Kinser Seeks Consistency In World of Outlaws Sprint Series’ Return to California

INDIANAPOLIS, IN. Oct. 14, 2008: The long and grueling Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series 2008 season has been one of toughest on the competitors in recent years, primarily because of Mother Nature. Counting last Saturday’s rainout in New Mexico, the WoO series has lost more than 25 nights of racing this year, and Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Kraig Kinser hopes the weather problems are finished for the season.

So Kinser and the traveling Sprint car stars return to the Golden State in search of sunshine and a pair of exciting nights on good old-fashioned “California bullrings.” First up is a Friday-night race at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, Calif., followed by a Saturday show at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif.

Kinser wants to race as many laps as he can during the final three weeks of the season behind the wheel of the TSR No. 20 Bass Pro Shops/Chevy/JD Byrider sprinter because he and his TSR Bass Pro Shops crew have been one of the most consistent teams on the Outlaws trail since the first of September. The momentum began with a victory in Elma, Wash., and continued through California and followed them to events in the Midwest and Northeast.

On Friday night, Kinser will be making his debut at Ocean Speedway. The 2004 Kevin Gobrecht WoO Rookie of the Year is hoping to duplicate his performance of two weeks ago when he won the feature event at North Central Speedway in Brainerd, Minn., in his debut at the track.

On Saturday, he’ll return to Thunderbowl Raceway’s high banks, where he has five previous starts. In his last visit to the track in the fall of 2005, he enjoyed a solid weekend, leading the opening-night feature for 18 laps and finishing a career-best fourth in the finale the following night.

Kinser has qualified for 55 WoO races this season and currently ranks 11th in the WoO Sprint Series Championship standings with 6,982 points. He has earned a pair of victories, eight top-five finishes and 17 top-10s.

On Friday at Ocean Speedway, the pit gates and grandstands will open at noon PDT. Qualifying is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. For more details, contact Ocean Speedway at (831) 476-9466. The official Web site of Ocean Speedway is www.oceanspeedway.com.

The pit gates will be open all day Saturday at Thunderbowl Raceway with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. For more details, contact Thunderbowl Raceway at (559) 688-0909. The official Web site of Thunderbowl Raceway is http://www.tularethunderbowl.com.

Race fans unable to attend this weekend’s doubleheader from California can catch all of the action 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.

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

The last time you were in California, the TSR team was really picking up momentum. The only thing that has slowed you down since has been the weather. Are you looking forward to returning to the Golden State?

“Yes, definitely. We had a pretty good Gold Cup weekend out there and kept it going from there. The races in California are always tough because they have a great group of guys who race out there. The tracks always seem to be in good shape and you have to be able to race for everything you can. We’ll have to be able to get qualified well and race good in the heat races to be where we want to.”

You’ve had success at some tracks where you were making your debut. What’s been the secret?

“There really haven’t been any secrets. The Bass Pro Shops guys (Steve Sweneson, Mike Cool and Bob Curtis) have been doing a great job getting me a car that I can race and combined it with some good Chevy horsepower. When we left California and headed to Spencer (Iowa), I felt like we were moving in the right direction. We had a really good night in Spencer but just came up short to our teammate (Donny Schatz). At Brainerd (North Central Speedway), we just kept getting better and better all night. The feature was about taking advantage of the situation and we did it. We’re going to another new place on Friday, and I hope we find ourselves in that same position.”