By Kraig Kinser Racing PR
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — May 4, 2014— Kraig Kinser and his team continue to make strong progress on the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series trail. Following a weekend that saw the third-generation driver lead his first laps of the season and also earn his first podium finish, he followed that up at the famed Eldora Speedway in Ohio by winning his first dash of the year to earn a pole position, and wound finishing seventh and 11th in a pair of races at the high-banked half-mile.
Kinser started on the pole for the 30-lap main event on Friday, May 2, piloting the Mesilla Valley Transportation/Casey’s General Store/King Racing Products Maxim. He led the field into turns one and two, before s a side-by-side battle with eventual winner Shane Stewart down the back straightaway ensued. Stewart used a slide job in turns three and four to take the lead at the stripe on the opening circuit. Kinser ran among the top-five for the first 20 laps of the race, before slipping back to seventh at the finish. Only one caution flag flew during the A-Feature.
The native of Bloomington, Indiana, opened the weekend at Eldora by timing in 15th-fastest of the 35 entries, which put him on the pole of the third heat race. Kinser would win that heat to earn a spot in the dash. With an inversion of eight, he started on the pole and was victorious to earn the top starting spot for the main event.
“We definitely qualified in the right spot, and winning the heat race was huge,” said Kinser. “The car was great in the heat race and I was able to get out in clean air, which always helps. We were strong early in the feature and were able to stay among the top-three and keep them in sight. A few of the restarts kind of hurt us and the car fell off a bit in the later going. Starting on the pole, you never want to finish seventh, but we learned a few things and it definitely gives us more to build on going forward.”
On Saturday, May 3, Kinser powered his way from the 21st starting spot to finish 11th. A strong restart following a lap-11 caution began the veteran driver’s march forward. He was up to 14th just six laps later and continued to pass cars in the late going.
Kinser timed in 23rd-fastest on the second night at Eldora, which put him on the outside of the third row in the third heat race. He finished sixth in that eight-lapper, coming up just one spot shy of transferring to the main event. Kinser would take the green flag fourth in the Last Chance Showdown and finished second to punch his ticket into the 30-lap main event.
“We were able to pass quite a few cars in the feature,” said Kinser. “Starting as far back as we were, that’s the only thing you can do is try to charge to the front. Qualifying has been our backbone this year and we were just a little off and that led to us starting way back. We’re getting closer to where we need to be. It sounds cliché, but you need to walk before you can run and with some of the struggles we had earlier this year, we have been making up a lot of ground recently.”
Kinser, who moved up a spot to ninth in the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series championship standings, returns to action in a trio of races this week in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Kraig Kinser Racing would like to thank Casey’s General Stores, Mesilla Valley Transportation, King Racing Products, Maxim, Aerodine Composites, Sander Engineering, Integra Shocks, All Star Performance, FK Rod Ends, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Bell, KSE Racing Products, ButlerBuilt, Schoenfeld Headers, Donovan Engineering, Fel-Pro, Brodix, Wilwood, Dyer’s, Barnes Systems, Ringer Gloves, Jakes Custom Golf Carts, and Ben Cook Racing Limited for their continued support.
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