Lakewood, Colorado – Although the inaugural race on June 2, 2001 at the brand new Kansas Speedway will bring race teams from all over the country to Kansas City, one team will add a definite local flavor to the race. Darren Hensley, jack man on the #00 Oliver Gravity Separators Nascar Winston West Series Racing Team for driver Scott Gaylord, is a native of Holden, Missouri. In fact, most of his family and his wife’s family still live in the Kansas City area.

Hensley is a 1980 graduate of Holden High School and went on to play college football at Missouri Western State College in St. Joseph, Missouri and Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, graduating in 1984. He continued his education by obtaining a combined JD and MBA degree at the University of Kansas in 1988. He and his wife Linda, a native of Garden City, Missouri, currently reside in Lakewood, Colorado with their two daughters, Nicole and Brittany, where Hensley practices law on a full time basis with the Colorado office of Brobeck Phleger & Harrison LLP, an international law firm with over 900 attorneys.

Darren is exited about the opportunity to bring big time NASCAR racing to Kansas City. “I am very excited about racing in my hometown area, especially with the opportunity to participate in an inaugural event at such a great new facility. I have always known that some of the greatest racers in the world are in the midwest. My dad, Don Hensley, traveled the midwest racing stock cars on the IMCA circuit back in the 1960’s and I was too young to enjoy it. Now I am having my fun.”

Scott Gaylord, driver of the #00 Oliver Gravity Separators Monte Carlo, commented on Hensley: “Darren is one of the longest tenured members on our team, joining us back in 1994 at the inaugural Brickyard 400. Although with his job as an attorney it is difficult for him to get to the race shop during the week on a regular basis, he has made practically every race for us during the last eight years, which is no easy feat considering our travel schedule. With his legal background, he brings a unique aspect to the team, not only helping us on the race car, but also with sponsorship, contract, public relations and other issues. Although he catches a lot of flack from the crew about his profession, he is a pretty darn good jack man for an attorney!”

This is not the first time Hensley has had the opportunity to race with the Oliver Gravity Separators team in the midwest. In 1998 the team raced the road course at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas and brought home a top five finish. They hope to do the same at the inaugural Kansas 100. “I really enjoy coming to the midwest to race because it gives me the opportunity to see family and friends and get them involved. My dad and my brother, Darrel Hensley of Harrisonville, Missouri, both help out in the pits when we are in the area, and a friend, Destry Hough of Holden, gassed for us at Topeka a few years ago. I hope I get the opportunity to see other friends and family at the track, although it is difficult because we are always on a tight schedule on race weekends.”

The team currently stands fifth in the NASCAR Winston West Series Championship points battle, being one of only two teams on the circuit to claim top 10 finishes in six of the first seven races. Consistency has been a mainstay for the team this year, as they are third in the series in number of laps completed in all races. Nonetheless, they are still thirsty for the first win, which they hope will come at Kansas Speedway.

“We don’t have a budget anywhere near the rest of the top ten teams in our series,” stated Hensley, “but we have a group of guys who just work very hard with what we have to put the best car we can under Scott. And Scott is just a very talented driver. What he does with our equipment under our budget is just amazing. The guy can drive a race car. A lot of people don’t realized he was a championship driver in other series before joining the NASCAR Winston West Series, where he has won the Most Improved Driver Award, Most Popular Driver Award and the Sportsman of the Year Award, and that he has also driven in NASCAR Busch and Winston Cup races with his own team and for former Winston Cup driver Jimmy Means. We just need to get a win under our belt and I think it can come at this race. We lead the race last weekend at the road course at Laguna Seca and were set to make a run at the end when the engine developed a miss. As a result, we had to settle for a sixth place finish. But we will get that win.”

And don’t think Hensley does it for the money. The entire Oliver Gravity Separators Racing Team, who call their over the wall pit crew the “Flying Pumpkins” due to their bright orange team colors, are all volunteers who love racing. “People always ask me ‘why do you do it?’, commented Hensley, “and my response is always the same. Because I love racing. There is nothing like the rush of jumping off that pit wall with a jack in your hand and running in front of a race car flying into the pit stall right at you. I call myself a ‘weekend warrior’ and this is sort of my hobby, my way to get away from the stress of the job. It has given me the opportunity to travel 4 times to Japan to race, to sit at a table with Dale Earnhardt, to stand in line at McDonalds with Darrell Waltrip, to knock coffee out of Dick Trickle’s hand, to ride a bus with Sterling Marlin, to fly on a plane with Ernie Irvan, to see James Garner and Chuck Norris, and to race against the likes of Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. How many other people have had that

opportunity? I owe it all to Scott Gaylord and our car owner, Geoff Burney. My thanks go out to them because they had had faith in me and have given me an opportunity to do things that I never thought I would be able to do. I am very proud to be a member of the Flying Pumpkins.”

If you have the opportunity, come to Kansas Speedway on June 2, 2001 for the Kansas 100 Nascar Winston West Series race and watch Hensley, the attorney who doubles as a jack man, and the rest of the Flying Pumpkins go over the wall to service the #00 Oliver Gravity Separators Monte Carlo for Scott Gaylord with tires, gas, chassis adjustments, clean window and a drink, in about 15 seconds. It will leave you wondering why you aren’t doing something this exciting on your weekends. Just ask Darren Hensley.