Kraig Kinser Finishes Third at El Paso & Ninth at Las Cruces

[media-credit name=”Paul Arche” align=”alignright” width=”133″][/media-credit]Bloomington, Ind.—Nov. 11, 2012— Faced with the first weekend of the off-season, following last weekend’s World Finals for the World of Outlaws, Kraig Kinser did what any true racer would do. He climbed right back in his car and went racing. With the Battle at the Border event for the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) Presented by MAVTV set for El Paso Speedway Park and Southern New Mexico Speedway, Kinser headed to the southwest with the No. 11K Hendrickcars.com machine for two final nights of racing in 2012, before officially beginning his off-season. The third-generation turned in a pair of solid performances, finishing third at El Paso Speedway Park in El Paso, Texas, and ninth at Southern New Mexico Speedway in Las Cruces, N.M.

Kinser lined up fourth on Friday, Nov. 9, for the second eight-lap heat race at the three-eighths-mile, semi-banked El Paso Speedway Park. He charged to the front to pick up the win and valuable passing points, which are a key component in the ASCS race night format.

Kinser lined up fourth for the 30-lap A-Feature at El Paso, with Tony Bruce Jr., Logan Forler and Kyle Hirst in front of him. The main event took a trio of starts to finally get underway, with Kinser getting past Hirst to move into third and setting his sights on Bruce. Kinser would battle Bruce for several laps in traffic, eventually taking the checkered flag in third to earn a podium finish in his first-ever appearance at El Paso Speedway Park.

“It was a pretty good run for us,” said Kinser. “There were a lot of good cars there, and track position was very important in the feature. We put ourselves in a good position by winning the heat race from fourth. With the passing points format, you have to be on your game in the heat races for sure. In the feature the car was pretty good and we had a good start to gain that spot at the drop of the green. We had a couple of chances to gain some ground on the leader in traffic, but could not quite track him down. All in all, it was a pretty good night for us.”

On Saturday, Nov. 10, at Southern New Mexico Speedway, Kinser lined up 12th and ran a consistent race in the 30-lap main event to cross the finish line in ninth. He opened the night by finishing second in the third eight-lap heat race, behind Seth Bergman. Kinser also competed at the five-sixteenths-mile last season with ASCS, aboard a different car.

“We always enjoy racing at Las Cruces,” noted Kinser. “It’s been a number of years since we’ve had a World of Outlaws race there, so it’s good that ASCS gets down that way and the fans get to see some winged sprint car racing. There are a lot of great fans in the southwest.”

Prior to the event on Friday, Kinser and his team made an appearance at the Mesilla Valley Transportation (MVT) Driver Appreciation Day in El Paso at the MVT headquarters. Mesilla Valley Transportation has been a long-time supporter of Steve Kinser Racing.

“It was great to visit with so many different people at MVT during their Driver Appreciation Day,” shared Kinser. “We’ve had a great relationship with the folks at MVT for quite a few years and look to continue that for many years to come. It’s always fun to have the car on display and talk some racing with folks that don’t get to see a sprint car up close very often.”

Kinser and his team will now return to their shop in Bloomington, Ind., to begin preparing for the 2013 World of Outlaws season. The 2005 winner of the Knoxville Nationals won four times with the series in 2012, while recording 46 Top-10 finishes, of which 22 were Top-Five performances, which placed him sixth in points at season’s end.

El Paso Speedway & Southern New Mexico Speedway Results

Keep up with all the action 
For the latest news on Kraig Kinser, visit the redesigned http://www.kraigkinser.com, and
follow Kraig on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kraigkinser11k and receive live updates from the track each and every race night.