From Kraig Kinser Racing PR
Bloomington, IN — (June 3, 2012) — Kraig Kinser wasn’t really sure what to expect at the reconfigured I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Mich., on Saturday. He had success on the former half-mile track at the facility, but prior to the 2012 season, that bigger track was combined with the inner quarter-mile that was present to form the now three-eighths-mile surface that the World of Outlaws competed on.
Rain in the days leading up to the event, as well as a shower just prior to the driver’s meeting on Saturday night, led to a very challenging surface for all the World of Outlaws competitors. Kinser would go on to finish 10th in his Hendrickcars.com Maxim in the 35-lap main event, to earn his fourth career Top-10 finish at the track, while extending his streak of Top-10 finishes to four straight races.
“I’ll take a 10th after the start of the night we had,” said Kinser. “We battled all night and I’m happy to get a solid finish. It was definitely a challenging track tonight and the weather cooperated just enough to get the race in. They had a great crowd and there are a lot of good fans in Michigan.”
Kinser lined up for the 35-lap main event in the 13th position. He got around Dale Blaney on the third lap to move into 12th, before losing that spot on the next circuit. Kinser took the 12th position on the 10th lap and moved up to 11th on the 17th go-around, when the only stoppage of the night occurred for a two car incident. On the ensuing restart the native of Bloomington, Ind., would move into the Top-10, where he would remain for the duration of the contest, finishing in the 10th spot.
Kinser began the night by turning the 13th-fastest lap in time trials, which put him just one spot short of making the heat race inversion. He started fifth in the first heat race, and finished seventh, which was just one spot short of transferring to the main event. The 2004 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year would finish second in the B-Main to earn a spot in the A-Feature.
“We were kind of behind all night long,” said. Kinser. “That was kind of the story of our night. We missed the inversion by one spot and then missed transferring from the heat to the feature by one spot and had to run the B-Main. To rebound from that and come away with a Top-10 on a very tricky track, we’ll take it and move in.”
The originally scheduled event for the World of Outlaws at Attica Raceway Park in Ohio, on Friday, June 1 was cancelled due to rain and will not be rescheduled.
Kinser is currently sixth in the World of Outlaws championship standings on the strength of 16 Top-10 finishes. The third-generation driver returns to action on Tuesday, June 5 in his home state of Indiana, at Kokomo Speedway, followed by a visit to Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa, on Friday June 8 and Knoxville Raceway in Iowa, on Saturday, June 9.
“We have a couple of days to regroup in the shop and get ready for a busy week,” noted Kinser. “All of the tracks on the schedule this week, I’ve done pretty well at in the past and we have some good notes for. It will be good to have another week with three races, after having a rainout the other night.”
I-96 Speedway Results
| Date | Time Trials |
Heat Start |
Heat Finish | Dash Start | Dash Finish | Feature Start | Feature Finish | Points |
| June 2 | 13th | 5th | 7th | N/A | N/A | 13th | 10th | 6th |
Kraig Kinser By the Numbers: I-96 Speedway
0.375- Miles around the reconfigured I-96 Speedway
0.5- Miles around the old configuration at I-96 Speedway
1- Race in the state of Michigan this year for the World of Outlaws
4- Career Top-10 finishes at I-96 Speedway
7- Top-Five finishes this season; Career main event starts at I-96
10- Finishing position in the main event; Average finishing position in 24 main event starts this season
11.7- Average finish in seven main event starts at I-96 Speedway
12.119- New track record at I-96 Speedway on the three-eighths-mile configuration
12.532- Lap in time trials at I-96
13- Position in time trials
14.834- Old track record at I-96 Speedway on the half-mile configuration
16- Top-10 finishes this season
35- Laps in the A-Feature at I-96 Speedway
3142- Points earned through June 2
44,310- Dollars earned through June 2
Up Next
June 5: Kokomo Speedway, Kokomo, Ind.
June 8: Clay County Fair Speedway, Spencer, Iowa
June 9: Knoxville Raceway, Knoxville, Iowa
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