Kyle Barnes Scores First Career Win at Kingsport

There’s a saying that good things will eventually come to those who patiently wait.

For Kyle Barnes of Draper, Va., his patience was beginning to wear thin. Plain and simple, the 20-year-old wanted to win a race.

Through the first eight events in 2015 he’d shown everybody at Kingsport Speedway he was chauffeuring a fast ride by recording two runner-up and two third-place finishes, and entered Friday’s racing program in the Model City sitting second in points

Barnes captured his first-ever NASCAR Whelen All-American Series “First Kingsport Credit Union” Late Model Stock Car victory in impressive fashion. He started the evening off by setting fast-time at 15.118 seconds to earn the pole award, and then proceeded to lead all 60 laps en route to recording the win.

“Man, finally, we’ve got a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car victory,” said a smiling Barnes following the race while cars were going through post-race technical inspection. “Winning your first-ever NASCAR sanctioned race is a very special deal. Getting to hold the checkered flag out the window and drive around the track taking a victory lap and hear the fans cheer, I had cold chill bumps all over my body.

“To get your first-ever NASCAR victory, it’s something you dream about and once it happens, you’ll never forget the awesome feeling. I’ll always look at the trophy and remember this night.”

Barnes and Wayne Hale led the 19-car field to green from the front row. Barnes bolted out into the lead over Hale, Kres VanDyke, Justin Fontaine and Austin Peters.

During the early going, racing action was intense around the .375-mile banked concrete oval with the top 11 cars in the running order running nose-to-tail, and door-to-door while battling for position.

Barnes was riding a rocket, as he began to put some distance between his closest challengers by lap 10. The event’s only caution flag waved on lap 25 when Steven Deskins spun between turns one and two, thus erasing a 10 car-length advantage Barnes held over Hale and VanDyke.

Off the ensuing double-file restart, once again Barnes moved back out into the lead over Hale and VanDyke. But back behind the front-running trio, attention was focused on Fontaine, Peters, current point leader Ronnie McCarty, Taylor Coffman, Joey Trent, Derrick Lancaster, Lee Tissot and Zeke Shell.

With the race running clean-and-green reaching 10 laps remaining, Barnes, driving the Fort Chiswell RV Park/T&K Auctions/Bert’s Garage/Accelerated Graphics/Hedgecock (Race Cars) Racing Enterprises/AR Bodies/No. 0 Chevrolet SS, was in command out front. He would not be denied his first-ever visit to victory lane in winning over Hale, VanDyke, Fontaine and a strong fifth-place effort for Trent.

Completing the top 10 finishers were Peters, McCarty, Lancaster, Tissot and Shell.

“It’s tough to put into words just how much getting this win means to not only me, but for our race team period,” said Barnes. “We’re just a small, family-owned operation and compared to many teams racing NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars, we don’t have anywhere near the funding behind us compared to who we’re racing against. Here at Kingsport Speedway, it’s no secret that the Ford crate engine package has been winning races. For us to win tonight running a Chevrolet crate engine, we proved to everybody it’s not all in what engine you have under the hood. You’ve got to have a car that’s handling well, and tonight our car was just great. We were so good entering the corner and then through the center of the turns, and when I picked the throttle (gas) back up, we just launched off the corner down the straightaway.

“I can’t thank my dad (Tim Barnes) and uncle (Anthony Barnes) enough for all they do in providing me the opportunity to be able race. We’ve also got Daryn Cockram, Mike Adams, Jacob Porter and Jon Pittman helping too. I want to thank all the sponsors we have onboard that help our race team and, I especially want to thank Hedgecock Race Cars for their support. A lot of people say the first race is the hardest one to win, and once you get the first victory out of the way many others will follow. That sounds great to me. We’ll work on the car this coming week back at the shop and hopefully come back next Friday and get another win.”