CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Nov. 21, 2022) – They’re going to have to make room in the “little corner” of the race shop where Kaden Reynolds puts his trophies on display.
Reynolds took his considerable on-track talent to the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car division in 2022, earning national and EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region rookie of the year awards.
He won 14 features and clinched the track title at Benton County Speedway before returning to Boone and impressing at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
“We were real good this year. I was probably most happy with my consistency,” said Reynolds, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “We raced weekly with some of the best drivers in the division, then went to Super Nationals and made a statement.”
“It was pretty cool.”
He came to The Class Too Tough To Tame after three seasons in an IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock, winning rookie of the year in 2019, the Junior National Champion crown in 2020 and the national championship last year.
“The biggest thing we had to do this year was relearn every setup thing there is. There is so much more you can do with a Stock Car,” Reynolds said. “We had a good start to the season and ran at tracks where there were a lot of stout cars.”
Seven of his weekly wins came at Vinton, including his career first in the division on May 15, four more at Independence Motor Speedway and two at Marshalltown Speedway.
Reynolds raced to that elusive first checkered at Boone Speedway in the inaugural King of the Katwalks special on June 25.
That victory was a harbinger of even better things to come at Super Nationals in September. On successive nights, Reynolds won the B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational and the Sunoco Race Fuels Race of Champions, then led early before finishing third in the main event.
“Our highlight of the season was probably the whole week at Boone. We had one misfortune early in the week with a DQ and then we were lights out,” said Reynolds, one of a record 246 Stock Car entries at the 40th annual event. We went into the week just wanting to qualify. We won the All-Star Race from seventh and that definitely set the tone for the big show.”
“I still feel like I let that get in my head and over drove, but I’m still happy with finishing third,” he added. “There were so many good cars at Boone again this year.”
Reynolds and Matthew Day both won national rookie of the year awards in second IMCA divisions this season. Only six drivers had accomplished that feat before 2022.
Seventh in the national standings, Reynolds will be making room for his latest eagles on the top shelf of the display case he shares with uncle Tony Olson, IMCA’s Friesen Performance Northern SportMod national champion in 2016.
Wins, 14 – Top Fives, 31 – Starts, 42
HIS CREW: Grandfather Randy Olson and Russ Rayner.
HIS SPONSORS: Eastern Iowa Spray Foam, D & S Disposal, Cassill Motors, Speedeez Indoor Karting, FYP Rental Properties, Climate Engineers and K2F2, all of Cedar Rapids; Shellsburg Car and Truck Wash of Shellsburg; Prestige Masonry of Anamosa; RBF Electric and Dynamic Drivelines, both of Des Moines; Finishline Body and Paint of Grimes; BHE Custom Suspension of Ames; Motorsports Warehouse of Boone; and Eibach Springs of Corona, Calif.