World of Outlaws 25th Anniversary
Pennzoil World of Outlaws, 49th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions - Silver Dollar Speedway - September 7, 2002
It was a classic showdown to conclude the Pennzoil World of Outlaws California swing with the King of the Outlaws Steve Kinser battling wheel to wheel with local favorite Tim Kaeding, the 2002 King of California Golden State Challenge champion from San Jose. When the checkered flag fell it was the veteran Indiana driver returning to victory lane in this fall classic on the 10th anniversary of his last win here back in 1992. Before celebrating in victory lane, Kinser climbed from his car and walked down the front stretch to embrace 24-year-old Kaeding who finished an impressive second place with the most impressive performance of his young racing career. "I told him he drove a great race tonight," said Kinser. "He's definitely going to be winning some of these Gold Cups if he sticks around and keeps racing these deals."
Kinser's comments in victory lane were in reference to the 40-lap contest between he and young Kaeding that kicked off at the waving of the green flag and kept the fans on their feet long after the checkered flag as they rallied for the King in victory lane and even more so for the success of their favorite local star who won the track championship here just one year ago. At the start of the event Kinser jumped into the lead quickly with Tim Shaffer in second while Kaeding challenged for the bridesmaid position from his third place starting spot. On the 13th lap Shaffer drove to the low side of turns one and two to steal the lead while Kinser was faced with challenges of Kaeding for the next dozen circuits. With 26 laps complete, Kaeding used the high line around turns one and two to take second place from Kinser and one lap later took the lead from Shaffer dove to the low side of turn three to draw a roar from the crowd that was nearly as loud as the 24-car field. However, a backstretch spin by Brad Furr brought out the yellow flag, reverting the line-up back to the previous lap for the restart.
With the waving of the green flag for the restart Kaeding again overtook Shaffer for the lead as he exited the second turn on the low groove at the pleasure of the crowd once again just before a red flag came out for Donnie Schatz who flipped in the second turn after a collision with Robbie Farr.
On the 28th lap, Kinser moved back into second over Shaffer and began closing in on Kaeding's lead of several car lengths. On the 33rd lap Kaeding's lead rapidly diminished when he drifted off the backstretch and allowed Kinser to pass for the lead on the low side as he entered the third turn only to have Steve Smith spin in the fourth turn before Kinser could reach the flagstand which awarded Kaeding the lead for the restart.
Two laps after the restart, Kaeding erred on the backstretch once again as he drifted off the racing groove and again permitted Kinser to pass for the lead just before a red flag flew for Smith who's turn four troubles continued with a rollover to end his night. With just five laps remaining in the race, Kinser led the final stretch of the race as Kaeding maintained second place ahead of Shaffer.
In the closing laps Sammy Swindell moved into the top four after passing Jac Haudenschild on the 38th lap. One lap later defending World of Outlaws champion Danny Lasoski overtook both the wild child and Swindell for the fourth position.
" I think If Tim (Kaeding) would've gotten to the bottom first, we wouldn't have been able to do anything with him, " said Kinser. "It's been 10 years since I've been here and it's great to be back."
The celebration in the Kaeding camp was by far even larger than Kinser's as he posted one of the best finishes of his racing career. "We had a couple of kings run first and second tonight, the King of the Outlaws and the King of California. I gave him all I had, but I just couldn't do it, " said Kaeding. " I just kept telling myself not to screw up, and I did, and Steve got by me. I hope you guys out there love this as much as I do. It was pretty stressful out there. Maybe next year."
Pennzoil World of Outlaws Gold Cup Race of Champions Silver Dollar Speedway September 7, 2002
E-main (10 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to D-main)-1) Kevin Sharrah 2) Chuck Gurney, Jr. 3) Doug Lippincott 4) Carl Enns 5) Troy Hovey 6) Pat Harvey 7) Bob Maiwald 8) Robert Stice 9) Dave Clark 10) Dennis Wood 11) Tom Fogarty 12) Tim Sherman 13) Scott Steel 14) Randall Ditgen 15) Jim Marsh
D-main (12 laps, top 2 finishers transferred to C-main)-1) Steven Tiner 2) Jon Lovell 3) Doug Lippincott 4) Troy Hovey 5) Chuck Gurney, Jr. 6) Troy Degaten 7) Steve Osbourne 8) Mark Tabor, Jr. 9) Eddy Lewis 10) Greg Sherman 11) Danny Ochs 12) Andy Greg 13) Stewart Krum 14) Eric Hopkins 15) Kevin Sharrah 16) Mark Tabor, Sr.
C-main (15 laps, top 2 finishers transferred to B-main)-1) Stevie Smith 2) Mark Henry 3) Destiny Hays 4) Stephen Allard 5) Jimmy Trulli 6) Colby Wesz 7) Steven Tiner 8) Gary Morgan 9) Doug Lippincott 10) Kevin Lovell 11) Korey Lovell 12) Bernie Sloop 13) Jon Lovell 14) Chris Scott 15) Greg Decaires 16) Nick Rescino, Jr.
B-main (20 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-main)-1) Mike Goodman 2) Stevie Smith 3) Bud Kaeding 4) Johnny Gray 5) Roger Crockett 6) Kevin Pylant 7) Kyle Schild 8) Billy Wallace 9) Mike Henry 10) Shawna Wilskey 11) Garrett Ishi 12) Johnny Rodriguez 13) Sean Becker 14) Jason York 15) Jim Skinner 16) Jonathan Allard 17) Andy Forsberg 18) Jason Statler
A-main (40 laps)-1) Steve Kinser 2) Tim Kaeding 3) Tim Shaffer 4) Danny Lasoski 5) Sammy Swindell 6) Craig Dollansky 7) Jac Haudenschild 8) Daryn Pittman 9) Mark Kinser 10) Jason Meyers 11) Danny Wood 12) P.J. Chesson 13) Bud Kaeding 14) Brent Kaeding 15) Joey Saldana 16) Randy Hannagan 17) Peter Murphy 18) Brad Furr 19) Mike Goodman 20) Stevie Smith 21) Johnny Gray 22) Donny Schatz 23) Robbie Farr 24) Tommy Tarlton. Lap leaders: Steve Kinser 1-12, 35-40; Tim Shaffer 13-26; Tim Kaeding 27-34
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