Steve Kinser Victorious at Williams Grove Speedway
Mechanicsburg, PA — There were a lot of firsts on Thursday night at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. It was the first Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event at the famed half-mile since a brand new Musco light system was installed. It also was the first event of the season that the cameras from SPEED were on hand for, to capture all of the action for broadcast on May 31. Last but certainly not least, it was Steve Kinser’s first series win of the 2008 season.
The 20-time series champion led the final seven laps to take home the $8,000 top prize in the first of two consecutive nights of racing for the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series at the hallowed track. Both nights of racing will be taped for broadcast on SPEED.
“I was sort of taking my time,” Kinser said. “I was feeling pretty good and ran him down pretty hard. I felt like I was getting faster as the race went on. I was pretty sure I could handle the guys in front of me, I just didn’t know what the guys behind me were doing.”
The win was the 38th of Kinser’s career at Williams Grove Speedway and the 544th A-Feature win with the World of Outlaws. He has three Top-Five finishes this season and moved into the Top-Five in points, as the series has battled Mother Nature all season long.
After starting 17th, Donny Schatz methodically worked his way to the front aboard the Armor J&J for Tony Stewart Racing. He picked up three spots on the first lap of the 25-lap contest and just six laps into the event he was already in the Top-10.
Schatz used a strong restart with five laps to go to move from fifth to third. He would gain one more spot after the checkered flag to finish second for the fifth time this season, after Keel who lead the first 17 laps of the race was disqualified for being too light at the scales. Schatz also picked up the KSE Race Products Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars in the A-Feature.
“That’s what we had to do,” said the two-time defending series champion of passing the most cars on the night. “We started back there and just kept plugging away. The race track was really good. I wish we would have had a 30-lapper. It is what it is, and it’s over. We probably didn’t go far enough with the race car and we can go and get better. We’re happy to be in the position that we are in.”
Schatz had a very long night, as his team had to change engines twice over the course of the event. The first time came during time trials. He came back from that to turn the fastest lap of the 47 cars that took time, but by way of World of Outlaws rules, the best he could be scored was 17th due to taking a lap at the end of qualifying, because he never completed his initial lap, after taking the green flag. After finishing third in the first heat race, his Tony Stewart Racing team, led by crew chief Ricky Warner again swapped powerplants. The hard work paid off, as he gained significant points on Jason Meyers and Craig Dollansky in the standings.
“My team is definitely one of the best in the business,” said the North Dakota native. “We came here and everyone was excited. We overcame a lot of adversity and it really was a great night. We were here to win and wanted to win and we got the next best thing to it.”
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