Kinser Hitting on All Cylinders

INDIANAPOLIS Sept. 18 2008 - Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Kraig Kinser knew it was just a matter of getting his confidence back. Since winning his first Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series feature behind the wheel of the TSR No. 20 Bass Pro Shops/Chevy/JD Byrider Maxim on the first of September, the 23 year-old Bloomington, Ind., native hasn’t finished outside the top-10. Only one driver in the top-12 in WoO points has finished in the top-10 in each of the last five “A” feature events, and that’s Kinser. The 2004 Kevin Gobrecht WoO Rookie of the Year would like nothing more than to continue his streak at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway in Friday’s opening night of the American Revolution Weekend presented by Chevy.

Kinser and the rest of the WoO stars are in the midst of continuing their trek from the West coast to the East Coast over a 14-day period. Last week, two of the four races were washed out by rain, but Kinser continued to stand out in the two that were contested.

In last Wednesday’s program at Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer, Iowa, he won his heat race, the Crane Cams Dash, and led the first 26 laps of the 30-lap feature. While racing through heavy traffic late in the race, Kinser lost the lead to TSR teammate Donny Schatz, who went onto to win the feature. Kinser came home second to give TSR its first one-two WoO feature finish.

Sunday night, Kinser kept the momentum on the upswing racing from his seventh starting position to a fourth-place run in the thrilling, 35-lap feature at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.

This week, the action continues with the Outlaws’ fifth and final visit of the season to the famed high-banks of Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Kinser will be looking for his first top-10 at the track this season in Friday’s race. He has 26 career starts at the half-mile dirt oval with his best career finish of third coming on April 9, 2005.

Sunday night will see Kinser and the rest of the Outlaws compete at Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. The program will include only hot laps and the “A” feature. This will conclude the July 20 event, during which only qualifying, three heat races and the Crane Cams Dash were completed before rain ended the program prematurely. Kinser qualified 14th and finished third in the second heat race. He will start the 25-lap feature in the sixth row.

With a pair of top-five finishes last week, Kinser climbed to the 12th position in the WoO Sprint Series Championship standings and is only 15 points out of 11th place. He has made 50 series starts thus far in 2008, earning one victory, six top-five finishes and 15 top-10s.

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

Mother Nature tried to slow you down last week, but you still got two races in and had two more good nights. That has to help your confidence.

“It definitely does. We really thought we were going to get our second win last week, but I got hung up in traffic and Donny got us. That’s something that comes with experience. We’re getting there. The good thing is that we continue to qualify well and make it in the top-two spots during the heat races, so were starting up front. Right now, we want to race as many times as we can. The Bass Pro Shop guys (Steve Swensen, Mike Cool, and Bob Curtis) are doing a great job every night. We’re going to try and keep this pace going and maybe get a couple more wins before the end of the year.”

Friday, you return to Eldora Speedway for the American Revolution Weekend presented by Chevy. This will be a great opportunity to continue your recent success in front of some of your sponsors.

“We haven’t been that great at Eldora this year, but at the Kings Royal we might have started turning things around. We got going really well in the B (feature). We were closing in on Dad (Steve Kinser) for the lead, but there was a crash right in front of him. We got caught up in it and hurt our car pretty bad, so we weren’t any good in the Kings Royal. I will say that before the crash I felt the best I ever have going around Eldora. We’re running really well right now, so we’re hoping to have a great showing for the all the people from Chevy on Friday night.”