VanDyke, Canter showing early dominance at Kingsport Speedway

“It’s been keeping focused and keeping everyone working on the car pointed in the right direction,” VanDyke said when asked why his red No. 15 Chevrolet has been so dominant. “We’ve had some good luck and the good Lord has taken care of us.”

His best performance came at the last race on June 24. That night, he built a half-lap lead.

“We threw a little more coal on the fire,” said VanDyke, who wound up winning comfortably over the second- and third-place drivers, Nik Williams and Brad Housewright.

Although there are adjustments on Fridays at the racetrack, VanDyke said the race is won earlier in the week.

“That’s the fun part, race night. We come here to collect the trophy and we do all the stuff to win the race,” VanDyke said. “We put in 30, 40 hours a week, at night, usually because we’re working regular jobs. We experiment with different things. You know if you’re not innovating, you’re not going anywhere. So you’ve got to get outside the box and find what’s better than the next person has to stay ahead of the game.”

He said the Late Model Stock cars were pretty simple when he started racing the class but that they’ve become “pretty dynamic” over the past few seasons.

In addition to his own success, VanDyke has started a driver development program. One of the teenage drivers, Chase Dixon, became a winner in his own right. Now, VanDyke is mentoring a driver from North Carolina along with adult Sportsman driver Alex Keith.

For the teenagers, VanDyke encourages them to take any engineering-related subjects in school like learning geometry with all the angles.

“They can learn about angles, spindles and the list goes on,” he said. “Anything they can learn in engineering helps in racing.”

CANTER KEEPS WINNING

Canter hasn’t been driving the familiar Dale Earnhardt-inspired black No. 3 he’s often associated with by the fans.

Instead, he’s piloted the silver No. 9 Chevrolet, owned by his grandfather, Hershell Robinette, in the Mod 4 class. The results have been the same with the Abingdon driver winning five of the first six races. He’s not just been winning at Kingsport.

Earlier this season, he was also leading the points at Motor Mile Speedway and Lonesome Pine Raceway.

“We’re still leading them at Motor Mile, but we took a little vacation to Eldora (Ohio) to watch some dirt racing and we lost the points lead at Coeburn,” Canter said. “My two main goals are here and Motor Mile. I didn’t plan on running here this season until people told me to run this car.”

He was back with the No. 3 on Friday night and the car is still fast as he was the quickest in qualifying. As far as the No. 9 car, he gave credit to his grandfather.

“Papaw’s car, it’s been him throughout the week,” Canter said. “I call him and he asks me what needs to be done. He makes the changes throughout the week while I’m working. He does the major work on it and I just show up and drive.”