InnerView:

Kenny Nowling is making some waves in Pro Modified

Interview and photo by Jeff Burk

Kenny Nowling is a lightening rod these days in the closely knit Pro Modified community. AMS Staff Leasing, the series sponsor for the NHRA Pro Modified Challenge, hired his company, Nowling Motorsports Management, to administer the program. He is a married man with two young children. He lives in the St. Louis area and, before he burst on the scene as the front man for the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge, was a very successful Super Gas racer on both local and national levels. DRO thought that our readers would be interested in getting to know a little more about Kenny Nowling and hearing what he has to say concerning Pro Modified.

In the way of a disclaimer, it should be noted that Mr. Nowling's business, Nowling Motorsports Management, is a partner with DRO in the DRO/NMM Cup points program for the NHRA Pro Mods. We decided not to hold that little slip in judgment against him and go ahead with the interview.

DRO: Kenny, just how did you become involved with Pro Modified?

KN: Well, that's kind of an interesting story. I had Bill Kuhlmann building the engines for my bracket cars. At the same time he was building motors for (AMS Staff Leasing president) Dave Wood's Nitro Coupe '57 Chevy. I had had some success in finding sponsorship for my bracket car locally, so Bill asked me to help secure a sponsor for his team. We put together a program for Bill to take to potential sponsors such as AMS. Then over a period of time Dave Wood became interested in taking Pro Mod to NHRA. We knew each other through Kuhlmann and apparently he liked the way I handled that, so he hired me to represent AMS with NHRA and, once that deal was done, to administrate the program at the races.

DRO: OK, now that we know what you do for AMS, could you give us some information about Nowling Motorsports Management.

KN: It is a company that I started after I helped Dave Wood put together the NHRA Pro Mod program. I get a retainer from the racer and a percentage of what I am able to get for them. Actually I started company after I had so much success getting sponsorships for my own race car.

DRO: Who do you represent in Pro Modified?

KN: Bill Kuhlmann, Mike Ashley, Tommy Grey, Shannon Jenkins, Rickie Smith and Tim McAmis.

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