A Good Track Record: Kemenah Looks to Build on Strong Start to 2008 at Virginia Motor Speedway 

Jamaica, VA— May 23, 2008— No Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series driver has had more success at Virginia Motor Speedway than Chad Kemenah. He is one of just three series drivers that has competed at the track located in Jamaica, Virginia. He set the track record for a 410-sprint car in time trials in his lone trek to Virginia Motor Speedway, also winning a heat race and then finishing second in the A-Feature.

The 2006 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year will look to use this experience at the high-banked half-mile on Saturday, May 24 as the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series makes their inaugural visit to the state of Virginia for the Armed Forces Appreciation 30. It will mark just the second 410-sprint car event ever held in the history of the track.

“The facility is beautiful and the racing was pretty good the time we were out there,” said Kemenah of his visit to the track with the All Star Circuit of Champions in 2004. “It’s been a while since we have been out there. The main thing I remember is that the facility was phenomenal. It’s a really nice place.”

While the track is a high-banked half-mile like Eldora Speedway in Ohio and Lebanon Valley Speedway in New York, it does not really resemble those tracks other than in the height of the banking. Kemenah hopes that his experience at the track will be beneficial when the cars roll out for time trials, which is always vital to having a good night at a big, fast half-mile. It will be one of four tracks the series visits for the first time this season and the only new half-mile on the schedule.

“It’s not really similar to anywhere else we go,” noted the native of Findlay, Ohio who drives the Kantor Oil Company Maxim. “It’s a very big track. I don’t know if it really helps having raced there against these guys, because they all adapt pretty quick. Hopefully it won’t hurt us either.”

Kemenah enters this weekend solidly in the Top-10 in World of Outlaws championship points, as he is eighth on the strength of four Top-Five finishes. He is just 46 markers out of the Top-Five, and earned a season-best third-place finish at Lernerville Speedway on May 13. He also has one fast time honor to his credit this year, stopping the clocks first at I-55 Raceway in Missouri last month, the same track he earned his first career World of Outlaws A-Feature win at in 2005.

“It’s going right now a little better than we had hoped,” said the four-time All Star Circuit of Champions title winner of the start to the 2008 campaign. “Other than a couple of times we have had some misfortune and not finished, it’s been going pretty good. We want to win, but if we can stay consistently in the Top-Five and Top-10, the wins will come.”

Prior to the season, the Hard Eight Racing team which is owned by Jon Kantor moved from Oklahoma to Ohio and now operates out of Kemenah’s shop. They also hired veteran crew chief Mike Cool to turn the wrenches and that has quickly began to pay dividends.

“That’s been the biggest thing no doubt,” Kemenah said of Cool’s addition to the team. “He is good at what he does. He has this team turned around and right now we are competitive. It feels good to get to the track each night and know that you are competitive.”

Just like every other driver competing with the World of Outlaws in 2008, Mother Nature has been Kemenah’s biggest opponent this season. Having some new variables on the team, each time they are able to race helps lessen the learning curve and build momentum. During a couple of breaks in the World of Outlaws schedule this spring, the team competed in Central Pennsylvania to get more track and to prepare for the series always tough races at Williams Grove Speedway.

“It’s hard to stay active, when you are sitting around watching it rain,” he said. “There has been a lot of that this year. Hopefully that’s all past now and we can get some racing in. It’s tough racing once then going back to the shop for two weeks. Mike (Cool) doesn’t get to see what I like and we don’t get to see what he likes and doesn’t like when we are not racing. Hopefully we can get all of that figured out pretty quick when we get back to racing.”

For Kemenah, the race at Virginia Motor Speedway will be his 12th on a half-mile this season. He finished sixth in his last start on a high-banked half-mile, which came at Eldora Speedway at the end of April. In his career, he has five wins on half-mile tracks, both at Eldora and at Volusia Speedway Park in Florida.

“The race track is a little bit differently shaped,” he recalled of Virginia Motor Speedway. “It was a little slick as well. Turn two seemed liked the one that everyone had a little trouble with. There should be some good racing there.”

After a podium finish at Lernerville Speedway last week, Kemenah had a strong run at Williams Grove Speedway, coming from the 27th starting spot after taking a provisional to finish in the Top-15, against one of the toughest fields of cars the series will face all season. He looks to keep this early season momentum going on Friday night at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway followed by the series inaugural stop at Virginia Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

“Anytime you run in the Top-Five makes it a good night,” he said. “Hopefully we can get better than the Top-Five and get a win.”

On Saturday, May 24 at Virginia Motor Speedway, general admission tickets for adults will be $35, with general admission tickets for seniors (ages 60-over) as well as military personnel $32, with general admission tickets for students (ages 13-17) $25, with general admission tickets for children ages 7-12 just $15, and kids ages 6-under will admitted free of charge with a paying adult. Reserved tickets will also be available for $40. For tickets visit: http://www.vamotorspeedway.com/tickets or call (804) 758-1867.

Headquartered in Roanoke, Va., Advance Auto Parts, a leading automotive aftermarket retailer of parts, accessories, batteries, and maintenance items in the United States, serves both the do-it-yourself and professional installer markets As of April 19, 2008, the Company operated 3,291 stores in 40 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Additional information about the Company, employment opportunities, customer services, and on-line shopping for parts and accessories can be found on the Company's web site at www.AdvanceAutoParts.com.

2008 Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Preview: Chad Kemenah

Concord, NC— January 24, 2008--By: Tony Veneziano, World of Outlaws PR Director

Stability is one of the many keys pieces of the puzzle that are necessary to be successful with the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, and Chad Kemenah is anxious to begin the new racing season with some added stability after having a very tumultuous 2007 campaign.

The 2006 Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year drove three different cars including his own machine during the course of the 2007 season. In July he joined forces with Hard 8 Racing and just when it appeared his luck was turning around, he suffered a concussion during the Knoxville Nationals, which forced him to miss the next three events.

Once back in the seat, he and the team began building and preparing for the 2008 Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series campaign. With the new season here, Kemenah is ready to hit the road for the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Florida. Led by new crew chief Mike Cool, a veteran of the sport, Kemenah is very eager to take to the track in the Sunshine State.

“We’re really looking forward to the season,” said Kemenah. “I feel like we have a very good team in place. We hi\red a good mechanic in Mike Cool. I think things will look a lot better for us than they did in the last year.”

The Hard 8 Racing Team, owned by Jon Kantor, has relocated from its base in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Kemenah’s shop in Findlay, Ohio. This will allow them to return to the shop a number of times during the season to regroup, and also to have a chance to keep up-to-date with all of the parts and pieces they need to have stocked in their trailer for the always demanding World of Outlaws season, which will keep them on the road for weeks on end.

“It’s going to help out a lot, especially with all the travel back and forth,” he noted. “Ohio is very centrally located when you are rolling in and out of states and you can roll through and if you need something at the shop, there it is. We won’t need to go all the way back to Oklahoma. It was Jon’s (Kantor) idea to bring the team up here, because its more friendly to World of Outlaws racing, travel-wise than Oklahoma was.”

Last season, Kemenah finished 17th overall in the championship standings with the series, on the strength of 13 Top-10 finishes. He earned a season-best third-place finish at Paducah International Raceway in Kentucky on a very chilly April evening, driving his own No. 3X. He matched that with a strong third-place performance for at K-C Raceway in Ohio in late July that saw him battle two-time defending series champion Donny Schatz, 20-time title winner Steve Kinser and Terry McCarl for the lead, before a national television audience. It was the best World of Outlaws finish for Hard 8 Racing in their first full year on the road with the series.

“We’re trying to get a lot more organized for this season,” said the four time All Star Circuit of Champion titlist. “When you run with the World of Outlaws, you can’t do it half-winded. We joined the team halfway through the year last year, and I’m grateful for the opportunity, and I knew we had to get a few things together to compete at that level. Jon’s given me the opportunity to do that and I can’t ask for anything more than that from a car owner.”

Kemenah is excited to begin the season with the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Florida. He has had several strong runs at the half-mile during his career, including winning the World of Outlaws season opener there in 2006.

“It’s a big thing to try and get momentum built right away,” he said. “With the level of competition that the World of Outlaws has right now, you have to be on top of your game. If you get behind the eight-ball, you can stay behind there for quite a while. Hopefully we can get a good start and carry momentum through the season.”

Kemenah will compete a number of times this season on tracks in his home state of Ohio, including at: Attica Raceway Park, Eldora Speedway, K-C Raceway, Limaland Motorsports Park and Sharon Speedway. Having competed full-time with the series for the last two years, he has had the chance to compete at a variety of tracks from coast-to-coast as well as in Canada, and he looks forward to continuing to add to that list this season.

“I always enjoy racing around home, but I also want to get to where we enjoy going anywhere to race, because we know we are competitive,” said Kemenah. “It is nice to race around home, because I grew up on a lot of the Ohio tracks. Hopefully with the way we are approaching it this year, we can be competitive anywhere.”

Kemenah enters the 2008 season with two career Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature wins and seeks to add to this total. He is confident in the team that Hard 8 Racing has assembled and all of the hard work and countless hours they have put in this winter working in the shop.

“We want to win some races, and that is one of our goals,” said Kemenah. “At the end of the season, I want to be in the Top-10 in points if not better. Having a new crew chief and learning to work with him will be a key. Hopefully we can get everything going and run well and win some races for Jon Kantor.”

Kemenah began the season by competing in the 22nd Annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma and will head to Florida early to turn some laps prior to the World of Outlaws season opener.

The 30th anniversary Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season begins on February 8, 2008 with the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park, with tickets available at http://www.volusiaspeedwaypark.com.