Kelly Tanner (born September 5, 1962) is an American

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

driver. Now retired, he competed in the

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Winston West Series The ARCA Menards Series West, formerly the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, NASCAR AutoZone West Series, NASCAR Winston West Series and NASCAR Camping World West Series, is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Raci ...

, Reb-Co Northwest Tour, and

Featherlite Southwest Tour The NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series (originally NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour) was a late model stock car racing series sanctioned by NASCAR that was held in the Southwestern United States. The original NASCAR Southwest Tour b ...

, winning the Northwest Tour championship back to back in 1996 and 1997.

Career

Tanner began his racing career in late models at

Evergreen Speedway Evergreen Speedway is an automobile racetrack located within the confines of the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington. The stadium can accommodate up to 7500 spectators in the covered grandstand and an additional 7500 in the uncover ...

, before moving up to the Winston Northwest Tour (later Reb-Co Northwest Tour and Raybestos Northwest Series) starting with a partial season in 1987. He ran the full series season starting in 1991; in 1996 and 1997 Tanner won back-to-back series championships. In both years, Tanner completed every lap of every race the series ran, also finishing in the top ten in every race.Woodbury 1998, p.403. Tanner also won the most

poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

in the series in 1996, with four, and in 1997, winning six pole positions. After the 1997 season Tanner competed in the

Winter Heat Series ''Winter Heat Series'' (or NASCAR Winter Heat) is a television program on TNN and later ESPN2 that featured stock car racing. History The program aired during the winter months between November and January (during NASCAR's offseason). The program ...

Tucson Raceway Park Tucson Speedway is a paved oval racetrack located at the Pima County Fairgrounds, off Interstate 10 just south of Tucson, Arizona. It is one of only three paved ovals in the state of Arizona (the others are Phoenix Raceway and Havasu 95 Speed ...

, winning the Featherlite Southwest Tour portion of the event. In 1998 Tanner moved up to compete full-time in the

; he posted seven top ten finishes on the way to seventh in the series standings. Following the year was selected to compete in the Coca-Cola 500 exhibitition race at

Twin Ring Motegi Mobility Resort Motegi (モビリティリゾートもてぎ) is a motorsport race track located at Motegi, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Originally named Twin Ring Motegi (ツインリンクもてぎ), the circuit's name came from the facility hav ...

in Japan; he finished 29th. Following the 1999 Winston West season, Tanner retired from his racing career; following his retirement Tanner worked as a crew chief in Northwest Tour competition; his son,

Tyler Tanner Tyler Tanner (born July 9, 1991) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He is the son of Kelly Tanner. Racing career Camping World Truck Series Tanner made his debut in the Camping World Truck Series in the fall race at Martinsvi ...

, has competed in the

Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanner, Kelly Living people 1962 births People from Woodinville, Washington Racing drivers from Seattle Racing drivers from Washington (state) NASCAR drivers Sportspeople from King County, Washington