Tommy Kendall (born October 17, 1966 in Santa Monica, California) is an American race car driver and television broadcaster. He is best known for his SCCA Trans-Am Series career.
Kendall earned a degree in economics from UCLA and to this day maintains an avid interest in business.[citation needed]
Son of race driver Charles Kendall, Tommy began his racing career competing at the IMSA Camel GT championship. He drove a Mazda RX-7 in the GTU category whilst 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 managed to win every single race on the schedule, except for the last two—almost a perfect season. During this time, Kendall also honored by representing the series for six IROC seasons.
He ran in fourteen NASCAR Winston Cup races between 1987 to 1998. He raced primarily only on road courses (see road course ringer), and scored one Top-10 finish. He had a single start in the NASCAR Busch Series.
Kendall also had one start with Dick Johnson Racing at the 1996 AMP Bathurst 1000 co-driving with Steven Johnson finishing in 8th.[1] In doing so he became the first and so far only American to ever finish the Bathurst 1000.
On June 30, 1991 Kendall encountered a near fatal injury at Watkins Glen when a mechanical failure caused his car IMSA GTP car to leave the track. This occurred along the same area of track where JD McDuffie of NASCAR Winston Cup fame lost his life only a month later. Kendall speaks of this incident during Episode 3, Season 2 of the Speed Channel series, "Setup" as a "crossroads in his racing career." He returned to racing over a year later in August of 1992.
In the 2000s, Kendall became a television analyst for the Champ 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 show Setup on SpeedTV.
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