Cottage Grove, Ore.—Sept. 5, 2011—Kraig Kinser has raced against his father Steve plenty of times over the years, and one of the most memorable races for the pair came at Cottage Grove (Ore.) Speedway in 2004, as the younger Kinser picked up his first career World of Outlaws A-Feature win, passing his dad in that event. History repeated itself again on Monday night at the ¼-mile bullring as Kraig battled Steve for the win, getting by him with five laps remaining to score the $10,000 victory.
For Kraig, it was his first win of the 2011 season and the 10th of his World of Outlaws career. It also marked his first victory aboard the Casey’s General Store Maxim for Parsons Motorsports, as the team won at Cottage Grove Speedway for the second consecutive season.
“This is a great win for the whole Casey’s General Store team,” said Kinser. “It’s been a rough road this year and it feels good to get a win for them. All the crew has been working hard and doing a great job. The car won for Lonnie (Parsons) here last year, so I had to live up to that standard and get it back to Victory Lane.”
The 2005 winner of the Knoxville Nationals started on the pole at Cottage Grove after winning the dash and got the jump on Jason Sides at the drop of the green flag to take the lead. Kraig paced the first eight laps before his father got around him for the top spot. The native of Bloomington, Ind. then ran second to Steve for a number of laps, as heavy rubber began to develop on the track. Kraig caught his dad with five laps to go as the pair worked lapped traffic, retaking the top spot.
“It’s not every day that you get to drive around my dad for the win,” said the third generation driver. “There was rubber around the top, and I thought it was over when he got up there first. I was worried about it on that restart, as it was pretty black up there. Sometimes when you are leading you don’t know where to run. We got into the traffic and I was able to run him back down and pass him.”
The final caution flag of the night flew just after Kraig took the lead on lap-35, setting up a double-file restart. He chose the high side of the track with his father restarting on the bottom. Kraig used a strong restart to pull away over the final five laps and won by over three-quarters of a second, turning the fastest lap of the race on the 37th circuit of the 40-lap contest.
“I wasn’t sure what I had left for tires,” he noted. “I went real hard one lap on the restart and then slowed down to stay in the rubber. I knew I was close on tire and had just enough left.”
Kraig opened the night by turning the 10th fastest lap in time trials, which put him on the pole of the first heat race. He won that 10-lap contest to earn a spot in the dash, where he lined up on the pole and won that 8-lapper as well.
The 2005 World of Outlaws Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year is just one point out of the ninth spot in the World of Outlaws championship standings, heading into the 58th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif., Sept. 9-10.
