Got Dirt?

INDIANAPOLIS July 7, 2009: When you circle dirt tracks on a nightly basis, you are bound to get a little dirty. World of Outlaws (WoO) star Kraig Kinser has had his fair share of mud slung his way since getting behind the wheel of a Sprint car as a teenager. The slinging continues this week with three nights of action for the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) driver, who continues to chase his first WoO win of the 2009 campaign. Kinser’s schedule, which includes stops at 34 Raceway in Burlington, Iowa, Charter Raceway Park in Beaver Dam, Wis., and Cedar Lake Speedway, in Somerset, Wis., would seem to make him a natural candidate for the famous “Got Milk?” campaign.

Kinser returns to action behind the wheel of TSR’s No. 20 Bass Pro Shops/Chevy/J.D. Byrider Maxim on Wednesday night at 34 Raceway and would likely trade a milk mustache for a victory celebration. The 24-year-old driver aims to build on a solid ending to June, which included three consecutive top-four finishes and five top-nine runs in his last six starts.

Wednesday’s appearance at 34 Raceway will be the second time Kinser and the Outlaws compete at the 3/8-mile dirt oval. Last season, the Outlaws debuted at the track, and Kinser finished 13th in the 35-lap feature event.

On Saturday night, Kinser will return to Charter Raceway Park in central Wisconsin. The program will be his sixth night racing at the high-banked 1/3-mile dirt oval. He has a pair of top-10 finishes at the track, including a seventh-place finish in June 2004. Last August, he started the feature event 12th before mechanical problems forced him to end his race early, and he was credited with 21st.

The week concludes with the Outlaws’ annual July stop in northwest Wisconsin at Cedar Lake Speedway. Kinser has made four previous trips to the 3/8-mile facility. He scored his best career finish the first night he raced there. It was July 2003 when Kinser parlayed a second-place finish in the Crane Cams Dash into a third-place starting position in the 35-lap feature event. The Indiana youngster jumped out to the lead for the first eight circuits before being overtaken by current TSR teammate Donny Schatz. Kinser ended up finishing fourth. In his most recent race at the track last June, Kinser raced from the 19th-starting position to a 12th-place finish.

After the first 33 WoO races of 2009, Kinser has eight top-five finishes and 16 top-10s. He currently ranks ninth in the WoO Sprint Series Championship standings with 4,222 points.

Wednesday at 34 Raceway, the pit gates open at 2 p.m. CDT., and the grandstands open at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Tickets for the race can be purchased by calling 34 Raceway at (319) 752-3434. For more information on the event, visit www.slspromotions.com.

Saturday at Charter Raceway Park, the pit gates open at 2 p.m. CDT., and the grandstands open at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Tickets for the race can be purchased by calling Charter Raceway Park at (920) 887-1600. For more information on the event, visit www.slspromotions.com.

Sunday at Cedar Lake Speedway, the pit gates open at 2 p.m. CDT., and the grandstands open at 5 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Tickets for the race can be purchased by calling Cedar Lake Speedway at (612) 363-0479. For more information on the event, visit www.cedarlakespeedway.com.

Race fans unable to attend this weekend’s races 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/Chevy/J.D. Byrider Maxim:

The rest of the month is going to be pretty busy with at least three races per week. As a driver, is this the time you enjoy the most during the season?

“Definitely. As a driver, you want to race every day. You learn something that makes you better just about every time you get in the car. When a team gets going well, you want to keep that going. If you have a bad night, you want to get back to the next track and put it behind you as quickly as you can.

“The Bass Pro Shops guys (Mike Cool, Steve Swenson and Bob Curtis) have been preparing for this stretch all season. We’ve got a lot of races in the next few weeks and some really big ones included. This is definitely a fun time of the year.”

On Wednesday, you’ll make your second appearance at 34 Raceway. What would you like to see change during your second visit to the track?

“Obviously, we’d like to have a better finish than last year. The track was pretty fast and the guys up front had an advantage. We started too far back. So I guess if something was going to be different, it would be a better starting spot. I know it was the first time we were there and maybe they weren’t sure what the track was going to end up doing. I’d guess this time they’ll have the track a little more competitive for everyone, meaning it’s not locked down fast all night. When you get a track where guys have to move around to find the fast way, it becomes a really exciting race.

“They had a great crowd in Burlington last year and we’re hoping to see another packed grandstand on Wednesday. We’ve been qualifying better and getting better at the pill draw for the dash. Things are headed in the right direction and we’re just looking for that one night when we can put it all together. Hopefully that comes this week.”

The weekend venues in Wisconsin (Charter Raceway Park and Cedar Lake Speedway) are both pretty exciting places for Winged Sprint cars. Why do you think they both usually have really competitive races?

“Winged Sprint cars on short tracks, I think, is one of the most exciting forms of motorsports. You’ve got these cars with all the horsepower, and then you put them on tracks where lapped traffic is almost instantly a factor. Both Charter and Cedar Lake have some banking to them, and that usually allows for two grooves of racing. They also both have surfaces that can become slick through the middle. When you have a track that sometimes offers two and three lanes of racing, anything can happen. Sometimes, the bottom groove is best, and then, other times it’s the top. These Outlaw guys are so good at making other lines work that you almost always have a good race at those places.

“We had some success when I first came out on the road, but haven’t been as good lately. We’d like to change that this weekend and it’ll come down to starting the night with a good lap in qualifying and progressing from there. When you start racing as much as we will be in July, good finishes really help build momentum to the next race. Right now, we’re just looking to continue building and keep getting better.”