The Auto Channel
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
Official Website of the New Car Buyer

Outlaw Sprints - Tony Stewart Racing Teammates Aim for Wins in California Finale


PHOTO (select to view enlarged photo)

INDIANAPOLIS, March 30, 2012: Versatility is a necessity if a team is to be successful racing with the World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series. One of the great challenges with dirt-track racing is that no two nights are the same. With so many variables being squeezed into the nightly equation, every race can feel like a final exam for the driver and crew.

The Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) teams will look to score high marks in the latest challenge Friday and Saturday when TSR’s Steve Kinser and Donny Schatz tackle one of the smallest tracks on the tour, Merced (Calif.) Speedway, and the following night attempt to concur one of the biggest, Calistoga (Calif.) Speedway.

Schatz is the Outlaws’ most recent winner, driving the TSR No. 15 STP/Armor All/Chevy J&J to victory last Friday in the Mini Gold Cup opener at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif. The four-time WoO champion led from start to finish in the 35-lap A-Feature to increase his lead in the 2012 WoO championship standings. Rain Saturday forced WoO officials to cancel the second race of the weekend for the second consecutive weekend.

Kinser finished fifth in the main event at Silver Dollar aboard the TSR No. 11 Bass Pro Shops/J.D.Byrider/Chevy Maxim and continues to climb in the standings, moving from seventh to sixth after seven of the scheduled 78 WoO races. The 20-time WoO champion has plenty of experience making his way through the ranks during his 33-year Outlaw career. “The King of Outlaws” also has plenty of experience in switching from small tracks to big tracks on consecutive nights.

Friday, Kinser and Schatz return to Merced Speedway in central California. Last April, Schatz started eighth and finished fifth on the tight, quarter-mile dirt oval while Kinser raced from 14th to finish 10th. The track has been reshaped and resized since then, and now measures closer to a one-third-mile track.

The trip into the fertile grounds of Napa Valley Saturday offers Kinser the chance to return to a half-mile for the first time since early March, when he came home third in Las Vegas at The Dirt Track. The Bloomington, Ind., native has scored five of 51 career A-Feature triumphs in California at the picturesque Calistoga Speedway. His first WoO A-Feature triumph at Calistoga came in August 1987 and, from 1991 to 1995, he reeled off four Harvest Classic wins. His most recent victory was a preliminary feature win to open the 2005 Harvest Classic.

The 2005 Harvest Classic finale, ironically, was a duel between Kinser and Schatz. Schatz would make a late pass of Kinser for the lead and go on to capture one of his four career wins at the track. Last spring, Schatz twice charged through the field en route to a seventh-place finish. The Fargo, N.D., racer started 17th and had reached sixth by lap 15, but a fire ignited on his STP machine when a broken nozzle line began spraying fuel out the right side of his Chevy powerplant. After he stopped on track, his crew extinguished the fire, replaced the nozzle and he returned to the track in 16th position. He would charge back up to seventh in the final 10 circuits.

For Friday’s event at Merced Speedway, the pit gates will open at 1 p.m. PDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. For more details, contact the speedway office at (209) 383-7799, or visit the track’s official Web site at www.racemerced.com.

Saturday at Calistoga Speedway, the pit gates will open at 1 p.m. PDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. For more details, visit CalistogaSpeedway.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.

Steve Kinser, Driver of the No. 11 TSR/Bass Pro Shops/ J.D. Byrider /Chevy Maxim:

Last year, you raced at both Merced and Calistoga. What do you remember about the weekend?

“I don’t remember a whole lot of good. I know everyone showed up at Merced not knowing what to expect and it was a pretty small track, but I think the racing was pretty good. We just qualified in the wrong spot. The competition is so tough out here and, when you start in the second row, it can be pretty tough to get one of those top two spots. I know it doesn’t sound like passing one car is a big deal, but the track conditions early in the night don’t always make it really easy to race someone for their spot. We ended up starting deep in the field and had to be patient and work our way forward. Calistoga was a little bumpier. We made it into the dash but had some contact with Sammy (Swindell) and ended up crashing. I know the Bass Pro Shops guys worked their tails off to rebuild the car. We had something bent pretty badly, so I couldn’t really do much. We’re hoping for better results this time around. Our short-track program has been pretty good so far this year and any time you can go to a place like Calistoga, where you can really get in the throttle and run hard, it’s going to be a fun race.”

It’s not typical for you to be away from home for months at a time anymore. Does being on the road that long affect how things go at the racetrack?

“No, not really. I’ve been doing this for so long and we have made so many friends in so many places, it seems like we have plenty of things going on during the week. I’ve always had my family on the road with me and the last month has been pretty enjoyable. With Kraig running well and Stevie and Mikey working with him, it’s been a good start to the year. The only thing I could complain about is the weather. We’ve lost a couple of races, and I’ve battled a little bit of a cold but, other than that, we’ve had a pretty good time. I know we’ll all be ready to be back home in Indiana next week. I’m not looking forward to making the drive to get there, but I’ll be happy to be there. A good weekend of racing would probably help make that trip not feel quite so long.”

Donny Schatz, Driver of the No. 15 TSR/STP/Armor All/Chevy J&J:

This week’s stops include a trip to the short track at Merced and a big, flat half-mile in Calistoga. What are your thoughts on those venues?

“They’re both places where we can hopefully continue to improve. I said last week after winning in Chico that we still aren’t quite where we want to be as far as performance goes. We feel good to have two wins at this point in the season but know we have a long way to go. Merced is your typical California track – heavy surface early in the night with a good caliber of competition. It’s smaller, but the size is not really a big issue. It is a tight, little place and we do manage to get around tight places fairly well. It’ll be a different ballgame at Calistoga. You carry so much speed there that you have to have your car working well if you are going to keep up. Everyone’s got plenty of horsepower, now, but you have to be able to carry the speed not only into the corners but out of them, as well. I know the STP crew (Rick Warner, Steve Swenson and Bob Curtis) has been working hard this week and we’d like to finish this California swing on a good note.”

The schedule takes you to Central California and then the Wine Country of Napa Valley. How do you rate those two places?

“I enjoy just about everywhere we can go race. Early in my career, we would always be in Calistoga during Labor Day weekend. It’s definitely one of the most unique places we go to. The setting is great with the mountains around the tack. It’s not commercialized. There’s not your national restuarants, gas stations and hotels like everywhere else. It’s pretty proprietary to the area of bed and breakfasts and stuff like that. It was a time when everyone who traveled the circuit would look forward to it. You could walk downtown, check out the local establishments and have some fun. Back then, it was kind of the time when the season was winding down. Being there in April is a little different. We race in Merced, which was a really fun little place last year, and then head to Calistoga for one night of racing, and then everyone heads back home. I really enjoy all the wineries. It’s definitely one of those places where you’d like to spend a few more days.”

 
 
]); _gaq.push([