Keith Kauffman Deserves Better

Keith Kauffman Deserves Better

Brad Vores June 3, 2009

Keith Kauffman deserved better.

In what was a whirlwind weekend for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame driver, Kauffman’s sprint car career is in limbo after last weekend’s fiasco with the Dave Middleswarth owned sprint car team.

Last Thursday, Kauffman received an email from his car owner notifying him that Chad Layton was going to drive the car Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway. The email stated Kauffman could drive the car Saturday at Port Royal Speedway and the Layton deal was just a one night deal so the team could iron out some problems. Middleswarth called Layton early last week to drive the car.

Talk about a big smack in the face.

Now I understand that car owners pay the bills and can make whatever decision they want concerning their race car and I understand that in this sport, changes happen (three last week alone) but I also understand about respect and professionalism.

Sending an email to your driver of 11 seasons to let him know someone else is driving his car is completely disrespectful and unprofessional by anyone who owns an business, whether it be large or small.

Kauffman elected to not attend racing at Port Royal on Saturday night as the team then asked Mike Wagner to drive the car. Calls from the crew to Kauffman on Saturday went unreturned.

Kauffman is not talking about anything. He said Middleswarth is the one who initiated this change and he can answer all questions. Calls to Middleswarth this week went unreturned.

Kauffman made the Middleswarth team what it is today. Prior to his hire, the team was not a top team in Pennsylvania but since then, Kauffman drove the car to 59 feature wins including a win at the Knoxville Nationals back in 2000. Kauffman also won five Port Royal Speedway track titles in 10 seasons with the team, not too shabby of a statistic.

Kauffman has legions of fans and those fans could speak volumes with it comes to loyalty of their driver’s departure from this team.

People are quick to point out Kauffman’s age is a factor in his racing career and the talk has been that he doesn’t want to race much anymore. That’s as far from the truth as anything. Kauffman’s team was not interested in racing two nights a week and when his car is good, he has produced results, just like any other driver on the track. But how many times did we see the No. 7 car fall off the pace with mechanical failures during the past few years. How’s that the driver’s fault?

There is no way, in my opinion and several other drivers opinions, Kauffman could return to this team after what took place last week. Everyone is against him and the confidence level would be zilch. And in sprint car racing, if the confidence isn’t there, you might as well stay away. He made the choice to not race at Port Royal but can you really blame him?

This all could have been avoided if the team sat down as a team and talked about what the options were instead of how things were handled.

It’s a shame that a Hall of Fame driver is treated this way. But no matter what happens and where Kauffman ends up, he will always be one of the best and most respected (by most) drivers and people in the sprint car world.

JOEY KUHN PASSES
Former Sprint car driver Joey Kuhn passed away on Saturday.

Kuhn, of Carlisle, started his 410 career in 1988 driving the Doc and Jody Kronenberg No. 2K sprinter and continued through the 1994 season.

As a team, they won every single year they were in competition and Kuhn won the first race at Williams Grove Speedway that he finished.

Among some of his big wins were the Sharon Nationals, All Star Circuit of Champions at Susquehanna and he also won the National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year and was the 1990 Knoxville Nationals Rookie of the Year.

Kuhn was 48.

LATE MODEL SPEEDWEEK
The first annual Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek is set to begin this weekend and will visit different tracks through next Friday.

Hagerstown Speedway will kick off the Speedweek series this Saturday night followed by a Sunday night date at Selinsgrove Speedway. Winchester Speedway hosts the series on Monday followed by a stop at Williams Grove Speedway on Tuesday, Lincoln Speedway on Wednesday, Port Royal Speedway on Thursday and concluding next Friday, June 12 at Bedford Speedway.

The Lincoln race will be the Chargin Charlie Grinestaff Memorial and will be the highest paying event of the week, coming in at $7,000 to win. All other shows pay $5,000 to win.

WHATS HAPPENING
The URC sanctioned 360 Nationals will highlight Friday night racing at Williams Grove Speedway joined by the 410 Sprints. Fred Rahmer has entered the 360 Nationals and will be in the pits with nearly 50 other drivers for the $4,000 to win event.

The 410 Sprints are in action Saturday at Lincoln Speedway as well as Port Royal Speedway while the 358 Sprints have showed scheduled Friday at Trail-way Speedway and Saturday night stops at Lincoln and Selinsgrove Speedway’s. The Selinsgrove show will be the URC/358 Jack Gunn Challenge, paying $3,500 to win.

Micro Sprints are on tap at Path Valley, Trail-way and Shippensburg while the Saturday Night Series of Sportsman, 358 late models, street stocks and 4-cylinders is back at Williams Grove with just a $5 admission to the grandstands. The 358 late models also return to Susquehanna Speedway Park this weekend.

PIT STOPS
Dale Blaney had a big weekend last week with a Friday night World of Outlaws win and then winning Saturday night with the All Stars. Blaney won the Friday WoO show at Attica Raceway Park over Jason Meyers, Tim Shaffer, Randy Hannagan and Sam Hafertepe, Jr. and then backed that up with his second All Star win of the season over Greg Wilson, Tim Shaffer, Hannagan and Ed Lynch, Jr…

Meyers won Saturday’s WoO event at I-96 Speedway over Steve Kinser, Kraig Kinser, Danny Lasoski and Joey Saldana. The Outlaws are in action this weekend at Lawrenceburg, Indiana…