Owen Kelly

Owen Kelly
Kelly at Road America in 2016
Born	(1977-03-12) 12 March 1977 Devonport, Tasmania, Australia
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career
1 race run over 1 year
2013 position	63rd
Best finish	63rd (2013)
First race	2013 Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
5 races run over 3 years
Car no., team	No. 18 (Joe Gibbs Racing)
2016 position	48th
Best finish	48th (2016)
First race	2010 Bucyrus 200 (Road America)
Last race	2016 Road America 180 (Road America)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 2 0
Previous series
1998–2000 2000–01 2001–04, 2007 2001–11 2008–09 2009	Australian Formula Ford Ch. Australian Super Touring Development V8 Supercar V8 Supercar UARA Stars Late Models Rolex Sports Car Series
Statistics current as of 27 August 2016.

Owen Kelly (born 12 March 1977) is an Australian professional racing driver. Son of Chas Kelly, he has competed over the course of his career in V8 Supercars and NASCAR among other series.

Racing career

2013 NASCAR Nationwide car at Road America

Kelly started his circuit racing career in Formula Ford for three seasons, progressing to V8 Supercars in 2000. From there he has raced in Super Touring, V8 Supercars and NASCAR Late models. Late in the 2007 V8 Supercar season he was picked up as a full-time driver for Paul Morris Motorsport replacing Fabian Coulthard.

In 2008 Kelly raced an asphault late model, for Dale Earnhardt Jr., at Motormile Speedway in Radford, VA. He wanted to pursue a career in NASCAR and hoped to move up the ladder to get the necessary experience (Kelly started at the weekly track championship level). In June 2010, Kelly made his NASCAR debut in the Nationwide Series, driving for Baker Curb Racing at the Road America road course.^[1] He started ninth and finished fifth.^[1] K1 Speed sponsored the car. For 2011, Owen Kelly made no official start in the series but relief drove for Marcos Ambrose at Montreal who was in Michigan for the Sprint Cup Series race. He practiced and qualified the car while Kelly turned the wheel to Ambrose for the race. It turned up that Ambrose actually won the race in that car. In 2012 he practiced and qualified a car again, this time for Kyle Busch who ran his first race at Montreal since 2009. Busch finished tenth in the race after starting from the back of the field due to the driver change. It ended up that Kelly did not end up making any other attempts in 2012 and Ambrose did not run the Montreal race that year.

After a strong performance for Kyle Busch Motorsports at Road America in the Nationwide Series in 2013, it was announced that Kelly would make his debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 51 for Phoenix Racing, at Watkins Glen International in August of that year.^[2] Kelly finished 24th.^[3]

Kelly is of no relation to Todd or Rick Kelly, the latter he co-drove with at the 2010 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

Motorsports career results

V8 Supercar results

Complete Rolex Sports Car Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

NASCAR

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

Sprint Cup Series

Xfinity Series

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

Year	No.	Team	Car	Co-driver	Position	Laps
2000	67	Paul Morris Motorsport	Holden VS Commodore	Aaron McGill	DNF	2
2001	24	Romano Racing	Holden VX Commodore	Paul Romano	13th	159
2002	5	Ford Performance Racing	Ford AU Falcon	Glenn Seton David Besnard	DNF‡	102
2003	19	Ford Performance Racing	Ford BA Falcon	David Besnard	DNF	115
2004	18	Dick Johnson Racing	Ford BA Falcon	David Brabham	17th	157
2005	50	Paul Weel Racing	Holden VZ Commodore	Nathan Pretty	6th	161
2006	23	Tasman Motorsport	Holden VZ Commodore	Mark Noske	15th	159
2007	5	Ford Performance Racing	Ford BF Falcon	Matt Halliday	13th	161
2009	39	Paul Morris Motorsport	Holden VE Commodore	Russell Ingall	15th	160
2010	15	Kelly Racing	Holden VE Commodore	Rick Kelly	16th	161
2011	15	Kelly Racing	Holden VE Commodore	Rick Kelly	22nd	159
2012	51	Kelly Racing	Holden VE Commodore	Greg Murphy	13th	161

* Events highlighted in green denote designated co-driver role

‡Kelly practiced but did not start due to illness.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Owen Kelly.

• Owen Kelly driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Owen Kelly at Driver Database