By Kraig Kinser Racing PR
Bloomington, Ind.—May 23, 2012— When talking about racing on Memorial Day Weekend, two states take center stage — Indiana and North Carolina. Kraig Kinser, who has called both states home during his career, will have a chance to compete in each, as the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is in action over the holiday weekend.
Kinser opens the pair of races on Friday, May 25 with the Circle K NOS Energy Outlaw Showdown at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C., aboard the Hendrickcars.com Maxim. The event will air live on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. The third-generation driver then heads to Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana on Monday, May 28 for a full night of racing.
“It’s always a great atmosphere when we race at Charlotte, both in the spring and the fall,” said Kinser. “We had a chance to visit with a lot of fans earlier this week at the Hendrickcars.com store in Charlotte and will get to see a lot more at the track on Friday night.”
Kinser, who raced for the first time at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in 2002, finished ninth at the state-of-the-art four-tenths-mile last season in the finale of the Lowes Foods World Finals. The 2005 winner of the Knoxville Nationals has made 15 career starts at Charlotte, picking up four Top-10 finishes, including a career-best second-place finish on the final night of the 2008 World Finals. He made three feature event starts at the track in 2011.
“Charlotte can be a challenging track,” shared Kinser. “I’ve had some good runs there and came close to winning once. It would be great to pick up a win there for everyone at Hendrickcars.com, with the track being right in their backyard. It also would be great to win with the cameras from SPEED rolling. We had a good run on Sunday night at Hagerstown, so we look to build on that.”
Kinser was victorious with the World of Outlaws at Lawrenceburg Speedway in 2005. He also won the Fall Classic for the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions at the track in 2007. Both of those victories came when the surface was a quarter-mile. The World of Outlaws last raced at Lawrenceburg in 2009, after the track had been reconfigured to a 3/8-mile. Kinser finished fifth in the opener of that two-night event. He has made a total of four feature event starts with the World of Outlaws at the track.
“I had a lot of success at Lawrenceburg when the track was a little smaller,” noted Kinser. “I’ve only raced there twice since they made it bigger and we had a pretty good run in one of those races. I always enjoy getting to race in Indiana and seeing a lot of the people I grew up around and grew up against racing.”
Kinser enters the pair of races sixth in the World of Outlaws championship standings on the strength of 13 Top-10 finishes, with five of those being Top-Five performances. The native of Bloomington, Ind., finished fifth in his most recent start at Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland on May 20.
“We had a pretty good car the last few races and are getting closer to where we need to be,” said Kinser. “Qualifying in the right spot and putting yourself in a good position is so important when you are racing with the World of Outlaws. We’ve been in some good positions lately and just had bad luck fall on way and that’s just racing. If you run up front enough, wins will come.”
Tune into SPEED live at 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday, May 25 for the Circle K NOS Energy Outlaw Showdown.
Kraig Kinser By the Numbers: The Dirt Track at Charlotte & Lawrenceburg Speedway
0.375- Miles around Lawrenceburg Speedway
0.4- Miles around The Dirt Track at Charlotte
2- Career wins at Lawrenceburg Speedway
3- Nights of racing in the state of Indiana this season for the World of Outlaws
4- Total nights of on-track activity at The Dirt Track at Charlotte this season for the series
6- Position in the World of Outlaws standings
7- Main events on four-tenths-mile tracks for the World of Outlaws in 2011
8.5- Average finish in four feature events starts with the World of Outlaws at Lawrenceburg
10.7- Average finish in 21 feature events starts this season
13- Top-10 finishes this season
14.7- Average finish in 15 main event starts at Charlotte
15- Career main event starts at The Dirt Track at Charlotte
483- Miles from The Dirt Track at Charlotte where the World of Outlaws compete on May 25 to Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana
2002- Year of first start at The Dirt Track at Charlotte
2004- Year of first start with the World of Outlaws at Lawrenceburg Speedway
2009- Year the World of Outlaws last competed at Lawrenceburg
Keep up with all the action
Follow Kraig Kinser on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kraigkinser11k 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.