Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Kinser pleased with way he won No. 500

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.

Steve Kinser was more relieved than elated after the undisputed king of sprint-car racing notched his 500th career World of Outlaws "A" feature victory last weekend in Baytown, Texas.

Kinser, an 18-time WoO season champion, seemed more impressed that he was able to hold off a hard-charging Donny Schatz on the final lap than he was with reaching the 500-victory his milestone.

Kinser started Saturday night's 30-lap main event at Houston Raceway Park from the second position but passed pole-sitter Brooke Tatnell on the 10th lap. Schatz, who started fifth, closed to within five car lengths of Kinser by lap 26 and caught Kinser with 1 1/2 laps remaining. Schatz and Kinser raced side-by-side through the first three corners before Kinser beat Schatz to the checkered flag by half a car length.

"I'm just glad to get this one over with so we don't have to hear about (500) anymore," Kinser said. "Donny Schatz is one of those guys who gets better the longer the race goes on. I got to running the bottom of three and four pretty good through the middle of the race but when I saw him beside me there, I really didn't know what to do."

It was Kinser's fifth "A" feature victory of the season and extended his lead in the standings to 50 points over Schatz.

"I have to thank Scott Gerkin -- he's the best crew chief out there right now and he and all the guys on my team do so much to give me a great racecar night in and night out," Kinser said. "Scott builds all my motors and for a bunch of country boys from Indiana, I guess we don't do too badly."

Kinser also thanked his family for their support throughout his 27-year WoO career.

"I'm just grateful to have a family that loves sprint-car racing as much as I do," Kinser said. "I always wanted to drive a racecar, but I figured I'd have to get a job and be lucky enough to race at home on the weekends.

"The World of Outlaws started just about the time that I did and it seemed like back then I was one of the youngest guys in the pits. Now here I am one of the oldest, but winning races still means everything to me."

The addition of Jourdain will give RuSPORT a two-car team with rookie A.J. Allmendinger. Paul Russo owns RuSPORT, which is moving up from the Toyota Atlantic Series.

Jourdain, who brings his sponsorship from Mexican supermarket chain Gigante to the team, tested with RuSPORT last week at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

Champ Car now has at least 17 car/driver combinations for the April 18 season-opening Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Meira started 14 races for Team Menard in the IRL 2002 and 2003. He won the pole at Texas Motor Speedway in September of 2002 and finished a career-best third in that event.

Petersen/White Lightning teamed with American Le Mans Series rivals Alex Job Racing to win the GT class at Le Mans last year. The privateer team will field a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the GT class of the world's most famous endurance race this year.

"I'm definitely excited about returning with my team and hopefully carrying on the success of last year," team owner Michael Petersen said. "Le Mans has been a dream of mine forever and I know all the guys are very excited. We are all looking forward to the overall experience of returning to Le Mans.

"We have been refining this team so that we can take the nucleus of it and race at the top of any series that we want to run anywhere in the world -- and that includes in major events like at Le Mans. I think we are getting very close to that. I'm looking forward to the return to the historic race of Le Mans and, perhaps, a return to the podium."

Petersen said the team would announce its driver lineup for Le Mans in the near future.

The Western Sprint Cars and Western Midgets will stage 40-lap main events while the Ford Focus Midgets will compete in a 25-lap main event on the 3/8-mile paved oval.

Spectator gates open at 4 p.m., qualifying begins at 4:30 and heat races are scheduled to start at 7.

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