By Parsons Motorsports PR
Granger, IA—Nov. 6, 2011— One of the strongest fields of the season greeted Kraig Kinser and the Casey’s General Stores team in the Fifth Annual Lowes Food World Finals presented by Tom’s Snacks, Coca-Cola and Natures Own at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway this past weekend, and the third generation wrapped up the year with a solid ninth-place finish, with all the action airing live on SPEED.
The blockbuster three-day event began on Thursday, Nov. 3 with two rounds of qualifying, with the opening session setting the field for the Friday, Nov. 4 portion of the show. Kinser was 30th in the first round of time trials, with the second round being postponed by rain until Friday. In an effort to keep the race program moving along, drivers were given a single lap of time trials for the Saturday, Nov. 5 portion of the World Finals. Kinser turned the fourth-fastest lap of the night with 54 competitors taking to the clock.
The third generation driver lined up seventh in the 30-lap finale on Saturday night and fell back a few spots early on. Kinser used two strong restarts late in the race, including a green-white-checker finish, which extended the race an extra lap to 31 circuits, to gain a couple of spots and wound up finishing ninth, which was his fourth career Top-10 run at the state-of-the-art four-tenths-mile.
The native of Bloomington, Ind. opened the night by charging from fourth to second in the fourth heat race to earn a spot in the dash. He would come home seventh in the dash, to line up on the inside of the fourth row for the 30-lap main event.
Kinser opened the World Finals, which featured not only the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, but also the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and the Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds, with a 13th-place finish on Friday night, after starting 25th in that 30-lap main event. He patiently worked his way through the field, enduring five cautions during the first 18 laps of the race.
Kinser wrapped up the year eighth in the World of Outlaws championship standings aboard the Casey’s General Store Maxim for Parsons Motorsports, on the strength of 23 Top-10 finishes, with six of those being Top-Five performances, including a win at Cottage Grove (Ore.) Speedway during the annual Gold Rush Tour.
World Finals Results
Date
Time
Trials
Heat
Start
Heat Finish
Dash Start
Dash Finish
Feature Start
Feature Finish
Points
Nov. 4
30th
6th
6th
–
–
25th
13th
8th
Nov. 5
2nd
4th
2nd
6th
7th
7th
9th
8th
Kraig on the weekend:
“We had a pretty good weekend. We got a little behind in the first round of qualifying and then had a good lap in the second round. To come from the back on Friday night was a solid effort, and to wrap up the year with a Top-10 was pretty good. The entire Casey’s General Store team worked hard all year and I can’t thank Lonnie Parsons enough for the opportunity to drive for the team. We had a slow start to the year and really gained some momentum in the second half of the season and it was great to pick up that win at Cottage Grove. We really didn’t want to see the year end with how well we were running down the stretch.”
Kraig Kinser By the Numbers: World Finals
0.4- Miles around The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway
1-Win this season
3- Feature event starts at Charlotte this season with the World of Outlaws
4- Position in time trials for the finale of the World Finals
6- Top-Five finishes this season
7- Events in 2011 on four-tenths-mile tracks for the World of Outlaws
8- Final position in points
9-Finishing position in the finale of the World Finals
12- Positions gained in the feature on Friday, Nov. 4
12.819- Laps in time trials for the Nov. 5 portion of the World Finals
13- Finish in the main event at Charlotte on Nov. 4
13.165- Lap in time trials in the first round of time trials for the World Finals
14- Laps led in feature events this season
23- Top-10 finishes earned this season
65- Features events completed by the World of Outlaws in 2011
7818- Points earned this season
Keep up with all the action: Follow Kraig Kinser on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kraigkinser6 and receive live updates from the track each and every race night.
Tune in: Listen live to each and every World of Outlaws event on DIRTVision.com with “The Voice of the Outlaws” Johnny Gibson on the call. Visit www.DIRTVision.com for live audio of each and every World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event.