From Tony Stewart Racing
Indianapolis, IN — (June 6, 2013) — The fast and furious pace of the World of Outlaws (WoO) STP Sprint Car Series continues this weekend with a tripleheader in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Three races in three nights is not a new challenge for Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser, who have combined to start almost 3,200 A-Features. The three-night barnstorming tour through Middle America kicks off Friday with the Outlaws’ return to 34 Raceway in Burlington, Iowa. Events Saturday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., and Sunday at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb., launch four consecutive weekends of racing in the Midwest.
The three unique venues offer Schatz, the five-time and reigning WoO STP Sprint Car Series champion, and Kinser, the 20-time series champion, three more opportunities for victory. Schatz, who already has scored five A-Feature wins in 2013 aboard the TSR No. 15 STP/Armor All/Chevrolet Performance J&J, will be looking to earn his initial victory at all three of the tracks this weekend. Kinser, driver of the TSR No. 11 Bad Boy Buggies/J.D. Byrider/Chevrolet Performance Maxim, has previous wins at both Lakeside and I-80 and will be vying for his second A-Feature win of the 2013 campaign.
Friday’s stop in Burlington will be the Outlaws’ third race at the 3/8-mile, dirt oval located on the eastern edge of Iowa at the Illinois state line. Both TSR drivers have scored a second-place finish at the track. In July 2008, Kinser was the fastest qualifier and “The King of the Outlaws” raced from the fourth starting spot and pressured eventual winner Tony Bruce Jr., throughout the 35-lap contest. The following July, Schatz raced from seventh and led from laps 12 through 31 of the A-Feature before finishing second to Joey Saldana.
Kinser has been extremely successful at Lakeside Speedway during the Outlaws’ previous 11 races at the half-mile, dirt oval. The Bloomington, Ind., native is a three-time winner at Lakeside, including back-to-back wins for TSR in 2010 and 2011. He finished inside the top-five in the first 10 Lakeside WoO races, and chances were good he was going to make it 11 straight top-fives last June. He was racing his way forward when leader Brian Brown smacked the wall and Kinser had no place to go and collided with Brown. Kinser’s car was damaged, but he rejoined the field from the tail and raced back to finish 14th. Schatz has earned three consecutive top-10s at Lakeside, finishing sixth, sixth and 10th.
The weekend concludes with the series returning to I-80 Speedway for the first time in more than a decade. The high-banked, half-mile dirt oval was a regular May and September stop for the Outlaws from the 1995 through 2003 seasons. Kinser is a two-time winner there while Schatz earned his best finish of fourth in September 2002.
The Outlaws are coming off their third and final 2013 stop in the Indiana. Schatz finished ninth and Kinser came home 15th in the 40-lap A-Feature at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway Wednesday night. The finish for Schatz was his 11th top-10 in his last 12 starts. Kinser qualified 22nd in the 42-car field.
Through 28 races, Daryn Pittman continues to lead the WoO championship standings. Schatz holds second with 3,950 points – trailing Pittman by 165 points – and his five wins ties him for the series lead with Pittman and Tim Kaeding, who won Wednesday’s race at Kokomo. Kinser currently ranks 10th with 3,584 points. He has one win, two top-fives and nine top-10s this season.
All three of this weekend’s WoO STP Sprint Car Series races are being put on by the SLS Promotions group. More information and ticket details for all three events are available by contacting SLS Promotions at (815) 344-2023 or by visiting www.SLSPromotions.com.
Race fans unable to attend this weekend’s events can catch all of the action on DIRTVision.com. Fans can listen live as Johnny Gibson, “Voice of the Outlaws,” calls the action as he does at all WoO STP Sprint Car Series events on the DIRTVision.com cybercast, as well as on the DIRT Radio Network. Go to www.DIRTVision.com for more information on all the site features, including live results from the track.
Steve Kinser, Driver of the No. 11 TSR/Bad Boy Buggies/J.D. Byrider/Chevrolet Performance Maxim:
The weekend ahead includes return visits to a pair of tracks (34 Raceway and I-80 Speedway) as well the annual stop in Kansas City. How tough is it to transition from one track to the next on consecutive nights?
“It’s what we’ve been accustomed to doing for so long it’s just kind of second nature. The biggest thing is to have your program going well enough that you can adapt it to almost any track no matter what the size or layout. We’re still working on getting our program where it needs to be. It’s been difficult this year. We’ve changed all kinds of things looking for ways to improve. Some nights we find a few things that work,
but it still comes back to qualifying. We haven’t been getting the job done qualifying and it’s put us behind. As far as where we are going this weekend, I know we only ran Burlington a couple of times, but I’m looking forward to going back. Lakeside has always been a place where we’ve done well so, obviously, we’re excited about returning to Kansas City and maybe putting together a complete night like we did both in El Paso and Charlotte. The same goes for I-80. It’s a big, fast track where the driver can use a lot of horsepower and, in turn, give the fans a good show. It’s one of those places where you can set guys up in the corners to make your passes. We’ve had a lot of success in that part of the country over the years and we’d sure like to have a good weekend. One that maybe helps us turn the corner on the season.”
Donny Schatz, Driver of the No. 15 TSR/STP/Armor All/Chevrolet Performance J&J:
You’ve been racing as much as you can lately, somewhat following in the shoes of your boss Tony Stewart. How does running both a Dirt Late Model and a regular Sprint car show back in your hometown help your performance when you are back behind the wheel of the STP Sprint car?
“It just gives you a chance to remember why you got involved in racing in the first place. You can go have fun and put on a show for the fans without the worry of points or the impact something might have on your entire season. I had so much fun racing in the Prelude to The Dream event last year at Eldora that I got a Dirt Late Model to race around home when we weren’t racing with the World of Outlaws. We’ve had fun with it, and I’ve been able to laugh with my STP guys about some of the things I did in that car. We have some pretty lofty goals and our expectations are pretty high every time we race with the World of Outlaws. If I can get away for a night or two and just get back to racing for fun, it helps get me energized to be back in the STP 15. Our schedule is pretty busy for June, so it’ll be just about all racing with the World of Outlaws. I’m a firm believer that you learn something just about every time you race a car so, even though I’m out there just having fun, I feel like I’m still making myself a little better at what I do.”