Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.
Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt are revered in stock-car racing circles for winning seven NASCAR Winston Cup championships each.
John Force is viewed as virtually superhuman among drag-racing fans for winning 10 straight NHRA Funny Car championships and 12 in 13 years.
But Petty, Earnhardt and Force have nothing on Steve Kinser, the undisputed "King of the Outlaws," who clinched his 18th O'Reilly World of Outlaws season championship last weekend with his 496th career "A" feature victory.
Not bad for a guy who initially got into sprint-car racing as way to pick up a little extra spending money while working for his father's masonry business in Bloomington, Ind.
"I never expected to have this kind of success," Kinser said. "I always knew I wanted to race, but I figured it might be as a halfway hobby/profession. I figured you could make some extra money doing it -- I didn't really know I was going to have this success or have the opportunity to make a decent living doing it.
"My dad raced sprint cars and we went around to all the local sprint-car races. I was doing a lot of masonry work and that just made me want to race even that much harder."
Technically, Kinser will not be crowned the 2003 WoO champion until takes a qualifying lap tonight for the first of two nights of racing at the dirt track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but there is no way second-place Danny Lasoski can earn enough points this weekend to catch Kinser.
Kinser's 18th WoO championship comes 25 years after he captured the title in the series' inaugural season. That year -- 1978 -- he won 11 feature races in the winged sprint-car series to start a run of three consecutive WoO championships. After finishing out of the championship lead in 1981 and 1982, Kinser came back with a vengeance in 1983, winning the title and starting a run of six consecutive championships.
Kinser won six more championships in the '90s and has claimed three of the four titles in this decade. As he nears his milestone 500th career victory, Kinser said the key to his remarkable success in the winged sprint cars has been his ability to assemble top-notch teams throughout the years.
"You go out with the intention to win a championship, but you've got to be able to win races to win championships -- that's the main thing," he said. "Our biggest goal is probably to go out and try to have a good enough race team that's capable of winning anytime we go in the gate.
"As long as we can feel like we can do that at all the racetracks, the championships will come along with it. You just focus on having a good, solid race team and a team that thinks your equipment has got as good a chance to win as anybody else -- or probably a little more, if you can get it that way."
While he has enjoyed unparalleled success in the World of Outlaws, Kinser was not able to duplicate that good fortune in a short-lived attempt at NASCAR Winston Cup racing. He drove for Kenny Bernstein's team in 1995 but was dismissed after five races. Although he said he had fun driving the 3,500-pound stock car, Kinser did not enjoy the experience.
"I never did really have fun," Kinser said. "I didn't do it much but I had no say on anything. I'm used to being a part of a race team and there, I wasn't really anything; they just put you in the car and say 'go run.' I had no say in what was going on."
Kinser had a little more success in his only attempt at the Indianapolis 500, in 1997. He qualified 20th for the race and was running ninth when he crashed with 12 laps remaining and finished 14th. Although Kinser said driving in the Indy 500 was a childhood dream, he never attempted another race -- partly because of his success in the Outlaws series.
"It was more of a one-time opportunity; I wasn't going to give up my race team and my sprint-car racing to start a different career," Kinser said. "By the time I got to the position where I could maybe run some Indy cars and things ... I started having so much success with the sprint cars. "Growing up with not a whole lot of money behind me, I started having success and sort of enjoyed making money for a while, to be honest with you. I sort of gave up a little bit of a dream ... but I actually always had a dream of running sprint cars, too, and in the back of your head, you're thinking you were going to run the Indianapolis 500, too.
"Hey, I have no regrets -- I got to do both of them. Racing has been good to me, especially sprint-car racing. It has allowed me to go run at Indianapolis and go start the Daytona 500. Racing has been a great sport for me."
And it will continue to be Kinser's sport -- at least for the foreseeable future. Although he acknowledged that winning race and championships isn't getting easier, he said he is having as much at the age of 48 as he did when he first got into racing.
"I still enjoy doing it -- that's the big part of it," he said. "I haven't lost the love for racing, and traveling and being out on the road is still something I enjoy doing. I'll keep doing it as long as I can stay competitive and run up toward the front and win races -- and keep sponsorship."
Despite already having logged nearly 90 days of racing this season, Kinser said he is looking forward to this weekend's races in Las Vegas.
"It feels great to win another championship and now we want to finish this season," he said. "I'd like to win another main event before the end of the year to get closer to 500.
"I always enjoy coming to Vegas. One thing about when we come here, we're always in a good mood because you're either at the beginning of the year or the end of the year, so everybody is really in a good mood."
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