Steve Kinser Rolls At Tri-State Speedway for Fourth World of Outlaws Sprint Series Victory in '05 Haubstadt, IN - April 16, 2005 - By Chris Dolack, World of Outlaws Senior Writer The A-main is the highlight of any World of Outlaws Sprint Series race night, but on a short track the qualifying sessions always prove to be the most crucial. Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind., was no different. Mean 15 racer Steve Kinser posted the sixth-fastest time of the night and won the second Dash to start the main event on the outside of the front row. In the feature when he got the jump off of Turn 4 as the green flag waved, pole-sitter Brooke Tatnell was left hoping lapped traffic on the high-banked, paper-clip quarter-mile oval would hold up Kinser. It didn't. Kinser worked the high groove and led all 40 laps to earn his fourth feature victory of the season, pick up his sixth World of Outlaws win at Tri-State Speedway, and capture the 517th victory of his storied career.
Tatnell chased Kinser to the checkered flag for a runner-up finish. Behind him, Paul McMahan was strong all night in his David Helm-owned machine to wind up third, Tim Kaeding finished fourth after an impressive run from the 15th starting position, and Joey Saldana held on for fifth, earning his second top-five of the season.
"You just want to try to get the lead, get up on top and go," said Kinser, who collected $10,000 for the win. "That's all I was trying to do."
Tatnell won the pole after capturing the Stacker 2® Dash, but he knew early on he would need help to slide past Kinser. "On the last restarts I wasn't confident about figuring out how I was going to get by him," said Tatnell, who earlier this season at Pike County Speedway also started on the pole and finished second to Kinser. "All I was hoping for was lapped traffic. I knew from about the third lap on that lapped traffic was all that was going to lose the race for him. That's basically all we were clinging to."
Any advantages Tatnell was making were negated by five cautions. On the restarts, Kinser quickly shot to the high side of the track and carried the momentum around the oval. "You never know which spot is the best," said Kinser, who finished eighth Friday at Texas Motor Speedway in an International Race of Champions event. "I was coming off of starts pretty good whether I was on the bottom or middle or wherever. I actually didn't think I would get the lead off the start but I timed it just right and got off there even with [Tatnell] and made a little run."
For Kinser, it was his second consecutive victory on the World of Outlaws Sprint Series circuit. He easily made the adjustment to quarter-mile Tri-State Speedway after winning last Saturday on high-banked, half-mile Eldora Speedway. "You got to adjust to all of them," said Kinser, who extended his series lead over Craig Dollansky to 38 points. "On these little short tracks, you have to take advantage of good starting spots when you get them. There are just so many things that can take you out of the races on these things. You just got to have patience with them and hope everything goes good. They're as tough to win on as anything."
Behind Kinser and Tatnell, the racing was intense. With two grooves working throughout the night drivers weren't afraid to try racing three-wide at times, bringing the capacity crowd to its feet. In his Larry Woodward--owned car, Saldana was racy all night but he couldn't prevent McMahan from gaining third. On Lap 18, McMahan cut to the inside of Saldana coming off of Turn 2 and powered down the backstretch to take over the position. Meanwhile, Kaeding, who was coming off a second-place run at Eldora, mounted a charge through the field, gaining a position nearly every other lap in his Dennis Roth-owned car before finally sliding past Saldana and Jason Meyers to grab fourth on Lap 33.
In the Stacker 2® Dash, Tatnell used the high side to grab the lead as he held off Brian Paulus to earn the pole position for the feature. In the second Dash, Steve Kinser led flag to flag to earn the outside front row starting spot in the feature. In the B-main, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made a daring move into the lead by going to the outside of pole-sitter Daryn Pittman. Once in front, Stenhouse extended his lead with Pittman solidly in second. A three-wide battle for third settled down before Kurt Winker edged Kevin Briscoe by 0.005 for the final transfer spot to the feature. Top rookie contender Shane Stewart captured the first heat race, with Donny Schatz motoring to victory in the second heat and Danny Lasoski driving off with a win in the third heat.
Terry McCarl paced the 26-car field with a lap around the quarter-mile, high-banked oval in 11.359 seconds at 79.232 mph. McCarl's quick lap was slightly off of Sammy Swindell's track record of 11.110 seconds set Oct. 8, 2004. "That's what racing with the Outlaws does for you," said McCarl, who has dominated the 410 sprint division the past six years at half-mile Knoxville Raceway. "Hopefully we can stay out here for years to come. It makes you so you can adapt to anything, that's the advantage these guys who have been at it for a long time have over the local guys. They can adapt to any kind of track conditions at the drop of the hat because they're so used to seeing something different every day. That's what makes it awesome to be an Outlaw. You've got to be able to run short tracks, big tracks, middle, high-banked, flat … it doesn't matter. That's what the Outlaws do for you as far as experience."
The World of Outlaws Sprint Series shifts west for races April 22 at Outlaw Motor Speedway in Muskogee, Okla., and April 23 at 81 Speedway in Wichita, Kan., before finishing off the month April 29-30 at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. All the action from Tri-State Speedway can be seen at 8 p.m. ET April 27 on The Outdoor Channel. On April 20, The Outdoor Channel will broadcast coverage of the World of Outlaws Sprint Series race from Eldora Speedway. If fans can't get to a track to see the series, they can experience the excitement of the World of Outlaws Sprint Series live on Dirtvision.com through the DIRT Radio Network.
To listen to the audio broadcasts, log on to www.dirtvision.com and click on the DIRT Radio Network logo. Listeners will need Windows Media Player 9 or higher to listen to the DIRT Radio Network. Companies interested in advertising on the new DIRT Radio Network should contact Mark Noble, DIRT MotorSports VP Sales and Marketing, at 719-884-2141. For technical support or questions, e-mail webmaster@dirtvision.com.
World of Outlaws Sprint Series Statistical Report; Tri-State Speedway; Haubstadt, Ind.; April 16, 2005
Qualifying 1) Terry McCarl, McCarl 24, 11.359 2) Joey Saldana, Woodward 2, 11.361 3) Paul McMahan, Helm 11H, 11.369 4) Jason Solwold, Carnahan R19, 11.397 5) Brooke Tatnell, Rush Racing 8, 11.440 6) Steve Kinser, Kinser 11, 11.471 7) Brian Paulus, Pender 28, 11.472 8) Jason Meyers, Elite Racing Team 14, 11.494 9) Kraig Kinser, Kinser 11K, 11.497 10) Tim Shaffer, Parsons 6, 11.511 11) Brandon Wimmer, Wimmer-Luck Motorsports 7TW, 11.518 12) Jason Sides, Sides Motorsports 7S, 11.614 13) Shane Stewart, Rudeen Racing 26, 11.670 14) Donny Schatz, Schatz 15, 11.694 15) Tim Kaeding, Roth 83, 11.713 16) Danny Lasoski, Stewart 20, 11.738 17) Kelly Kinser, Kinser 4K, 11.756 18) Craig Dollansky, Karavan 7, 11.775 19) Daryn Pittman, Titan Racing USA 21, 11.781 20) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Fast Effects 40R, 11.910 21) Peter Murphy, Wright 35, 11.923 22) Joey Moughan, Moughan 2M, 12.024 23) Jason Evans, Evans 88, 12.067 24) Kevin Briscoe, Briscoe 5X, 12.114 25) Kurt Winker, Hartnell 48H, 12.464 26) Kyle Thomas, Thomas 19, 12.493
First Heat Race (10 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) 1) Shane Stewart 2) Craig Dollansky 3) Brian Paulus 4) Jason Sides 5) Steve Kinser 6) Terry McCarl 7) Daryn Pittman 8) Joey Moughan 9) Kurt Winker
Second Heat Race (10 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) 1) Donny Schatz 2) Kelly Kinser 3) Brandon Wimmer 4) Jason Meyers 5) Brooke Tatnell 6) Joey Saldana 7) Jason Evans 8) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 9) Kyle Thomas
Third Heat Race (10 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) 1) Danny Lasoski 2) Tim Kaeding 3) Tim Shaffer 4) Paul McMahan 5) Jason Solwold 6) Kraig Kinser 7) Peter Murphy 8) Kevin Briscoe
Stacker 2® Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined inside first 6 rows of A-feature) 1) Brooke Tatnell 2) Brian Paulus 3) Paul McMahan 4) Kraig Kinser 5) Terry McCarl 6) Brandon Wimmer
Second Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined outside first 6 rows of A-feature) 1) Steve Kinser 2) Jason Meyers 3) Joey Saldana 4) Jason Solwold 5) Jason Sides 6) Tim Shaffer
B-main (10 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) 1) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. [$20] 2) Daryn Pittman [$20] 3) Jason Evans [$20] 4) Peter Murphy [$20] 5) Joey Moughan [$20] 6) Kurt Winker [$20] 7) Kevin Briscoe [$200] 8) Kyle Thomas[$180]
A-main (40 laps) 1) Steve Kinser [$10,000] 2) Brooke Tatnell [$5,500] 3) Paul McMahan [$3,200] 4) Tim Kaeding [$2,800] 5) Joey Saldana [$2,500] 6) Shane Stewart [$2,300] 7) Jason Meyers [$2,200] 8) Donny Schatz [$2,100] 9) Craig Dollansky [$2,050] 10) Brandon Wimmer [$2,000] 11) Jason Sides [$1,500] 12) Jason Solwold [$1,200] 13) Brian Paulus [$1,100] 14) Tim Shaffer [$1,050] 15) Terry McCarl [$1,000] 16) Peter Murphy [$900] 17) Danny Lasoski [$800] 18) Daryn Pittman [$800] 19) Kelly Kinser [$800] 20) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. [$800] 21) Joey Moughan [$800] 22) Kurt Winker [$800] 23) Kraig Kinser [$800] 24) Jason Evans [$800]
Lap leader: Steve Kinser 1-40
