Bloomington, Ind.—April 24, 2012— Kraig Kinser was not around yet when the World of Outlaws made their mark in the late 1970s and early 1980s, barnstorming the country, racing three, four and sometimes five times a week, but he is certainly well-versed in that history and has the utmost appreciation for it. The series will get back to their roots this week, as three racing program await the best sprint car drivers in the world at three vastly different tracks in three states in a four-day span.
The trio of races this week begins for Kinser, who pilots the Hendrickcars.com Maxim, on Wednesday, April 25 at Farmer City Raceway in Illinois, followed by a visit to Eagle Raceway in Lincoln, Neb. on Saturday, April 27, and concludes with a stop at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa on Saturday, April 28.
“We always look forward to having mid-week shows, because that means it’s the time of the year that the schedule is starting to pick up,” said Kinser. “Hopefully the weather holds out and we can get all three races in. I enjoy going to each of the three tracks.”
Kinser, who has competed at Farmer City Raceway four times, made his debut at the quarter-mile bullring in 2000. He raced his way into the feature event for the first time at the track the following season. He scored his best finish at the in his most recent start there in 2003, coming home 10th. He has qualified ninth and 10th in each of his last two starts at Farmer City, making the dash in each of those events.
“It’s been quite a few years since we’ve raced at Farmer City, so everyone will be on a little more equal footing,” noted Kinser. “It’s a pretty small track similar to Haubstadt (Tri-State Speedway), so you have to ready be ready, because things happen in a hurry. It takes a good car and a little luck to run up front at tracks like that.”
Kinser made his first visit to Eagle Raceway with the World of Outlaws in 2000, and finished 10th in his debut at the high-banked one-third-mile. The native of Bloomington, Ind. has made a total of 17 feature events starts at the track, including preliminary features, picking up five Top-10 finishes. He finished a career-best fourth at Eagle Raceway in 2003 and earned a pair of fifth-places finishes in 2005. The 2004 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award winner came home 13th in his most recent start at the track in 2009.
“Eagle is a great track to race at,” shared Kinser. “I’ve raced a number of times there and have had some good finishes and it just kind of suits my driving style over there. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve been there as well, so we’ll take a look at our notes when we get there and compare them to some of the things we have been doing this year and go from there.”
Kinser scored the biggest win of his career at Knoxville Raceway in 2005, taking the top spot in the Knoxville Nationals. That was one of two wins he had that season at the famed Iowa half-mile. In five starts at Knoxville in 2005, he finished ninth or better in each. Kinser has competed in 24 feature events at the track, including preliminary features, earning nine Top-10 finishes in the process. Last season at Knoxville, the third-generation driver finished ninth in the spring and was 19th in the Nationals in August.
“Knoxville is a place I’ve always had a great time racing at,” said Kinser. “We’re racing there a little earlier in the spring than usual, so it will be interesting to see how the surface is. It always helps having a few races at Knoxville before the Nationals to try some things, though with how close everyone is this year, you can go too far one way or another.”
Kinser heads into the three events this week fourth in the World of Outlaws championship standings on the strength of nine Top-10 finishes in 11 races. He is one of just three drivers that has nine Top-10 runs to open the year, joining three-time series champion and current point leader Sammy Swindell, as well as four-time series champion Donny Schatz. Kinser has been among the Top-Five in time trials on six occasions this season, including setting fast time twice.
“Qualifying well and getting into the dash will be important as always this week,” noted Kinser. “We definitely want to be in the Top-Five each night and battling for wins and we’ll give it everything we have this week in our Hendrickcars.com Maxim.”
Kraig Kinser By the Numbers: Farmer City Raceway, Eagle Raceway & Knoxville Raceway
0.25- Miles around Farmer City Raceway
0.33- Miles around Eagle Raceway
0.5- Miles around Knoxville Raceway
1- Event in the state of Illinois for the World of Outlaws this season; Event in the state of Nebraska for the series in 2012
2- Main events on quarter-mile tracks so far this season for the World of Outlaws; Races contested on one-third-mile track thus far in 2012
3- Career feature starts at Farmer City Raceway
4- Position in the World of Outlaws championship standings
5- Career Top-10 finishes at Eagle Raceway; Total nights of competition at Knoxville Raceway for the World of Outlaws this season
6- A-Feature events on half-mile tracks thus far in 2012
9-Top-10 finishes this season
10.330- Track record at Farmer City Raceway
11- Main events contested by the World of Outlaws through April 21
11.076- Track record at Eagle Raceway
12.5- Average finish in 17 main events starts at Eagle Raceway
12.7- Average finish in three main events starts at Farmer City Raceway
13- Average finish in 24 main events starts at Knoxville Raceway
14.407- Track record at Knoxville
17- Main events starts at Eagle Raceway including preliminary features, dating back to 2000
217- Miles from Eagle Raceway where the World of Outlaws compete on April 27 to Knoxville Raceway in Iowa
496- Miles from Farmer City Raceway in Illinois where the World of Outlaws compete on April 25 to Eagle Raceway in Nebraska
2000- Year of first start at Farmer City Raceway; Year of first start at Eagle Raceway
2001- Year of first start at Knoxville Raceway
2005- Year of win in the Knoxville Nationals
Keep up with all the action
Follow Kraig Kinser on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kraigkinser11k and receive live updates from the track each and every race night.
Tune in
Listen live to each and every World of Outlaws event on DIRTVision.com with “The Voice of the Outlaws” Johnny Gibson on the call. Visit www.DIRTVision.com for live audio of each and every World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event.
- Admin Account on Apr 25, 2012
- Article Date: 4/25/2012