In their breakout season last year with driver Chad McCumbee, Andy Belmont Racing set the bar high as they won the Bill France Four Crown Award and finished fifth in driver’s points. With that said, Mikey Kile knows the expectations are high for him this year.
“I can’t wait to get the season going,” Kile said. “They’ve really set the bar high at Andy Belmont Racing, so it’s a tremendous challenge to take it to the next level. I believe our ModSpace team will come out of the blocks fast. This race team will start the year in full stride.”
The Westlake, La. driver has had success before as he finished fifth in points in 2010 with Venturini Motorsports. The season begins for the 28-year-old at Daytona with the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 on February 18th.
“I’m confident we’ll be in the championship hunt all year,” Jennifer Belmont said. “Mikey is the driver I believe can make us a contender in our flagship car. He’s always been fast at Daytona, so we’re confident he will get us off to a good start. Everyone on this race team has spent a lot of hours making sure he will have a good car. Mikey will do the rest.”
Kile got started in racing through go-karts at a young age. Since then, he has moved up the ranks, having success at various levels. Career highlights include four carting championships, eight IMCA modified wins and 2008 USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series Rookie of the Year.
In 2009, Kile ran some ARCA and Camping World Truck Series races for Brad Keselowski Racing. In the truck series, he qualified career-high 10th at Las Vegas and finished a career-high 11th at both Milwaukee and Gateway in the Truck Series. In the ARCA Series, he qualified a career-high 10th at Kentucky and finished a career-high fourth at Talladega.
“It was good,” Kile said of that experience back in 2010. “Our first outing we ran at Martinsville and finished 11th. I think we ran six races and finished top-12 in three or four of the six. We were sixth quickest at Vegas and running top-10 there and top-10 at Texas and a pit stop issue there caught us outside of the top 10. It was a learning curve, but definitely running there and running good, I felt like I belonged there.”
In 2010, he ran the full schedule for Venturini Motorsports, which led to him running some ARCA races for Venturini in 2011 and some NASCAR Camping World Truck and Nationwide races for Turner Motorsports.
Last month, Andy Belmont Racing made it official that they had hired Mikey Kile for the entire 2012 season.
Andy Belmont Racing also added a new crew chief to the team as they brought Jeff McClure on board. Though there will be one thing that stays the same for ABR as Modspace has come back on board.
“ModSpace is always excited to start the season at Daytona,” said William Mann, vice president of ModSpace Motorsports. “The history and energy that comes with this historic track always creates an exciting race! We are looking forward to seeing Mikey get behind the wheel the No. 1 ModSpace Ford and deliver a top-notch finish.”
“The entire team had a successful test at Daytona and they came back with a lot of notes to make the car even better,” Kile added. “This is an exciting time for everyone involved with this ModSpace race team. We’re all eager to get it started at Daytona. We will also be testing a new car at Talladega Superspeedway at the end of this month.”
