Who is Kevin Gundaker? A look at dirt racing legend and Kenny Wallace's recent guest

Retired NASCAR driver and TV personality Kenny Wallace featured Kevin Gundaker, a dirt racer and track owner, in his latest "Kenny Conversations" YouTube interview. Gundaker, a native of St. Louis, is a highly successful dirt racer and the owner of Tri-City Speedway located in Illinois.

Gundaker's racing career began back in 1972. Wallace, a fellow St. Louis native, asked Gundaker about his family's history in the city. Prior to that, Wallace noted he often heard of Gundaker Realtors, a real estate company owned by the dirt racing driver's family. When asked about his family roots in real estate, Gundaker said:

"It started with my dad [Gordon]. ... He decided to go out on his own in 1968. Him and my mom opened a real estate company, built an empire, so to speak."

Tri-City Speedway was a track synonymous with Gundaker's early racing days. Now, he's the owner of the Illinois track after purchasing it in 2005. He won over 100 dirt races in his career, which led him to be inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in 2011. In May 2022, Gundaker and his family were inducted into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.

Kenny Wallace asked about the family bond among the Gundakers and suggested they look like a close family. The dirt racing legend vindicated that statement by saying:

"It's always been about family," Gundaker said. "We get together at Thanksgiving. We just got together at my sister Dana's house and all 60 something of us were there. It was amazing. Same thing this weekend. It was about family. Our family is very close in a lot of ways and my dad loves Christmas. He really enjoys the Christmas spirit, he enjoys the family being there. He's just, I guess you want to say a big kid at heart at 90."

Kenny Wallace outlined dirt racing plans for 2025

When he isn't hosting "Kenny Conversation," Kenny Wallace also does daily videos on his X that he calls "Coffee With Kenny." In one of his recent videos, Wallace gave insight into his 2025 plans to get behind the wheel of a dirt car.

After taking a "dream" trip to Italy in mid-January, Wallace said he would return to dirt racing at the Volusia Speedway Park in Daytona Beach, Florida, to drive the Sunoco car owned by Nick Hoffman. He added:

"We start racing January 30th, January 31st, and February 1st. It's a new schedule at Volusia this year. I don't know why, but we're running dirt races in nine nights. We start January 30th. You're gonna hear racers go, 'I'm going down in January this year.' That's because you race three days".

Kenny Wallace retired from NASCAR competition in 2015. He's known for his work in NASCAR broadcasting with Speed Channel and FOX Sports.