Keyes’ patience is paying off big

By Ed Turner For the News & Messenger
Published: August 29, 2008

Kristin Keyes is having a good first year in Legends at Old Dominion Speedway.  The 17-year-old Preston, Md., driver is sixth in points and has eight top 10s, including a second place finish.
“We’re pretty happy with sixth in points,” said Keyes, a senior at Saints Peter and Paul High School.  “And we’re really happy with what we’ve done this year.”
Keyes started the season with 10th, 11th and 18th place finishes.  But in her last nine races she’d notched six top sevens, including three sixes and a second. 
Keyes had her first milestone in a May 17th race when she snagged her first sixth.  “I was really happy with that because I was thinking that we weren’t going to do that well this year,” she said
In her last four races she’s gotten even better and has had two sixes, a seventh and a second.  She said changing her line on the track helped. And she credits Dave Daniels with giving her advice on how to enter turn three better. 
“That cut time off, and my dad has helped a lot getting me more comfortable with the car,” she said.
Her highlight this season came when she grabbed second in the July 26th race. 
“I felt very lucky with the second place,” she said.  “I was very happy that we finished there because it was great for points.  I can’t say that we were running that good.  We were just there and lucked out when Dave Polenz, Roger Austin Jr. and John Jansen got together.”
Keyes said it hasn’t made a difference being the only female in Legends at ODS this season.  She pointed out that when she ran quarter midgets, that a quarter of the drivers were girls.  The only female Legends driver she’s raced against was at a North Carolina track.
“But it’s pretty cool because all the little kids, mostly girls, come out to pit row after the race and ask what it’s like to be the only girl driver in Legends,” Keyes said.  “So maybe they’ll race, too.” 
Keyes, who ran quarter midgets and modified lights for four years and won a track championship in 2006 in midgets in Pennsylvania, had a lot to learn when she switched to Legends.  They were completely different from what she’d been running.  She had to get used to the speed, to the braking—where and even if you braked—and where you let off and what lines you run and what they can do to help a driver.
Keyes practiced a lot before her three races in 2006.  She was used to the way her Legends rolled on the track because her quarter midgets rolled similarly the way her dad had set it up.  But the speed difference between midgets and legends was huge.
“That was the biggest thing I had to get used to,” Keyes said. 
Keyes swims on her high school varsity team.  She also performs ballet.  She sees a connection between ballet and racing in that they both require the mastery of difficult skill sets. 
“I get a lot of patience from ballet because sometimes we do kind of difficult things,” Kristin said.  “It’s really hard to learn a difficult skill and be patient enough to get it perfect.”
In racing, Keyes’ patience is paying off.