Tony Stewart Racing, Kinser Continue Gold Rush Tour

INDIANAPOLIS Aug. 27, 2008 –After a week of travel that led the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series teams from Montana to Alberta, Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Kraig Kinser is looking forward to the annual northwest swing, which includes races at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., Grays Harbor Raceway Park (GHRP) in Elma, Wash., and Cottage Grove (Ore.) Speedway.

Kinser, who is continuing his first full season on the WoO tour since 2005, has a special place in his memory bank for the northwest, since it was at Cottage Grove Speedway where he scored his first career WoO victory. That historic night came on Aug. 31, 2004, when Kinser beat his father, Steve, to the finish line and captured the first of his seven career WoO triumphs.

On Friday night, Kinser will be making his debut at Skagit Speedway, a 3/10-mile dirt oval. He’ll be driving the TSR No. 20 Bass Pro Shops/Chevy/JD Byrider Maxim that he raced to a season-best third-place finish on Aug. 17 at Nodak Speedway in Minot, N.D. It will be the first of two single-night programs at the track, with Saturday’s winner receiving a $25,000 prize.

The Labor Day weekend action will continue Monday night for Kinser and the TSR team at GHRP in Elma. Kinser has made four career WoO starts at the track, with his best finish being fifth on Aug. 28, 2004, just three nights before his first victory at Cottage Grove. In 2005, he scored a pair of sixth-place finishes at the high-banked 3/8-mile oval.

Tuesday night’s return to Cottage Grove highlights the four race slate for Kinser, who is aiming to gain consistency as Outlaws continue their Gold Rush Tour. The high-banked quarter-mile track resembles many of the Indiana bullrings where Kinser learned his craft behind the wheel of a Sprint car.

The 2004 Kevin Gobrecht WoO Rookie of the Year winner remains 14th in the WoO Sprint Series Championship standings entering this week’s racing action. He has made 41 series starts thus far in 2008, having earned three top-five finishes and 10 top-10s.

Race fans unable to attend this week’s events can catch all of the action from Skagit Speedway, Grays Harbor Raceway Park and Cottage Grove Speedway on DIRTVision.com. Fans can listen live as Johnny Gibson, “Voice of the Outlaws,” calls the action as he does at all WoO Sprint Series events on the DIRTVision.com cybercast, as well as on the DIRT Radio Network. Go to www.DIRTVision.com for more information on all the site features, including updated results from each night of racing, as well as a chat room to interact with other race fans.

For both Friday and Saturday’s events at Skagit Speedway, pit gates will open at 3 p.m. PDT and the grandstands will open at 5 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m. The official track Web site is www.skagitspeedway.com. For ticket information, call (360) 724-3567 during weekday business hours.

On Monday, the pit gates at Grays Harbor Raceway Park will open at 2:30 p.m. PDT with the grandstands opening at 3:30 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. For ticket information, visit the official track Web site at www.graysharborraceway.net.

For Tuesday’s program at Cottage Grove Speedway, the pit gates will open at Noon PDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Time Trials are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. For ticket information, call (541) 942-7561, or visit the official track Web site at www.cottagegrovespeedway.com.

Quotes from Kraig Kinser, driver of the No. 20 TSR/Bass Pro Shops/Maxim:

The annual trip to the Northwest is always a good time for the teams. Are you looking forward to getting back to Washington?

“I am definitely ready to race in the Northwest. When you leave Knoxville, you feel a little relieved because there is so much pressure on everything for the week there. These past couple of weeks, we’ve really been traveling a bunch, going from Iowa to North Dakota to Wyoming and back to North Dakota, and then from Montana to Edmonton and now to Washington.

“This week, we get a chance to relax and refocus before four races in five nights. It’s good for everyone to have a little break. I know the TSR guys are working really hard and we all want to have some success for the people at Bass Pro, Chevy and JD Byrider. We’ve had some good nights this year and a couple more here in Washington would certainly give us some momentum heading to California next week.”

Next Tuesday you get to return to Cottage Grove, where you won your first Outlaws race. What do your remember about that night?

“It’s one of those nights that you’ll always remember. It was my rookie year and, kind of like this year, we had some good nights and some that you’d like to forget. We came off a top-five in Elma, so we were on an upswing. I started sixth and a couple guys crashed in front of me early. I almost got caught up with Jonathan Allard, but I was able to steer clear and keep going. After the restart, I got by Dad (Steve Kinser) and then tried to catch (Craig) Dollansky, who was leading. He was setting a pretty good pace and then he started slowing down and we passed him for the lead. He stopped shortly after with a flat tire and my mind started worrying about if we had enough tire. As it turned out, we did and it was smooth sailing from there.

“Having Dad finish second was pretty cool. He said something about him beating his Dad one night in victory lane. It’s a night I’ll always remember.”