Steve Kinser Picks Up 10th A-Feature Win At Rolling Wheels
May 26, 2008
stevekinser.com
Elbridge, NY— Steve Kinser has an impressive and unmatched record at most of the tracks on the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series schedule, and one that really stands out above the rest is Rolling Wheels Raceway Park in Elbridge, New York. The 20-time series champion had made 25 starts at the sprawling 5/8-mile facility entering Monday night’s event and had finished in the Top-10 in each and every one of those. He kept this streak going on Memorial Day, as he picked up his 10th A-Feature win at the track and the 545th of his career.
Kinser started on the outside of the front row aboard the Q Oil Maxim and took the lead from Shane Stewart on the opening lap of the event, after a caution led to a complete restart after the initial green flag. From there, the native of Bloomington, Indiana would dominate the race, leading all 25 circuits in an event that would go green to checker in just over 8 minutes and 14 seconds. He began the night by setting fast time in time trials, won the first heat race and was just one spot short of a clean sweep, finishing second in the Crane Cams Dash.
“We’ve always run around this place pretty good and always have a good set-up, ” said Kinser from Victory Lane after his second win of 2008. “It’s one of those race tracks that fits our race cars and fits my style of driving. We’ve always been exceptionally fast here. I always enjoy coming here. ”
The race began with Shane Stewart jumping to the lead in the first turn, and Kinser battling him on the high side of the track exiting the second turn but the caution flew before a full lap was completed, leading to a complete restart. On the second start, Stewart again led into the first turn, with Kinser charging around him on the outside, exiting the second turn.
Jason Meyers, the current Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series championship point leader moved into third on the opening lap, with two-time defending series champion Donny Schatz gaining two spots on the opening circuit to move into fourth. Terry McCarl also gained two spots on the opening lap, moving into the sixth position.
“I stumbled a little bit on the first start and it took off a lot cleaner the second time, ” explained Kinser. “Shane (Stewart) still beat me down in the corner, but I was closer on him. I was able to feel him out on that first start. I had a little confidence when I ran in there on that second one. Once we got the lead we just sort of stayed where we were at. ”
Kinser quickly began to pull away and entered lapped traffic just five laps into the 25-lap contest. He ran the high side of the track, as he opened a sizeable lead. With nine laps in the books, Kinser continued to lap cars, though he was bottled up by a couple of cars, allowing Stewart, Meyers and Schatz to close in just a bit.
“I got held up a little bit, ” Kinser said. “I tried to run in the middle of (turns) one and two and finally I went back up there and was easing into the throttle coming off of (turn) two and got a pretty good run at them. ”
Near the halfway point of the race, Kinser cleared a number of lapped machines and began to really pull away in open track. At the same time, Schatz began to battle Meyers for the third spot, with the latter fending him off. Schatz looked under him a couple of times but could not quite make a pass.
Meyers got around Stewart on the 21st lap to move into the runner-up spot, with Schatz just behind him. Kinser pulled away at the end to win by nearly three second and he wound up lapping all the way up to the 13th–place finisher.
“The way it worked it out it was pretty good, ” Kinser said of the race going non-stop once it got going. “Anytime you get the checkered flag first, you can’t complain about anything. ”
Meyers earned his 10th Top-Five finish of the season, as he came home second in the GLR Investments KPC. He wrapped up the East Coast swing with three finishes of first or second, with a win at Virginia Motor Speedway on Saturday night highlighting that.
“It’s been a great weekend for this entire team, ” said Meyers. “They worked hard for it and we are proud of it. I thought we may have had something for him tonight, but we weren’t good enough early. We got kind of close there at the end in lapped traffic, but Steve has always been good here. He was good enough tonight that we could not quite get to him. We’ll take second here tonight and it capped off a great weekend. ”
After moving into third on the opening lap, Meyers did everything he could to track down the leaders, but had plenty of lapped traffic to contend with, with the blazing fast pace that was being set on the 5/8-mile.
