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Tommy Kendall
Kendall atDaytona International Speedway for the2008 24 Hours of Daytona
Born	(1966-10-17)October 17, 1966 (age 59) Santa Monica,California, U.S.
Achievements	Trans-Am Series champion (1990, 1995, 1996, 1997)
Awards	Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2015)[1] West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame (2021)
NASCARCup Series career
14 races run over 10 years
Best finish	47th (1990)
First race	1987Winston Western 500 (Riverside)
Last race	1998The Bud At The Glen (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0
NASCARO'Reilly Auto Parts Series career
1 race run over 1 year
Best finish	85th (1990
First race	1990NE Chevy 250 (Loudon
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0

Tommy Kendall (born October 17, 1966) is an American race car driver andtelevision broadcaster. He is best known for hisIMSA GT Championship andSCCA Trans-Am Series career.

Son of race driver Charles Kendall, Kendall began his racing career competing at theIMSA GT Championship. He drove aMazda RX-7 in the GTU category while studying and by the time he completed his studies, he took the 1986 and 1987 championships. Later he won three other titles in the same car, which he still owns.^{[citation needed]}

He later dominated the SCCA Trans-Am Series in the 1990s, scoring four series championships. His greatest year came in 1997, when he won eleven races in a row out of the thirteen on the schedule—almost aperfect season. During this time, Kendall was also honored by representing the series for sixIROC seasons.

He ran in fourteenNASCAR Cup Series races between 1987 and 1998. He raced primarily only on road courses as aroad course ringer, and scored one Top-10 finish. He nearly won the1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300K atSears Point Raceway, in which he led twelve laps before cutting a tire with two laps to go following a late-race collision withMark Martin. The two drivers, who were brieflyRoush Fenway Racing teammates in Trans-Am, would not speak about the incident for years until they rehashed their late-race collision on Martin's podcast, twenty years later.^[2]

While competing in Winston Cup as a ringer, Kendall had a single start in the NASCARBusch Series. Kendall also had one start withDick Johnson Racing at the1996 AMP Bathurst 1000 inAustralia co-driving withSteven Johnson, the son of team bossDick Johnson. Johnson and Kendall finished eighth in theirFord EF Falcon.^[3] Of the American drivers who have competed in theBathurst 1000 since the race moved to Bathurst in1963 including three timeIndianapolis 500 winnerJohnny Rutherford,Janet Guthrie (the first woman to ever qualify for the Indy 500 in1977), Dick Barbour,Sam Posey,Bob Tullius,John Andretti andScott Pruett, Kendall holds the distinction of being the first one to have ever finished the race (Pruett in his only start would finish 11th thenext year at Bathurst^[4]).

On June 30, 1991, Kendall suffered serious leg injuries atWatkins Glen when a mechanical failure caused hisIntrepid RM-1 IMSA GTP car to leave the track and crash head-on into a tire wall. This occurred along the same area of track whereJ. D. McDuffie of NASCAR Winston Cup fame was killed only a month later, and both crashes led to the addition of a bus stop chicane on the backstretch. Kendall spoke of this incident during Episode 4, Season 2 of theSpeed Channel series,Setup as a "crossroads in his racing career." He returned to racing close to a year later in June 1992. He also discussed his accident onAthlete 360, a sports medicine television show hosted byMark Adickes.

In the 2000s Kendall became a television analyst for theChamp Car series. He is also the host of the Speed Test Drive promotional television series where he and another professional race car driver drive a new vehicle on a race course while being able to remotely talk to each other and offer their positive thoughts on the car.

In 2007 and 2008, Kendall was one of the hosts of the showSetup on SpeedTV.

On July 15, 2012, Kendall revealed on SpeedTV'sWindTunnel program that he would be returning to the cockpit as one of four full-time drivers in a factory-backedDodge Viper effort competing in theAmerican Le Mans Series.

On September 22, 2013, Kendall's new show,Driven - A Race Without Boundaries, premiered onFox Sports 1. It also starsRhys Millen and is hosted byTiff Needell.

Kendall was raised in the city ofLa Cañada Flintridge, California, nearLos Angeles and is a 1984 graduate ofLa Cañada High School.

Kendall earned a degree ineconomics fromUCLA and to this day maintains an avid interest in business.^{[citation needed]}

In 2015, he was inducted in theMotorsports Hall of Fame of America.^[1]

In 2025, Kendall was inducted into theTrans-Am SeriesHall of Fame.^[5]

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2000	Konrad Motorsport	Charles Slater Jürgen von Gartzen	Porsche 911 GT2	GTS	317	14th	7th
2013	SRT Motorsports	Jonathan Bomarito Kuno Wittmer	SRT Viper GTS-R	GTE Pro	301	31st	9th

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1996	Shell FAI Racing	Steven Johnson	Ford EF Falcon		158	8th	8th

• Tommy Kendall driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Tommy Kendall career summary at DriverDB.com
• Tommy Kendall atIMDb

• Living people
• 1966 births
• Racing drivers from Santa Monica, California
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• American Le Mans Series drivers
• Trans-Am Series drivers
• NASCAR drivers
• International Race of Champions drivers
• University of California, Los Angeles alumni
• FIA World Endurance Championship drivers
• Dick Johnson Racing drivers
• Hendrick Motorsports drivers
• RFK Racing drivers

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