Tony Stewart Racing, Kinser Return to Midwest

INDIANAPOLIS Sept. 9, 2008 - Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Kraig Kinser has been looking for consistency all season. Last week, the 23-year-old driver of the TSR No. 20 Bass Pro Shops/Chevy/JD Byrider Maxim had his best stretch of the 2008 season. Now, he’s looking to maintain that consistency when the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series returns to the Midwest for four nights of action this week.

Kinser, who scored his first victory of the season and three other top-10 finishes last week, is looking forward to staying active with races at Clay County Fair Speedway (CCFS) in Spencer, Iowa, US 36 Raceway in Cameron, Mo., Heartland Park Topeka (Kan.) and Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.

Wednesday night, Kinser will return to action following his 12-race Gold Rush tour that included stops in North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, Washington, Oregon and California. The state of Iowa will host the Outlaws for the fifth time in 2008 with the second-ever visit to CCFS. Kinser will be making his debut at the 3/8-mile dirt oval and hopes to join his TSR teammate, Donny Schatz, as an Outlaw winner at the track. Schatz, who will drive the TSR No. 15 Armor All/Chevy/ParkerStore J&J on Wednesday, won last year’s event at CCFS.

Friday night’s race at US 36 Raceway may feel a bit like home for Kinser even though he’s never competed on the high-banked 3/8-mile dirt oval. The race, which was originally scheduled for May 2, will put the 2004 Kevin Gobrecht WoO Rookie of the Year on a track reminiscent of his home state tracks, Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway and Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway. US 36 can one of the more exciting tracks on the circuit. The lap record there is 9.846 seconds, set in the No. 20 Bass Pro Chevy in 2006.

Saturday night, Kinser will return to Heartland Park Topeka, the only track on this week’s slate where he’s made laps before. In June 2002, he raced twice at the 3/8-mile facility with his best finish being 18th on June 14.

Just as the case will be on Wednesday and Friday night, Sunday’s race at Lucas Oil Speedway will be the first time Kinser competes at the 3/8-mile dirt oval. The rest of the WoO competitors will be in the same position as this will be the series’ first appearance at the track.

With four top-10 finishes last week, Kinser maintained the 13th position in the WoO Sprint Series Championship standings. He has made 48 series starts thus far in 2008, having earned one victory, five top-five finishes and 13 top-10s.

Race fans unable to attend this week’s events can catch all of the action from Clay County Fair Speedway, US 36 Raceway, Heartland Park Topeka, and Lucas Oil 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.

Wednesday, the pit gates at Clay County Fair Speedway will open at 2 p.m. CDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. For race tickets, contact CDR Promotions at (763) 389-9717. The official Web site of Clay County Fair Speedway is www.claycountyfair.com/racing.

For Friday’s event at US 36 Raceway and Saturday’s race at Heartland Park Topeka, the pit gates will open at 2 p.m. CDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. For race tickets and other event information on both events, contact SLS Promotions at (815) 344-2023. The official Web site of US 36 Raceway is www.us36raceway.com, and the official Web site of Heartland Park Topeka is hpt.com.

Sunday, the pit gates at Lucas Oil Speedway will open at 4 p.m. CDT with the grandstands opening at 5 p.m. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. For race tickets, contact Lucas Oil Speedway at (417) 282-5984. The official Web site of Lucas Oil Speedway is lucasoilspeedway.com.

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

This is another busy week for you guys, considering the travel and having four races in five days. Are you looking forward to the week ahead?

“We’re definitely looking forward to racing as much as we can. We feel like we made some progress out west and now just want to keep building on it. In the past, we might have looked at this week differently. But I know we’re all excited to keep this Bass Pro, Chevy and JD Byrider race car on the track as much as we can.”

Four more races on 3/8-mile tracks this week. You won at Elma, a 3/8-mile track. Does that give you added confidence for these races?

“The smaller tracks tend to be a little more racy, and right now we’re racing better. Our qualifying has improved quite a bit. Now we have to be better in the heat races and get into those top two spots. Starting up front is really important when you are racing with the Outlaws, and that’s our immediate goal for the week – to start near the front every night. If we can do that, our results should be where we want them to be.”