Friday, March 5, 2004 | 9:57 a.m.
In that it was just the first of two nights of racing, Steve Kinser's victory in Thursday night's World of Outlaws preliminary main event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway didn't count toward the pursuit of his milestone 500th winged sprint car win.
Kinser, who has collected 498 main event trophies and 18 WoO championships during his illustrious career, said that was too bad.
Not because 500 means anything to him, but because he is tired of talking about it.
"Those are just numbers to us," the revered "King of the Outlaws" said after roaring from third to first in the final two laps as a crowd of 6,250 cheered him on at the LVMS dirt track.
"It's really not a big deal to us. We just want to get it over with so people would leave us alone about it."
Thursday night's victory -- we'll call it No. 498 1/2 -- was somewhat unexpected, as Kinser's car was not the fastest in the 24-car field. He started fifth, but it took him 22 laps to ease his way up front during the 25-lap feature.
Kinser used a lapped car to take second place from Craig Dollansky on Lap 22, sliding by coming out of Turn 4 as Dollansky white-walled the barrier in trying to navigate Eric Crocker. Dollansky swiped the wall again on the backside, just before Shane Stewart, who was runnng fourth, smacked the concrete hard in Turn 4, bringing out the final yellow flag of the night.
With two laps to go, that enabled Kinser to pull up behind race leader Brian Paulus. When the track went green, Kinser gunned his way inside of Paulus, then slid up the track in front of him on the backstretch. Paulus might have lifted ever so slightly, enabling Dollansky to pass him in Turns 3 and 4 coming to the white flag.
That's the way they finished, as Kinser's No. 11 white-and-green Quaker State car flashed across the line about two car lengths in front of Dollansky. Paulus, Tim Shaffer and Daryn Pittman rounded out the top 5.
Kinser said his ability to work the low groove in Turns 1 and 2 was crucial to setting up Paulus for the decisive pass.
"I was getting around the bottom of 1 and 2 really good, it just started getting a little slick coming off the corner to where you kind of had to watch it," Kinser said.
"I went in there and kind of missed the bottom and slid on up on Brian, and actually it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. He got a good run down the backstretch, and from there it was just a battle to see who could get the lowest going into 3."
Kinser spent the first half of the race lurking in fifth and sixth as veteran Sammy Swindell set a blistering pace.
Starting from pole, Swindell blasted into the lead and led the first 14 laps, before a plume of smoke belched from the No. 83JR Beefpackers car. Swindell managed to stay out front for two more laps before his engine quit on the backstretch and Jason Solwold bumped into him, bringing out the yellow.
Paulus, who had started outside Swindell on the front row, inherited the lead and stayed there until Kinser caught him on the final restart.
If Kinser was low-key about the prospect of nailing down 500 wins, he flashed a broad smile when reminded that his victory would enable him to bypass tonight's qualifying and heat races. The top 4 finishers advance directly to the dashes that set the main event starting order.
"That's the main goal in these two-day shows, to get in the top 4 so you don't have to do all that runnin' around," Kinser said.
Racing resumes at 6 p.m. tonight with the "A" main expected to take the green flag around 8:30.
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