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Kinser captured his 17th A-feature win of the season.
WEST FARGO, N.D. - Perfection in a World of Outlaws event is nearly impossible to attain, but Steve Kinser was flawless Tuesday night at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, N.D., as the series competed for the first time since Kraig Kinser’s victory Sunday in the Knoxville Nationals.
Steve Kinser’s Quaker State Maxim was the first car to time trial, and for the rest of the racers it was an uphill battle from there. Kinser posted the fastest time of the night and watched as 24 other cars took a shot at it but couldn’t knock it down. He then went on to win his heat race from the sixth starting position, hold off Jason Meyers in the Stacker 2® Dash and finally lead all 30 laps of the main event to pick up his 17th A-feature victory and become the first driver this season to win every aspect of a single event.
Meyers’ Elite Landscaping Maxim was one of the few cars with a realistic shot at Kinser. Meyers, who won in July at Red River Valley Speedway, nearly brought Kinser’s sweep to a halt in the Dash before Kinser found just enough horsepower to hang on. That moved Meyers to the inside of the second row for the feature, where he tailed Kinser for much of the race, making a charge with eight laps to go but eventually settling for second ahead of Daryn Pittman, Danny Lasoski, and Tim Kaeding, who made one of his trademark surges through the field after starting 13th.
Kinser got a jump on the initial green flag as Meyers and Pittman raced side-by-side through the first two corners on the high-banked half-mile oval. Meyers edged ahead going into Turn 3 but Kinser already had a half-straightaway lead. When a caution waved with four laps down for the ill-handling machine of Mark Dobmeier, it negated Kinser’s 2.5-second advantage but it also gave Kinser clear track to work with and made it tough for anybody to keep pace.
“We had a good racecar,” said Kinser, who was leading a preliminary event on Aug. 10 during for the Knoxville Nationals when he crashed with three laps to go. “I didn’t know if I was going to have enough tire for the Dash but we struggled through it. I got back down in the moisture to save the tire in the feature. We had a good racecar all night. This thing’s been good and fast all year. Both [Steve Kinser Racing] teams have been doing a real good job.
“I was glad to see Kraig win the Nationals the other night. I probably would have given him a pretty good race if I wouldn’t have crashed on the preliminary night, but here we are and we’ll just keep plugging away the rest of the year.”
On the restart with four laps down, Kinser quickly opened a 1-second lead and kept increasing his margin over Meyers. Kaeding began his march into the top 10 after slipping through the battle among Shane Stewart, Tim Shaffer, Donny Schatz and Jason Sides to hang in the mix. With Kinser in the lead turning quick lap times behind Brandon Wimmer, he elected to tail the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year candidate as Meyers, Pittman, Paulus, Lasoski and Brooke Tatnell raced single-file in an effort to run him down.
Shortly after putting Wimmer a lap down, another caution waved. On Lap 19, Kraig Kinser slowed to a stop at the top of Turn 2 with a troubled right rear tire. Under the yellow, first Tatnell than Schatz pulled into the work area with cars needing attention. That bunched the field once again, but with the fast lapped car of Wimmer between him and the rest of the field, Kinser knew he had an advantage.
“Once I got behind [Wimmer] he was running a pretty good pace,” Kinser said. “I think I might have been able to run out to the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and maybe got a little run, but he was running a good enough pace that I thought somebody would have to be working pretty good. Then the yellows came out at the right time so I didn’t have to really deal with any traffic.”
Kinser darted back to the lead on the restart with 11 laps to go. Kaeding shot to the top and forced Paulus and Lasoski to go three-wide. Lasoski and Kaeding maneuvered into fourth and fifth behind Pittman as Meyers worked around Wimmer with eight laps to go. Meyers then closed the gap to less than a second behind Kinser, but that’s when Kinser found some moisture in the bottom groove to help heal his tires and rebuild his lead as the laps wound down.
“I guess you couldn’t ask for anything to work any better than it did tonight,” said Kinser, a Mean 15 racer from Bloomington, Ind., who pocketed $10,000 for the 530th World of Outlaws A-feature victory in his career. “Everything went right. We qualified fast and drew the right pill. It’s not very often you have nights go that good.”
For Meyers, it was a bit of redemption following a tough week in Iowa at the Nationals, where he wound up ninth in the B-main.
“There aren’t many instances when you put [Kinser] on the pole and are able to do anything with him,” said Meyers, a Mean 15 racer from Clovis, Calif., who is second in the championship standings. “A good job for their team tonight, and a great job for our team. [Crew chief] Steve Swenson was pretty much on his own tonight. He had some help from a lot of friends up around here. We thank them for helping out and giving us a hand tonight. We’re coming off a terrible week at the Nationals and bouncing back like this, I can’t ask for much more. All of our sponsors sticking behind us, that’s what makes this team so strong.
“It was a good run tonight and we’re looking forward to the West Coast tour.”
Pittman, who won the Clean-O World Challenge for the second consecutive year during the Nationals, raced to a top-10 finish with his Titan Racing Maxim for the fourth time in the past four A-feature events, two of those being top-five runs. After winning the second Dash, Pittman started the main event on the outside of the front row.
“We got a slow start and got stuck on the outside and fell back to third,” said Pittman, a Mean 15 racer and native of Owasso, Okla. “I’ll tell you what, a month ago we would have been jumping up and down for third but our car has been great about the last seven or eight races. My guys have made my job a lot more fun the past couple of weeks. I’m really looking forward to going out West. I think we’ve got a lot of things going for us. The car has been good the last six, seven nights. It’s a lot of fun to show up every night knowing you got a car this good. Hopefully we just plug away at it, get a little better and beat [Kinser] and [Meyers] next time.”
After leaving Red River Valley Speedway, the Outlaws invade Billings Motorsports Park in Billings, Mont., for a two-night show Aug. 19-20; Grays Harbor Speedway in Elma, Wash., for a two-night show Aug. 26-27; and Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore., for a one night event on Aug. 30.
Kinser captured his 17th A-feature win of the season.
WEST FARGO, N.D. - Perfection in a World of Outlaws event is nearly impossible to attain, but Steve Kinser was flawless Tuesday night at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, N.D., as the series competed for the first time since Kraig Kinser’s victory Sunday in the Knoxville Nationals.
Steve Kinser’s Quaker State Maxim was the first car to time trial, and for the rest of the racers it was an uphill battle from there. Kinser posted the fastest time of the night and watched as 24 other cars took a shot at it but couldn’t knock it down. He then went on to win his heat race from the sixth starting position, hold off Jason Meyers in the Stacker 2® Dash and finally lead all 30 laps of the main event to pick up his 17th A-feature victory and become the first driver this season to win every aspect of a single event.
Meyers’ Elite Landscaping Maxim was one of the few cars with a realistic shot at Kinser. Meyers, who won in July at Red River Valley Speedway, nearly brought Kinser’s sweep to a halt in the Dash before Kinser found just enough horsepower to hang on. That moved Meyers to the inside of the second row for the feature, where he tailed Kinser for much of the race, making a charge with eight laps to go but eventually settling for second ahead of Daryn Pittman, Danny Lasoski, and Tim Kaeding, who made one of his trademark surges through the field after starting 13th.
Kinser got a jump on the initial green flag as Meyers and Pittman raced side-by-side through the first two corners on the high-banked half-mile oval. Meyers edged ahead going into Turn 3 but Kinser already had a half-straightaway lead. When a caution waved with four laps down for the ill-handling machine of Mark Dobmeier, it negated Kinser’s 2.5-second advantage but it also gave Kinser clear track to work with and made it tough for anybody to keep pace.
“We had a good racecar,” said Kinser, who was leading a preliminary event on Aug. 10 during for the Knoxville Nationals when he crashed with three laps to go. “I didn’t know if I was going to have enough tire for the Dash but we struggled through it. I got back down in the moisture to save the tire in the feature. We had a good racecar all night. This thing’s been good and fast all year. Both [Steve Kinser Racing] teams have been doing a real good job.
“I was glad to see Kraig win the Nationals the other night. I probably would have given him a pretty good race if I wouldn’t have crashed on the preliminary night, but here we are and we’ll just keep plugging away the rest of the year.”
On the restart with four laps down, Kinser quickly opened a 1-second lead and kept increasing his margin over Meyers. Kaeding began his march into the top 10 after slipping through the battle among Shane Stewart, Tim Shaffer, Donny Schatz and Jason Sides to hang in the mix. With Kinser in the lead turning quick lap times behind Brandon Wimmer, he elected to tail the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year candidate as Meyers, Pittman, Paulus, Lasoski and Brooke Tatnell raced single-file in an effort to run him down.
Shortly after putting Wimmer a lap down, another caution waved. On Lap 19, Kraig Kinser slowed to a stop at the top of Turn 2 with a troubled right rear tire. Under the yellow, first Tatnell than Schatz pulled into the work area with cars needing attention. That bunched the field once again, but with the fast lapped car of Wimmer between him and the rest of the field, Kinser knew he had an advantage.
“Once I got behind [Wimmer] he was running a pretty good pace,” Kinser said. “I think I might have been able to run out to the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and maybe got a little run, but he was running a good enough pace that I thought somebody would have to be working pretty good. Then the yellows came out at the right time so I didn’t have to really deal with any traffic.”
Kinser darted back to the lead on the restart with 11 laps to go. Kaeding shot to the top and forced Paulus and Lasoski to go three-wide. Lasoski and Kaeding maneuvered into fourth and fifth behind Pittman as Meyers worked around Wimmer with eight laps to go. Meyers then closed the gap to less than a second behind Kinser, but that’s when Kinser found some moisture in the bottom groove to help heal his tires and rebuild his lead as the laps wound down.
“I guess you couldn’t ask for anything to work any better than it did tonight,” said Kinser, a Mean 15 racer from Bloomington, Ind., who pocketed $10,000 for the 530th World of Outlaws A-feature victory in his career. “Everything went right. We qualified fast and drew the right pill. It’s not very often you have nights go that good.”
For Meyers, it was a bit of redemption following a tough week in Iowa at the Nationals, where he wound up ninth in the B-main.
“There aren’t many instances when you put [Kinser] on the pole and are able to do anything with him,” said Meyers, a Mean 15 racer from Clovis, Calif., who is second in the championship standings. “A good job for their team tonight, and a great job for our team. [Crew chief] Steve Swenson was pretty much on his own tonight. He had some help from a lot of friends up around here. We thank them for helping out and giving us a hand tonight. We’re coming off a terrible week at the Nationals and bouncing back like this, I can’t ask for much more. All of our sponsors sticking behind us, that’s what makes this team so strong.
“It was a good run tonight and we’re looking forward to the West Coast tour.”
Pittman, who won the Clean-O World Challenge for the second consecutive year during the Nationals, raced to a top-10 finish with his Titan Racing Maxim for the fourth time in the past four A-feature events, two of those being top-five runs. After winning the second Dash, Pittman started the main event on the outside of the front row.
“We got a slow start and got stuck on the outside and fell back to third,” said Pittman, a Mean 15 racer and native of Owasso, Okla. “I’ll tell you what, a month ago we would have been jumping up and down for third but our car has been great about the last seven or eight races. My guys have made my job a lot more fun the past couple of weeks. I’m really looking forward to going out West. I think we’ve got a lot of things going for us. The car has been good the last six, seven nights. It’s a lot of fun to show up every night knowing you got a car this good. Hopefully we just plug away at it, get a little better and beat [Kinser] and [Meyers] next time.”
After leaving Red River Valley Speedway, the Outlaws invade Billings Motorsports Park in Billings, Mont., for a two-night show Aug. 19-20; Grays Harbor Speedway in Elma, Wash., for a two-night show Aug. 26-27; and Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore., for a one night event on Aug. 30.
