To say that Kevin Stepinski likes the Dodge/Plymouth Neon is a bit of an understatement.

“I’ve owned as many as nine Neons at once,” he jokes. “And too many to count over the years!”

Kevin’s love for this car stems from his time at Chrysler, where he worked on the Neon program as a development engineer. But it was the Neon’s on-track performance that really piqued his interest, and he explains that he’s been racing Neons for the last 30 years.

“I started racing Neons in 1995 SCCA road racing,” Kevin says, as he tells us about another Neon in his fleet—a Figure 8 car with that’s racked up plenty of track time itself.

That said, it is Kevin’s 1995 Neon ACR coupe that brings us to this Built with Summit feature.

“I thought it would be cool to be racing a ‘new’ Neon in 2025 again,” Kevin explains. “One that was similar to the one that I raced over 30 years ago.”

And as Kevin describes it, his newest Neon is pretty special. That’s because it’s one of the rare ACR models, which stands for the “American Club Racing” trim. This factory-built grassroots race car came right from Dodge equipped with a Koni suspension and beefed-up sway bars, disc brakes all-around, and five-speed manual.

Better still, this particular one he found sported the coveted Quaife limited slip differential with a 4.12 final drive ratio.

Under the hood is the trusty Chrysler ECC overhead cam 2.0L which Kevin describes as “mostly stock.” In ACR spec, that means it’s making around 150 horsepower.

“This 1995 Dodge Neon was a Sports Car Club of America SSB/SSC and NASA Spec Neon class road racing car back in the mid-2000s,” Kevin tells us. “After a blown engine around 2008 or 2009, the car was parked and stored indoors for 17 years.”

Kevin says the Neon hadn’t moved under under its own power until 2025. He got the car with intentions of racing it again, but he wasn’t sure when, where, or what type of racing he’d be doing.

Turns out, Kevin’s an impatient guy, and he didn’t waste much time returning the car to fighting trim and getting it back on the track.

The car still carries the original Neon Racing McKenna Motorsports roll cage with oval track upgrades courtesy of B&H Race Parts in Ida, Michigan. Inside you’ll find a Kirkey full containment seat fitted with a Summit Racing seat harness.

Other track-ready upgrades include a Fuel Safe 12 gallon fuel cell, Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator, and Walbro fuel pump. The Neon wears Aero Race Wheels wrapped with street legal 400 TWR rated Kumho Solus tires, as specified by track rules.

B&H Race Parts also crafted the front radiator protection bar, side rub rails, and rear fuel cell protection bars.

Kevin says that many of the parts on the car were pretty easy to find and source from Summit Racing too. “I’m very happy with the excellent parts support,” he tells us.

“Most parts were delivered next day. Thanks for helping get this car back on the race track!”

The Neon was prepared for the ARCA Factory Stock class, competing on the quarter-mile asphalt ovals at Flat Rock Speedway in Michigan and Toledo Speedway in Ohio.

The Factory Stocks run a series of five 100 lap races called the Factory Stock 500 Series, plus regular 20 lap features on other dates. The rules for the class create a mix eight, six, and four cylinder cars. While the big V8 race cars might appear to be faster, the four-bangers get a significant weight break which makes them very competitive.

“In my first three races with the ‘new’ car in 2025, the car was very reliable and fun to drive,” Kevin reports. “I got faster every time out and only need about a half a second lap time improvement to be a consistent top 10 car. I was very happy with the results, and look forward to making improvements for next year.”

“The biggest challenge were the unknowns of essentially acquiring a 30 year old non-running street car, with limited knowledge of its mechanical history, that had not run in 17 years, and converting it to a serious ARCA Factory Stock race car,” Kevin laughs.

“It was a solid rust free car, so I knew that I had a good starting point. But everything else was a big question mark.”

Suffice it to say, he’s pretty pleased with the way it turned out. And so are we. And so are the legions of Neon fans out there too.

Thanks Kevin, for making this one #Built with Summit.