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Kinser Closes Season with a Win

RacingOne Report
Posted Saturday, November 3, 2007


Kinser captured his 543rd win.


Steve Kinser had won a lot of close races in his career, including two of the three closest finishes this season, and he added to this total on Saturday night, inching out Danny Lasoski by 0.150 seconds in the finale of the inaugural Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Kinser and Lasoski had the capacity crowd of over 14,000 fans on their feet for most of the race, on a track that provided two and three-wide racing all night. For the 543rd A-Feature win of his World of Outlaws career, Kinser earned $10,000, with all the action being caught live on SPEED.

“It was a great race track this weekend,” said Kinser, driver of the Q Oil Maxim. “They did a great job and they got it opened up so you could race on it. The fans saw a great race. I don’t think you can get any better than that and get it any closer than that. I was seeing the (No.) 83 every lap in (turns) three and four.”

The race began with Kinser leading from the pole, with Lasoski who started third getting around Daryn Pittman for the runner-up spot. The top-two pulled away slightly on the third lap, while Jason Meyers closed on Pittman as the pair tussled over the third spot.

On the sixth lap, Kinser began to encounter lapped traffic, allowing Lasoski to close back in. With drivers running high, low and in the middle of the track, there was two and three-wide racing throughout the field.


The caution flag flew on the ninth lap, as Kinser and Lasoski were in traffic, giving them an open race track on the restart. On that restart, Kinser was running on the high side of the track and Lasoski looked low for the lead as they exited the second turn and again in the third and fourth turns. He tried this same move several times over the next few laps. All the while, Daryn Pittman stayed right with him and was looking for an opportunity to make a move.

The caution flew on the 16th lap, with Kinser quickly jumping out to an eight car-length lead on the restart. At the same time, Pittman began to heavily pressure Lasoski for the runner-up spot. By the 19th lap, the three leaders were all within inches. Lasoski again looked for the lead on the low side of the second turn. Kinser fought off his attempts and continued to pace the field, as the laps wound down.

A red flag on the 21st lap set up a nine-lap shootout between Kinser, Lasoski and Pittman. Kinser used another strong start to jump to a slight lead, though Lasoski and Pittman caught him two laps later and the trio was nearly side-by-side going down the front straightaway. Lasoski tried again to dive under Kinser exiting the second turn for the lead and could not quite get enough momentum to make the pass.

On the final lap, Lasoski made a couple of charges at Kinser, and came up just inches short at the finish line. Over the last few laps, Kinser moved to the bottom of the track as held off several attempts by Lasoski to take the top spot.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” explained the winner. “You just run your pace and try not to change you lines and hope that everything works out well.”

After finishing fourth on Friday night in a brand new car, Kinser and his crew made a few changes for Saturday night. In the third heat, he finished second to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash, which he won to earn the pole position for the 30-lap A-Feature.

“We learned a little bit last night that we used tonight,” said the 20-time World of Outlaws champion. “Maxim built us a brand new car for down here and it was a little bit different than what we normally run. As tough as tough as everything is right now, you just have to have everything go your way the entire night. There are so many ways to get you out of the race and out of position to win a race, everything has work you way to win a race.”

Lasoski tried a number of lines throughout the race, as he kept pace with Kinser. While he was disappointed he did not win, Lasoski was thrilled that the fans at the track and watching at home on SPEED were able to see one of the best World of Outlaws events of the entire season.

“It was a heck of a show,” said Lasoski, driver of the Roth Motorsports JEI. “We gave it everything we had to try and win. I knew he (Kinser) wasn’t going to move off the top, so we had to run across the bottom and we came up a little short. I think I could have used him up a little bit on the last lap, but I don’t think he would have done that to me and I’m not going to race that way either.”

For Kinser, it was his 10th A-Feature win of the season and the second on a 0.4-mile track. He now has won twice in A-Feature competition at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway in his career.

“It’s good going into winter,” noted Kinser. “We know that we still have a lot of work to do. We did good and started in the second row of the heat and got into the dash and got a good draw. That helped a little bit. We had a good race car all night on top of it. It was a combination of everything going well for us tonight.”

Daryn Pittman finished third on Saturday night after making several runs at Kinser and Lasoski, by using the middle of the track.

“The race track was awesome and my car was good all night,” said Pittman, driver of the Titan Garages Maxim. “It was fun and that had to be a great race for the fans to watch. At any time, I thought I could get the lead and we were close a number of times. It was fun to drive and there are not a lot of races that are that much fun. It was three-wide racing and it was fun.”

Donny Schatz finished fourth on Saturday night and was officially crowned the 2007 World of Outlaws champion. He finished the season with 71 Top-10 finishes in the 75 A-Feature events that were contested.

“We had a great year,” said Schatz, driver of the ParkerStore J&J. “It is a good accomplishment with the group of cars that we have out here to have a record like that. We set our goals pretty high and I have them set really high for next year.”

After winning on Friday night, Jason Meyers finished a very solid fifth aboard the Primerica Financial Maxim in the season finale.

Joey Saldana was sixth in the Open Joist JEI, with Terry McCarl finishing seventh in the Big Game Treestands Eagle, to pick up the KSE Race Products Hard Charger Award, after lining up 16th for the 30-lap contest. Jason Sides was eighth in the Wetherington Tractor Services Maxim, with 2005 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award winner Shane Stewart in ninth in the Witgen Maxim. Dale Blaney, another former World of Outlaws rookie of the year was 10th in the Hoosier Tires Maxim.

Just as they have many times in the past, Lasoski and Kinser went wheel-to-wheel and kept the capacity crowd on their feet. Lasoski pondered a couple of different scenarios that may have helped him.

“Traffic a little bit earlier may have helped,” said Lasoski. “I needed anything to break his rhythm. It didn’t get done and my hat is off to them.”

Lasoski had just inched ahead of Kinser on the 21st lap, when the red flag flew for a car that got upside down. With traffic becoming a factor at that stage of the race, the field was bunched up and the lapped machines went to the rear of the field, by way of World of Outlaws rules, thus giving the leaders open track ahead of them.

“That red hurt,” said Lasoski, the 2001 World of Outlaws champion. “We were on a roll and it hurt because I had him cleared when the red came out.”

Pittman was another of the drivers that used multiple grooves on the state-of-the-art 0.4-mile track. While battling Kinser and Lasoski, he looked for any way around the two front runners that he could find.

“We were so close together in open track that I really don’t know if traffic would have helped,” said Pittman. “I think it may have helped Danny (Lasoski) and myself, because Steve (Kinser) would not have known what Danny and I were doing, but you never know.”

Pittman was very appreciative of the hard work and countless hours put in by the crew at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway over the last couple of weeks to make sure that the competitors had the most racy and competitive track that they could prepare.

“This was hands down the best the track has ever been here,” said the native of Owasso, Oklahoma. “There was no distinct fast line. We had every line covered from the top to the middle to the bottom. The faster line was whatever was working best for you car. Hopefully they can duplicate that every time we come back.”

While he wanted to win the season finale, Schatz was proud of his team and the consistency they showed this year. He won earlier in the season at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway and came just inches short of winning on Friday night.

“You can’t win championships, unless you win the battles,” said the native of Fargo, North Dakota. “We won the battles this year and I thought we would be a little better tonight. I don’t know if we sealed up the tire or if I used it too hard. I could not get going. That’s just part of racing. I had a good seat to watch the battle up front and that was neat.”

For the second consecutive season, Schatz won the title driving for his family team which is owned by his parents, Danny and Diane Schatz. The finale of the inaugural Outlaws World Finals marked the final race for Donny behind the wheel of his familiar yellow machine In 2008, he will drive for Tony Stewart Racing, owned by two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart.

“There is a lot of enjoyment in this,” said Danny Schatz, when asked about his son’s championship. “All of the people that made this possible is the race team and Don. We have had the opportunity to help him and we have been very proud to do that.”

The World of Outlaws will conclude the 2007 season with their annual awards banquet on Monday, November 5. The 2008 season kicks off at Volusia Speedway Park with the 37th Annual Florida DIRTcar Nationals, February 8-10.