 150 at Montana Raceway Park. Getty Images for NASCAR