Mel Kenyon (born April 15, 1933, in DeKalb, Illinois) is a former midget car driver.
"[3] The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America says "Many consider him to be midget car racing's greatest driver ever.
Mel's engine blew up sending oil all over the car, his firesuit and the track.
Jim Hurtubise and Ralph Liguori slid in the oily track and ran straight into Mel's fuel tank.
[2] Mel, his brother Don and their father Everett designed a special glove with a rubber grommet sewn into the palm.
[4] Kenyon finished third in the 1968 Indianapolis 500 in a car sponsored by his hometown of Lebanon, Indiana.
Kenyon was leading as he approached the white flag, but his Foyt powered Eagle ran out of fuel.
Kenyon won the Indianapolis Speedrome midget car track title in 1993.
Kenyon stopped racing on the national tour in 1995 after his wife Marieanne became virtually comatose after suffering a major head injury in a bicycle accident.
At his Motorsports Hall of Fame induction in 2003 he had 111 feature wins,[4] 131 seconds, 107 thirds, 81 fourths, and 69 fifths, for a total of 419 Top 5 finishes.