From Larry Boos, Mike Campbell photo
ROSSBURG, OH (July 17) — There is only one driver in the storied history of the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway that has competed in each and every edition of the famed classic and just one driver that has made the main event every time. This driver has won the Kings Royal more times than anyone, has more top-five finishes in the race than anyone else, as well as top-10’s. That driver is 20-time World of Outlaws (WoO) champion Steve Kinser, who holds every major record associated with the event. He added to his Kings Royal legacy on Saturday night, claiming the $50,000 win over Kerry Madsen.
Kinser has now won the Kings Royal a record seven times in his illustrious career. It was his first victory at Eldora Speedway driving for Tony Stewart, who is also the owner of Eldora and was on-hand at the half-mile all weekend. After nearly taking the lead from Kerry Madsen on a double file restart with three laps to go, Kinser had one final shot at the big payday and used a textbook slide job in turn one to take the top spot and ultimately the win, which was his fifth of 2010. The cameras from SPEED were rolling to capture of the action for broadcast on August 7.
Stewart back up Kinser’s performance with a story-book triumph in the NRA (National Racing Alliance) Sprint Invader main event, to make for back-to-back wins on the weekend.
“It feels good to win one for Tony Stewart Racing and Bass Pro Shops,” said Kinser in Victory Lane. “I know that Donny (Schatz) has won a few for them. It was a lot of fun to get out there and win it tonight. Kerry (Madsen) ran a great race and I hated to get into him on the last night, but you have to go for it when you can go for it. I just really enjoy getting to run at Eldora.”
Following a caution on the 22nd lap, the next 15 circuits went green, putting the leaders in heavy lapped traffic as the laps wound down. With 10 to go, Kinser had tracked Madsen back down and tagged the wall a couple of times, nearly taking the lead at a few different points on the track.
“I was reeling him in pretty fast and got into the wall on the front stretch and got right back on him and got into the wall on the back chute or I was going to go by him, explained the winner. “I was catching him pretty quick and messed up both times. I got a third chance, so I guess it ended up all right.”
Kinser lined up on the inside of the track on all but one of the double file restarts on Saturday night. The one time he lined up on the outside, he was in front of the field. He was very strong on the last three double file restarts of the race, keeping right with Madsen and nearly taking the lead a couple of times in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim.
“It was hard to do and the last one I got it timed just about right and got a good run off the bottom to get him,” noted Kinser of restarting on the bottom.
Kerry Madsen led 27 laps en route to his best career finish in the Kings Royal, a second-place effort aboard the Hall Haulage KPC. He took the lead from Kinser on the 12th lap with a slide job in turn four. Kinser nearly retook the top spot as the pair had a drag race down the front straightaway, with Madsen leading by just a touch at the line to officially be scored the leader. Madsen blasted to the high side in turn two on the next lap and quickly began to pull away.
“I’m just disappointed,” Madsen admitted. “The car was unreal, how good it was. Sonny Kratzer just gave me a dream car tonight. We were pretty close to getting a Kings Royal win and we just didn’t get that last restart right and Steve (Kinser) got in front of me. We had a quicker car, but two laps wasn’t enough to get back by him. We’ll have to deal with second here tonight, but I am very proud of this team.”
Danny Lasoski made a charge at the end of the race to finish third in the Casey’s General Store JEI. He started on the front row of the main event after winning the fifth heat race of the night, with the six heat finishers starting first through sixth in the feature, through an inversion. Lasoski fell back to ninth on the 10th lap of the 40-lapper, before working his way back to the front.
“We put a little harder tires on than everyone else and just had no idea they would spin as much as they did during the first 20 (laps),” noted Lasoski. “We had a couple of cautions go our way that bunched the field back up in open track. We were able to run the 3 and the 11 cars back down and we had a really good car. We just couldn’t finish he deal. ”
Madsen was in the lead for four caution and red flag periods, choosing the high side of the track each time for the double file restarts. Over the two nights of racing at Eldora, the leaders chose the high side of the half-mile most of the time for the double file restarts.
“I was getting such good restarts there,” shared the native of St. Mary’s, NSW, Australia. “I knew the gloves were going to come off on that last restart. You get such a good run coming off (turn) four and it worked every time. We just didn’t get it done on that last restart. It was exciting, but unfortunately we were second. We’ll just go on from here.”
Danny Lasoski had one of the fastest cars on the track over the last 15 circuits working his way into the top-five and then battling Kinser and Madsen for the lead. On a couple of restarts the trio nearly got three-wide as they charged into turn one with Lasoski diving in the middle of the track as he sought his first Kings Royal win.
“I had to go where they weren’t,” said the native of Dover, Missouri of the final restart. “I knew pretty much what they were going to do. I was about three foot short of clearing them both with the slide (job).”
Donny Schatz, who won the Kings Royal in 2009, came home fourth in the Armor All /STP J&J. Greg Wilson scored his best-career Kings Royal, coming fifth in the All Star Plumbing Maxim. Sammy Swindell was sixth in the Big Game Treestands Maxim, with Tim Shaffer seventh in the Kistler Engines J&J. Ed Lynch Jr. was eighth in the Howard Concrete J&J. Chad Kemenah came all the way from 23rd to finish ninth to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award. Tim Kaeding rounded out the Top-10 in the DTR Transport KPC.
Replicating his performance of the previous evening, Tim Allison shot into the lead at the dropping of the green flag to get the 25-lap affair underway.
But unlike the previous night, Allison was unable to roll into a commanding lead. Hot on his heels were David Gravel, Randy Hannagan and Tony Stewart in a tight foursome.
The torrid pace, which resulted in yet another non-stop affair for the NRA clan, found Allison into lapped traffic by the mid-point. His Eldora knowledge and experience gave him the edge, as he darted in and around cars at will.
Gravel and Hannagan swapped runner-up honors multiple times, as Stewart laid back to develop his game plan.
Nearing the five-to-go signal, Gravel picked up his pace and actually got by Allison to lead on circuit, but by the time another one could be put into the record books, Allison was back in command.
With four laps to go, Stewart knew it was time. He picked off Hannagan for third on lap 21, and two tours later disposed of Gravel – leaving only Allison in front of him.
As the white flag appeared, Stewart duplicated Kinser’s moves of a few moments prior and pulled off a patented Eldora ‘slide job’ to move under and ahead of Allison.
Allison hung on for second, followed by Gravel, Hannagan and Butch Schroeder.
27th annual Kings Royal
July 17, 2010
World of Outlaws Sprints – 49 cars
Fast Time: Paul McMahan – 13.239
Heat 1:
1. Stevie Smith[2]; 2. Paul McMahan[3]; 3. Jac Haudenschild[1]; 4. Tim Kaeding[4]; 5. Lucas Wolfe[5]; 6. Tony Stewart[7]; 7. Lee Jacobs[6]; 8. Keith Bloom[8]; 9. Todd Kane[9];
Heat 2:
1. Daryn Pittman[1]; 2. Joey Saldana[3]; 3. Tim Shaffer[2]; 4. Craig Dollansky[5]; 5. Dave Blaney[4]; 6. Randy Hannagan[6]; 7. Brian Paulus[8]; 8. Ben Gregg[7];
Heat 3:
1. Kerry Madsen[1]; 2. Donny Schatz[3]; 3. Jason Sides[2]; 4. Chad Kemenah[4]; 5. Kraig Kinser[6]; 6. Chad Blonde[7]; 7. Brian Ellenberger[5]; 8. Jamie Miller[8];
Heat 4:
1. Sam Hafertepe Jr.[2]; 2. Ed Lynch Jr.[1]; 3. Kyle Sauder[4]; 4. Cale Conley[3]; 5. Dean Jacobs[6]; 6. Paul May[5]; 7. Bill Rose[7]; 8. Domain Ramsay[8];
Heat 5:
1. Danny Lasoski[3]; 2. Sammy Swindell[2]; 3. Jason Meyers[4]; 4. Kasey Kahne[1]; 5. Jonathan Allard[5]; 6. Steven Lines[8]; 7. Ryan Myers[7]; 8. Rob Chaney[6];
Heat 6:
1. Steve Kinser[2]; 2. Dale Blaney[3]; 3. Greg Wilson[3]; 4. David Gravel[4]; 5. Bruce White[7]; 6. Josh Davis[8]; 7. Tyler Walker[1]; 8. Toni Luter[6];
C Main:
1. Tyler Walker[1]; 2. Lee Jacobs[3]; 3. Brian Ellenberger[2]; 4. Brian Paulus[8]; 5. Toni Luter[5]; 6. Ben Gregg[6]; 7. Domain Ramsay[10]; 8. Keith Bloom[7]; 9. Jamie Miller[9]; 10. Rob Chaney[4];
B Main :
1. Tyler Walker[1]; 2. Tim Kaeding[2]; 3. Chad Kemenah[4]; 4. Dave Blaney[3]; 5. Kraig Kinser[13]; 6. Craig Dollansky[7]; 7. Randy Hannagan[12]; 8. Dean Jacobs[14]; 9. Brian Paulus[20]; 10. Jonathan Allard[10]; 11. Brian Ellenberger[8]; 12. David Gravel[5]; 13. Paul May[9]; 14. Bill Rose[15]; 15. Chad Blonde[16]; 16. Steven Lines[19]; 17. Ryan Myers[18]; 18. Josh Davis[21]; 19. Bruce White[17]; 20. Lucas Wolfe[6]; 21. Lee Jacobs[11];
A Main :
1. Steve Kinser[1]; 2. Kerry Madsen[4]; 3. Danny Lasoski[2]; 4. Donny Schatz[9]; 5. Greg Wilson[18]; 6. Sammy Swindell[11]; 7. Tim Shaffer[14]; 8. Ed Lynch Jr.[10]; 9. Chad Kemenah[23]; 10. Tim Kaeding[22]; 11. Paul McMahan[7]; 12. Cale Conley[19]; 13. Tyler Walker[21]; 14. Kyle Sauder[16]; 15. Kasey Kahne[20]; 16. Jason Sides[15]; 17. Jason Meyers[17]; 18. Daryn Pittman[5]; 19. Sam Hafertepe Jr.[3]; 20. Stevie Smith[6]; 21. Jac Haudenschild[13]; 22. Dale Blaney[12]; 23. Joey Saldana[8]; 24. Dave Blaney[24];
NRA Invaders – 29 cars
Fast Time: Tony Stewart – 14.441
Heat 1:
1. Tim Hunter[2]; 2. Tony Stewart[6]; 3. Tim Allison[4]; 4. Jessica Zemken[5]; 5. Jared Horstman[3]; 6. JR Stewart[1]; 7. Jeff Williams[7]; 8. Zach Ames[8]; 9. Ethan Hoy[9]; 10. Rob Chaney[10];
Heat 2:
1. Caleb Griffith[2]; 2. Butch Schroeder[6]; 3. Mike Dussel[1]; 4. Hud Horton[3]; 5. Luke Hall[5]; 6. Davey Sammons[4]; 7. Dwain Leiber[7]; 8. Jon Agan[10]; 9. Ryan Kirkendall[8]; 10. Derek Hastings[9];
Heat 3:
1. David Gravel[6]; 2. Brad Greer[2]; 3. Sean Robinson[1]; 4. Randy Hannagan[5]; 5. Ron Blair[3]; 6. Todd Heverman[4]; 7. Kent Wolters[7]; 8. Jeremy Aumend[8]; 9. Bob Carman[9];
B Main :
1. Jessica Zemken[1]; 2. Davey Sammons[2]; 3. Todd Heverman[3]; 4. Dwain Leiber[4]; 5. Jon Agan[12]; 6. Kent Wolters[5]; 7. Zach Ames[6]; 8. Ryan Kirkendall[7]; 9. Jeremy Aumend[8]; 10. Ethan Hoy[9]; 11. Derek Hastings[10]; 12. Bob Carman[11];
A Main :
1. Tony Stewart[6]; 2. Tim Allison[1]; 3. David Gravel[4]; 4. Randy Hannagan[2]; 5. Butch Schroeder[5]; 6. Tim Hunter[10]; 7. Luke Hall[3]; 8. Ron Blair[9]; 9. JR Stewart[13]; 10. Hud Horton[8]; 11. Jessica Zemken[16]; 12. Jared Horstman[7]; 13. Caleb Griffith[11]; 14. Brad Greer[12]; 15. Todd Heverman[18]; 16. Jon Agan[20]; 17. Davey Sammons[17]; 18. Dwain Leiber[19]; 19. Mike Dussel[14]; 20. Sean Robinson[15];