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Kevin Kozack, owner of the No. 48 Mid West Combustion Chevrolet, along with his team is new to the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, but they want to be a regular entrant sooner rather than later.
Owner Kevin Kozack looking east and beyond DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- So often racing is generational. People are born into it, but that wasn’t the case for Kevin Kozack. He didn’t find racing, racing found him.
The races included would be at Riverside International Speedway in Antigonish, N.S., and Kawartha Speedway in Fraserville, Ont.
“I’ve seen those races on television the last couple of years,” he said. “They’re great and we need to make it happen to continue our growth.”
“I was sitting in my office when (Howard Chappell) and (Nathan Weenk) came by looking for sponsorship money. I could see the passion they had for the sport, but I couldn’t get a number out of them. I was prepared to write a check for $2,500 or so, but they wouldn’t say it,” said Kozack. “So, I asked them if $250 would work for them and their eyes lit up. They were happy with that.”
Kozack, a lifelong resident of Saskatchewan, started work at the bottom of Mid West Combustion before buying the company from his boss. His company deals in large industrial burners for a variety of industries.
The relationship between Kozack, Chappell and Weenk continued to evolve.
“The next thing I knew I was buying a race car. Then, two cars and so on,” Kozack says. “A couple of years ago, they brought up the (NASCAR Canadian Tire Series) as an option which is on a scale well above what we had been doing, but it has been great and with a few more partners we can attend more races. We’d love to run them all.”
Chappell remains as the crew chief for the team and Weenk is behind the wheel of the No. 48 Mid West Combustion Chevrolet.
Weenk, out of Lethbridge, Alberta, has proven to be a solid competitor. In just four series starts, he has three top-10 finishes including a career-best eighth-place effort last Saturday night in the A&W Cruisin’ The Dub 300 at Motoplex Speedway in Vernon, B.C.
The difficulty level in competing at the highest level in a part-time capacity is fairly high. Dealing with these race cars on a daily basis leads to a base of knowledge that comes in handy when presented with different situations at the race track.
“That team has done a fantastic. I couldn’t ask for much more,” said Kozack. “We really want to move forward with this thing. If things go well for these two events, then we really want to take a look at going east at the end of the year.”The races included would be at Riverside International Speedway in Antigonish, N.S., and Kawartha Speedway in Fraserville, Ont.
“I’ve seen those races on television the last couple of years,” he said. “They’re great and we need to make it happen to continue our growth.”