The last ride: Kelly Kovski is prepared for his final ARCA Menards Series start Sunday at DuQuoin

This year’s trip to the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds for Kelly Kovski is already bringing forth plenty of emotions.

After two decades of primarily contesting the two dirt events on the ARCA Menards Series calendar each year in DuQuoin and the Illinois State Fairgrounds, Kovski will formally retire from racing once the checkered flag waves Sunday evening. Kovski was regularly a contender during his career, with his resumé comprising of 11 top-five finishes across 40 total starts.

Even as his final race approaches, Kovski feels he is still more than capable of winning Sunday’s Audubon Park 100 (7:30 p.m. CT/8:30 p.m. ET on FS1). Pursuing a victory is not Kovski’s only goal, as he also wants to cherish the atmosphere and every aspect that allowed him to enjoy a solid career on the ARCA Menards Series platform.

“The mindset is to take it all in and think about all the people that have supported me over the years from every sponsor and every person,” Kovski said. “I want to give back to them and show them that it wasn’t a waste, all these years of support.”

Kovski’s decision to step away from racing is two-fold. One part revolves around shifting focus over to supporting his son Kody, whose early accomplishments in racing include two victories in the Pro Mod division at Fairbury Speedway this year.

The other aspect revolves around the strain on Kovski’s body. Although he’s only 45, Kovski admitted he is in constant pain and has limited mobility, which primarily stems from an accident at Volusia Speedway Park in 2017.

During that year’s DIRTcar Nationals, Kovski was in the pit area when he and two others were struck by the car of Dale Blaney, who had crashed through the protective fencing. Kovski’s injuries were so severe that doctors placed him in a medically induced coma for two weeks.

Once Kovski got out of his coma, a long road to recovery began. There were plenty of days when Kovski himself believed his racing career might be over, but he was determined to see the process through and do whatever was necessary to get back behind the wheel.

“It was definitely tough,” Kovski said. “I did as much rehab as they would allow. I had some good mentors at the time guiding me. and they said, ‘whatever you do, keep going to rehab as long as you can to get yourself back.’ The rehab was really around racing, making sure the mobility I needed to drive the best I could was there.

“They weren’t really wanting me to go back to racing, but when you do it and that’s your passion, it’s hard for anyone to quit. If I could get back in a race car and be competitive, I would have felt like I overcame that.”

Kovski is proud of everything he did that resulted in him climbing back into his No. 16 Chevrolet at Springfield 18 months later. The cohesion Kovski always showed on dirt stayed intact, as seven of his ARCA Menards Series top fives have occurred following the accident at Volusia.

Dirt tracks are where Kovski got his start in motorsports while driving Dirt Modifieds and Dirt Late Models. There was always a desire for Kovski to run asphalt, something he briefly got to do in 2013 with the ARCA Menards Series, but he could never amass the necessary funding to pursue it full-time

Yet Kovski has still managed to stay around pavement racing for a good portion of life in a different manner. He has guided Grant Enfinger to handful of ARCA Menards Series victories as his crew chief and was the car chief for Justin Allgaier when he won the series championship in 2008.

The Allgaier family is a primary reason why Kovski managed to break into the ARCA Menards Series. While Kovski’s father Roy was figuring out how to get his son on the platform, Justin’s father Mike came across a wrecked car and recommended to Roy that he get it fixed up. In return, Mike supplied the engine for Kovski’s debut.

Following a concerted effort to get the wrecked car repaired, Kovski ended up making his first ARCA Menards Series start at DuQuoin in 2004. Kovski’s relationship with the Allgaier family only flourished from there, to the point where he drove for their own program at the dirt tracks for several years.

Every time he strapped into a car, Kovski was always grateful for everything the Allgaier family did. Being able to have a swan song at DuQuoin does not happen without them.

“I can’t express the amount of appreciation that I have for [the Allgaiers],” Kovski said. “Throughout me racing, they have always been a supporter to help be that person that always has my back in a way. [When] I’m almost there but need a little help, they’ve always been able to come in and make it happen.

“They are just great people. I couldn’t ask for better friends, really.”

Kovski is not sure if the younger Allgaier will be able to attend Sunday’s Audubon Park 100 with his focus now centered on pursuing his second NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series title. Despite this, Kovski did enjoy having Allgaier in attendance for the Springfield Mile, which came as a surprise.

That is not to say there will not be any special guests assisting Kovski in his last ARCA Menards Series appearance. Serving as Kovski’s crew chief for the Audubon Park 100 will be Enfinger, whose most recent ARCA Menards Series victory came in 2017 at Springfield when he was substituting for a still-injured Kovski.

Sunday is a role reversal of Enfinger’s Springfield triumph, as Kovski had recovered enough to be the crew chief that day. Being able to guide Enfinger to victory was a cathartic moment for Kovski, and it only further motivated him to continue his recovery so he could chase his first win as a driver.

Especially since that milestone nearly happened the year prior at DuQuoin.

After starting ninth, Kovski quickly charged toward the front of the field, battling drivers like Enfinger, Ken Schrader, Ryan Unzicker and others for the lead all day. Kovski even found himself in control of the lead during the closing stages but could not fend off Tom Hessert III and ended up settling for the second.

Despite coming up short of a checkered flag, Kovski said the 2016 race at DuQuoin is still his favorite memory in the ARCA Menards Series as a driver.

“I really felt we had a chance to win,” Kovski said. “I had led several of those laps during that race. They had a [late restart], and I got bottled up with another competitor and ended up losing the race. That’s one that was a special moment for me because I felt like, ‘I can do this and I can win one of these races.’

“That’s kind of what’s driven me to keep doing it.”

Ten years later, DuQuoin now presents Kovski his final chance to win an ARCA Menards Series event. Springfield did not go the way Kovski had planned, he struggled to maintain track position and ended up placing seventh, but he still feels confident about being a contender on Sunday with the car and prior dirt experience at his disposal.

What happens to Kovski’s team after DuQuoin is yet to be determined. Kovski does not feel Kody is ready to compete in the ARCA Menards Series right now, but his time in motorsports has gotten him familiar with plenty of other dirt drivers who possess the talent, but not necessarily the funding, just like he did once upon a time.

If Kovski keeps his team going, he would love to take on a similar role the Allgaiers have played in his life.

“Part of being a good human is paying it forward,” Kovski said. “Helping someone that is deserving and has worked hard, but just needs an opportunity, I thought about doing that. Putting someone in the car that I feel is a deserving guy that just needs a little help like I did.”

Planning for beyond 2026 is not at the forefront of Kovski’s mind; his focus is on making sure his car is one of the best Sunday evening. The field, consisting of 25 cars, will be one of the largest Kovski has faced on a dirt track during the past decade, which presents a smaller margin of error with which to work.

While Kovski has more ARCA Menards Series top fives at Springfield, he has always felt more comfortable around DuQuoin. Kovski considers DuQuoin to be way more dynamic than Springfield, which he feels leads to race craft being emphasized.

“[At] Springfield, you get on the guardrail and pretty much hug the guardrail all the way around,” Kovski said. “DuQuoin is more of a driver track where you have to have a little bit of a technique and you got to have a good setup. It seems to widen out a little bit more to where you can have more of an opportunity to pass.

“I like the driver aspect of DuQuoin.”

For Kovski to capitalize on DuQuoin’s unique qualities and go out on top Sunday, he said he needs to put an entire weekend. A ninth-place qualifying effort at Springfield is something Kovski felt prevented him from obtaining a better finish, so he hopes to be more consistent off the trailer and to negotiate lapped traffic efficiently.

Kovski believes he is retiring from the ARCA Menards Series at a time of sustainable growth. He said the quality of the field for Sunday’s Audubon Park 100 reflects the hard work the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR have put in to create an environment that encourages more drivers to give the platform a try.

The odyssey Kovski embarked on as a driver has featured plenty of highs, but also challenges he never imagined when he made his first start. Kovski persevered through everything to develop a reputation as a determined, but respected ‘dirt ringer’ within the ARCA Menards Series garage. If Kovski showed up to Springfield or DuQuoin, he always had a chance to win.

While a part of Kovski is sad about the end of his driving career, he knows it is time to pursue other endeavors. All Kovski wants is to deliver one last competitive drive in the ARCA Menards Series, which he hopes ends with that long-awaited trip to Victory Lane.

“[A win] would sum up my racing career,” Kovski said. “I never really kept track of statistics, but I’m at roughly around 100 career wins in dirt racing between late models and modifieds. I’ve won several ARCA races as a crew chief, but winning at DuQuoin would [be] a fairytale ending to what I’ve been able to do.”

The emotions Kovski is currently experiencing amidst final preparations for the Audubon Park 100 are likely going to carry over into post-race, regardless of the outcome. Kovski also finds himself content about wrapping up his career on his own terms at a track that always been significant to his life.

DuQuoin is where it all started for Kovski in the ARCA Menards Series over 20 years ago. On a warm, Labor Day weekend night, DuQuoin is where that journey will fittingly end.