Top Fuel driver Kebin Kinsley of Arlington, Texas, is competing at the NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, near Dallas.

Kinsley is once again driving the Roger Hennen Motorsports Top Fuel Dragster.

“This is our home track,” Kinsley said. “We were supposed to go to five (races) this season and Roger started another business and our crew chief (David Kirkland) has been busy and we had to repair a bunch of stuff after Houston, so things have not worked out until Dallas and we have to come to our home track. We have a bunch of new parts and I’m excited to be racing again. When I get back in the car, it’s going to be like Christmas day again. It takes a couple of hits to get back in the groove and then I know I’m there to do a job. I dream about driving a Top Fuel Dragster every night and I’m blessed to get to do this.”

Kinsley made his 2019 season debut at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil in Houston Raceway Park, April 12-14. That was Kirkland’s first race tuning the Top Fuel Dragster on his own.

Kinsley lost in the first round to reigning Top Fuel world champion Steve Torrence. Kinsley ran a respectable 3.855-second ET but fell to Torrence’s 3.720-second lap.

“We were really happy with those results in Houston, but then everybody went different directions and now we are all back together (in Dallas),” Kinsley said. “If it runs good here, we may go on to more races, it just depends on how we do.”

This season, Kinsley has kept busy behind the wheel driving at Fuel Altered races and Funny Car Chaos events as well piloting a Top Fuel Hydro boat.

Kinsley’s most memorable NHRA moment came in 2017 at the prestigious U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. At NHRA’s premier race, Kinsley qualified No. 16 and then shocked the drag racing world by reaching the final round before his Cinderella run ended with a loss to Steve Torrence.

“You know what’s really cool about NHRA racing is that it is total team effort,” Kinsley said. “It takes the whole team from the crew chief down to the guy flipping the burgers making sure everybody is fed. Being runner-up at Indy and then struggling since then, it really makes you appreciate Indy when everything comes together, and everything does go right. We earned what we got at Indy it was not a gimme deal. It’s that hard to do and the guys who do it day-in and day-out, I praise them for it.”

Kinsley has won twice in his career at Texas Motorplex. Both victories came in his Top Alcohol Funny Car – one was an NHRA divisional race and the other was a national event and both happened in 2006.

“If I could win this race this weekend, it would be a dream come true,” Kinsley said.