Kraig Kinser - The Year in Review

by Tony Veneziano

CONCORD, N.C. — Kraig Kinser and his Tony Stewart Racing team never gave up in 2008, despite facing some tough times early in the season, and all of that constant hard work and determination paid off down the stretch as the team hit their stride and won twice in the second half of the 2008 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series campaign to wrap up their first year together. For Kinser, it was his first full year back in a sprint car since 2005.

The son of 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser, wrapped up the season with 19 Top-10 finishes, with 10 of those being Top-Five performances, including wins at Grays Harbor Raceway in Washington and North Central Speedway in Minnesota. He was 12th in the final championship standings.

“We were very pleased with the end of the season,” Kinser said. “We built some good momentum heading into the off-season and next year. We had such a good West Coast swing and were running strong prior to that. We tried a few things as well getting ready for next season. We ran a different car and the flat wing that we’ll be running next season. We learned a lot and we’ll work hard this winter and continue to get our cars better.”

The team began to hit their stride in August, as Kinser picked up a season-best third-place finish at Nodak Speedway in North Dakota aboard the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. He carried that momentum into the annual Gold Rush Tour, where he picked up his first win of the season at Grays Harbor Raceway Park in Washington on September 1. He had to complete an extra lap in that event, as the caution flew on the white flag lap, and by way of World of Outlaws rules two consecutive green flag laps much be run to complete a race. One of the first people to congratulate him in victory lane was his father Steve, who finished third in the race.

“We had been running strong that whole month leading into that race and that really capped it off well,” shared the 24-year old driver. “To have that win at Grays Harbor, a track where my good friend Fred Brownfield had his calling at, was unbelievable.”

Kinser’s strong late summer surge continued with a Top-10 run at Cottage Grove Speedway in Oregon. He finished a very strong fourth on the second preliminary night of the Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California and followed that up with a Top-10 run in the finale of the famed event, in his first visit to the always racy ¼-mile in three years.

A return to the Midwest saw Kinser finish second to his teammate Donny Schatz at Clay County Fair Speedway in Iowa to record the first one-two finish of the year for Tony Stewart Racing. The World of Outlaws inaugural stop at Lucas Oil Speedway in Missouri would net Kinser another Top-Five finish, as would a return to his boss’s home track of Eldora Speedway the following week, as he picked up yet another Top-Five.

He would get his second win of the season in the series inaugural visit to North Central Speedway in Minnesota on a very chilly night, with his dad again joining him on the front straightaway. Another podium finish would follow at Heartland Park Topeka at the end of October.

“Everything got better,” explained the third generation driver when asked about the second half of the season. “The driver got better. The car got better. We worked hard all season long. We were in big hole and just worked to claw our way out of it night in and night out. It’s hard to do that on the road when you are racing every night. We made some changes and were able to work back. Everybody on both teams did an unbelievable job this year, with Donny (Schatz) winning the points (championship) and with our strong end to the season after such a hard beginning of the year.”

Kinser capped the year off with a runner-up finish in the second annual VAULT World Finals at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway, with Schatz winning, to pick up the second one-two finish of the season for Tony Stewart Racing. He and the team look to use all that they learned this season as they prepare in the off-season for another go around with the World of Outlaws in 2009.

“I definitely felt a lot better heading into the World Finals than I did heading into Knoxville,” Kinser noted. “Hopefully we don’t let up any this winter and keep doing what we can to get better.”

With 17 teams finishing the season full-time with the World of Outlaws, the 2008 season was one of the most competitive in the 30-year history of the series. Kinser wrapped up the year among the Top-10 in laps led and he won the Crane Cams Dash twice to earn pole positions in A-Feature events.

“It was tough ten years ago and will be tough next year and is tough every year when you get to this level,” he shared. “You race against the best sprint car drivers in the world all year and have to run against them night in and night out. It’s always going to be tough. There are so many great race car drivers with the World of Outlaws. Nobody likes to lose and everyone races their guts out every time they are out on the track. You can’t blink for one minute or this series will pass you by and leave you in the dust. We have to stay ahead of the curve.”

The 2009 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series seasons kicks off February 6-8 at Volusia Speedway Park in Florida with the 38th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH.

Schatz Wins Finale of VAULT World Finals LIVE on SPEED

by Tony Veneziano

Concord, NC - After wrapping up his third consecutive Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series title on Friday night during the second annual VAULT World Finals, with a runner-up finish, Donny Schatz was determined to return to the track on Saturday and close the season with a win. He did exactly that leading all 30 laps in dominant fashion live on SPEED to pick up his series-best 18th A-Feature win of 2008.
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TSR Runs 1-2 in Vault World Finals

Charlotte - Donny Schatz, fresh off clinching the World of Outlaws Championship on Friday night topped of his 2008 season by winning the Vault World Finals by 1.1 second over teammate Kraig Kinser at The Dirt Track at Lowes.

The night belonged to Tony Stewart Racing as both Schatz and Kinser won their heat races.  The Crane Cams Dash ended with Schatz the victor and Kinzer finishing 4th.

In the A Main, Schatz led every lap, while it took Kinser 20 laps to move into second place.  The last 10 laps stayed that way as Schatz picked up his 18th A Main victory of the year and his 3rd consecutive World of Outlaws Championship.

It was announced before the race that Kraig Kinser had been resigned by TSR and that he and all the sponsors would be back for the 2009 season.

Schatz Looking to Maintain Momentum

INDIANAPOLIS (TSR) – Racers love to race, and the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series has taken its drivers all across the country so far in 2008. This week, the travel gets a little easier, but the stakes get higher as Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Donny Schatz and his Armor All team will be situated in the Buckeye State for three nights of WoO action. Up first is the 20th Annual Brad Doty Classic on Wednesday night at Limaland Motorsport Park (LMP) in Lima, Ohio. Then it will be two nights of racing at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, for the silver anniversary Kings Royal weekend.

After a torrid June, during which Schatz won six of nine WoO “A” feature events, the two-time defending WoO series champion maintained his sizzling pace behind the wheel of the TSR No. 15 Armor All/Chevy/J&J, picking up his 10th WoO feature win last Saturday night in dominant form by leading all 40 laps at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Ark. Saturday’s victory on the quarter-mile dirt oval continued a recent trend of short-track success for the Fargo, N.D., resident. He’s won four of his last six starts, all on tracks that were 3/8-mile ovals or smaller.

Schatz will look to keep that trend going Wednesday at LMP, which is a semi-banked quarter-mile oval, and where he will be looking to improve on his third-place finish at the track in 2006 and his sixth-place run last year.

Following Wednesday’s race, Schatz will return to Eldora Speedway for two nights of action as the defending event champion following his dominant run in last year’s Kings Royal. Schatz blistered the field, winning by 7.8 seconds en route to his first victory in one of Sprint car racing’s crown jewels.  Friday’s “Knight Before the Kings Royal” will mark his 65th career WoO start at the high-speed half-mile dirt oval. In his last 14 starts at the track, Schatz has 11 top-three finishes, including his thrilling victory on May 31.

The Kings Royal traditionally kicks off the “Month of Money.” Last season, it could have been called the “Month of Donny” as Schatz became the first driver to win the Kings Royal ($50,000), Don Martin Silver Cup ($30,000), Williams Grove Summer Nationals ($20,000) and the Knoxville Nationals ($150,000) all in the same season. Schatz will start his week by competing in the Ollie’s Outlet 360 Challenge at Eldora behind the wheel of the TSR No. 15 Armor All/Chevy/ParkerStore J&J on Tuesday night. The race is the second leg of a three-race challenge and Schatz, who won the first race at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, on June 17, is eligible for a $50,000 bonus if he can win the 30-lap feature event.

Sunday night’s race at Tri-State Speedway was the 27th points race in 2008 for the WoO competitors, and Schatz remains in control of the standings with 3,961 points, 122 ahead of Craig Dollansky. He also leads the series in total victories (10), top-fives (25), and he’s the only driver to finish inside the top-10 in all 27 events.

For a complete listing of Kings Royal week activities, including a shuttle bus schedule for Wednesday’s 20th Annual Brad Doty Classic at LMP, visit www.eldoraspeedway.com/07kingsroyalsched.html.

This week’s action from Eldora Speedway will be broadcast on SPEED on a tape-delayed basis. Saturday’s event will be telecast on July 19 at 1 p.m. EDT. Friday’s race will air on SPEED at 1 p.m. on September 7. For a complete WoO Sprint Series television schedule, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.

Race fans unable to attend this week’s events can catch all of the action from LMP and Eldora Speedway 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.

On Wednesday at LMP, the pit gates will open at 2 p.m. EDT, with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Qualifying is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. For tickets or more information regarding the 20th Annual Ohio Logistics Brad Doty Classic, fans can call the track at 419-339-6249 or visit www.limaland.com.

The grandstand and pit gates at Eldora Speedway will open both Friday and Saturday at 3 p.m. EDT. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. each day. The official track Web site is www.eldoraspeedway.com. Tickets can be purchased by calling the track at 937-338-3815. They will also be available for purchase at the gate both days.

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

The past two years, you’ve raced the Brad Doty Classic at Limaland Motorsports Park with mixed results. Do you expect any of your recent short-track success to carry over and help there this year?

“Every track is different and each night is unlike the other. Two years ago, we didn’t qualify bad (10th), but had some problems getting through our heat race. I think we ended up starting 13th and getting to third at the end. Last year, we tried a few things for the feature and they didn’t work. We’ll certainly use some of the things that we learned so far this year and see if we can be better than a third-place finisher there.”

The Kings Royal starts the “big money” races. What’s the most important aspect in having success in big races?

“As hard as it is to you, you’ve got to treat it like another night. Focus on qualifying first and then worry about the heat race. You can’t win the Kings Royal in qualifying, but you can certainly hurt your chances. Like every race, it’s about having the best car for the last 10 or so laps in the feature. We’ve been pretty good at Eldora the past two years, but that doesn’t mean anything when we get there this weekend.”

Last year, you added the Kings Royal crown to your list of accomplishments. Do you feel like your mantle is complete?

“It might be complete as in having won all the major races, but we’ve got a long way to go. We tried for years to come out on top in the Kings Royal and just couldn’t quite do it until last year, when we put it all together. I’ve said this about many things, and with the Kings Royal it’s true, also. Once you win something, the desire to do it again is even greater. Knowing that you have done it and can do it really go a long way. I hope we can add more Kings Royal trophies so that I’ll have to build another mantle.”

July is slated to have 16 World of Outlaws races. Does it hurt to have a couple of prestigious events right in the middle of all of those races?

“You have to be ready for every race and, ultimately, you’d like to have your best stuff ready for the biggest races. I don’t think it hurts anything and, actually, it may help keep everyone going when you’ve got a couple of big races. The problem is, the crew guys are still human beings and the travel, late nights and hard work add up. At some point, they’ve got to be able to recharge and be ready for the rest of the summer, too.

“I believe that’s one of the keys to this Tony Stewart Racing team. We’ve got guys who have been up and down the road and have experienced things a few times. You have to live through it to understand what it takes to be at your best night in and night out. As a driver, I’ve got total confidence in my guys, and if you are fortunate to win one of the big races, it’s gratifying to everyone involved.”