Sides Captures First World of Outlaws Victory of Season at Spring Classic
Dollansky repeats as Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 champion in afternoon event
 
PEVELY, Mo. – Oct. 13, 2012 – Jason Sides crawled from his sprint car with an exhausted – and thrilled – look on his face.
Reeling from the passing of a close friend earlier this week, Sides carried a heavy heart into Saturday’s World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series doubleheader at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 – the culmination of a pair of rainouts earlier this season.

And after a total 95 green-flag feature laps on the high-banked track on a humid and windy Midwest day, Sides captured the Spring Classic after recording a third-place finish in the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 presented by Summit Distributing/Coors Light in the afternoon.

“I had Mark Hardee riding with me,” Sides said. “It wasn’t his time to go, but the cancer got him and we hate that. He’ll be with us a lot in our hearts and everything, so hopefully we’ll get us a couple more wins with him riding with us.”

It was Sides’ first World of Outlaws feature win since July 2 of last season and extended his streak of at least one Outlaws victory in the each of the past four years.

“I think it was our given night to win and I’m glad we did,” he said. “We had a win the last few years and (I was) just trying to get us a win. I didn’t want to go winless, but it was coming down to the last couple of races.”

It was anything but a given for Sides, who started the 40-lap main event on the pole. He led the first eight laps before Lucas Wolfe drove around him for the top spot exiting turn four in thick traffic.

Sides eventually faded to sixth place with 10 laps remaining before he began to work his way toward the front. He passed Donny Schatz for fifth place on lap 31 and maneuvered around Kerry Madsen for fourth on lap 33. Sides restarted fourth with six laps remaining and quickly drove into the runner-up position.

“I had to learn to slow down to go faster and hit the bottom,” he said.

Sides and Chad Kemenah, who took the lead from Wolfe on lap 32, were side by side when a caution came out to set up the first of two green-white-checkered finishes. As the leader, Kemenah chose the inside line on the double-file restart and Sides drove by him as the duo exited turn four coming to the white flag.

With victory in sight, the seventh – and final – caution waved. This time Sides chose the inside line and as Kemenah appeared to have fuel issues on the restart, Sides escaped a hectic finish behind him.

With drivers sliding each other and racing wheel to wheel, Kemenah and Wolfe faded from their second and fourth restart positions as they apparently ran out of fuel.

Schatz rallied to record his second runner-up performance of the season and Brian Brown, who lined up sixth on the final restart, rounded out the podium.

“There were times I thought I was going to win it and there were times I thought I was going to run 10th,” Brown said. “Pevely is a really fun track.

“It’s a 120-mile-per-hour chess match. It just didn’t work out tonight, but we’re working really hard to get our first win on this Outlaws deal.”

Madsen finished fourth and Kraig Kinser drove from 13th to his second straight fifth-place result. Greg Wilson was sixth, Wolfe ended seventh and Brad Loyet earned the KSE Hard Charger Award for piloting from 20th to eighth. Kemenah placed ninth and Craig Dollansky rounded out the top 10.

Sides Captures First World of Outlaws Victory of Season at Spring Classic
Dollansky repeats as Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 champion in afternoon event
 
PEVELY, Mo. – Oct. 13, 2012 – Jason Sides crawled from his sprint car with an exhausted – and thrilled – look on his face.
Reeling from the passing of a close friend earlier this week, Sides carried a heavy heart into Saturday’s World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series doubleheader at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 – the culmination of a pair of rainouts earlier this season.

And after a total 95 green-flag feature laps on the high-banked track on a humid and windy Midwest day, Sides captured the Spring Classic after recording a third-place finish in the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 presented by Summit Distributing/Coors Light in the afternoon.

“I had Mark Hardee riding with me,” Sides said. “It wasn’t his time to go, but the cancer got him and we hate that. He’ll be with us a lot in our hearts and everything, so hopefully we’ll get us a couple more wins with him riding with us.”

It was Sides’ first World of Outlaws feature win since July 2 of last season and extended his streak of at least one Outlaws victory in the each of the past four years.

“I think it was our given night to win and I’m glad we did,” he said. “We had a win the last few years and (I was) just trying to get us a win. I didn’t want to go winless, but it was coming down to the last couple of races.”

It was anything but a given for Sides, who started the 40-lap main event on the pole. He led the first eight laps before Lucas Wolfe drove around him for the top spot exiting turn four in thick traffic.

Sides eventually faded to sixth place with 10 laps remaining before he began to work his way toward the front. He passed Donny Schatz for fifth place on lap 31 and maneuvered around Kerry Madsen for fourth on lap 33. Sides restarted fourth with six laps remaining and quickly drove into the runner-up position.

“I had to learn to slow down to go faster and hit the bottom,” he said.

Sides and Chad Kemenah, who took the lead from Wolfe on lap 32, were side by side when a caution came out to set up the first of two green-white-checkered finishes. As the leader, Kemenah chose the inside line on the double-file restart and Sides drove by him as the duo exited turn four coming to the white flag.

With victory in sight, the seventh – and final – caution waved. This time Sides chose the inside line and as Kemenah appeared to have fuel issues on the restart, Sides escaped a hectic finish behind him.

With drivers sliding each other and racing wheel to wheel, Kemenah and Wolfe faded from their second and fourth restart positions as they apparently ran out of fuel.

Schatz rallied to record his second runner-up performance of the season and Brian Brown, who lined up sixth on the final restart, rounded out the podium.

“There were times I thought I was going to win it and there were times I thought I was going to run 10th,” Brown said. “Pevely is a really fun track.

“It’s a 120-mile-per-hour chess match. It just didn’t work out tonight, but we’re working really hard to get our first win on this Outlaws deal.”

Madsen finished fourth and Kraig Kinser drove from 13th to his second straight fifth-place result. Greg Wilson was sixth, Wolfe ended seventh and Brad Loyet earned the KSE Hard Charger Award for piloting from 20th to eighth. Kemenah placed ninth and Craig Dollansky rounded out the top 10.

Kinser Captures NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week Victory
‘The King’ has won 12 of 35 World of Outlaws races at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park
 
ELBRIDGE, N.Y. – Oct. 6, 2012 – On a frigid Saturday night, Steve Kinser found a familiar, yet distant, place.
Mired in a slump since late July, Kinser braved the chilly and windy weather at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park, where he capitalized in traffic to pass polesitter Chad Kemenah and pull away to his fourth World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series win of the season at the NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week XLI event.

It was Kinser’s 12th victory in 35 World of Outlaws events at the fast 5/8-mile and it snapped a 40-race winless streak in points events.

“We’ve been struggling up a storm,” Kinser said. “It just felt good to get out and win a race. We’ve been having some trouble. It’ll make it a lot better ride home, I can tell you that.”

Kinser’s last win was at Dodge City Raceway Park on June 22, when he was in the thick of the World of Outlaws championship race. Since then, Kinser has struggled to find consistency and he entered Saturday fifth in the title chase – 283 points out of the lead.

That mattered little on Saturday, when Kinser qualified seventh quickest and finished second in his heat race to advance to the dash. He then drove from fourth to second to start the 25-lap feature on the outside of Kemenah.

Kemenah rocketed to the lead at initial wave of the green flag and held a sizeable advantage prior to the first caution, when Bobby Breen spun to a stop in turn three on the fifth lap. Kemenah chose the outside lane on the double-file restart and again began to build on his lead before closing in on traffic on lap 11.

However, as Kemenah was about to lap his first car, Kraig Kinser stopped on the frontstretch while battling for a top 10 because a radius rod loosened. Once again, Kemenah chose the outside on the restart and it worked to his advantage.

But this time Steve Kinser stayed within striking distance and as Kemenah entered thick traffic on lap 17, Kinser took advantage. Kemenah slid up the track in turn two and Kinser stuck to the bottom, which provided enough grip to drive by Kemenah down the backstretch.

“I think the bottom down here in (turns) one and two was getting better,” Kemenah said. “When you’re leading sometimes maybe you’re just a sitting duck. It’s just hard to change your lane when you’re out front.”

Kinser distanced himself as World of Outlaws points leader and Tony Stewart Racing teammate Donny Schatz maneuvered around Kemenah for the runner-up position in the closing laps.

“Steve needed that,” Schatz said. “He hasn’t been running well lately, so to come and get a win is definitely a confidence builder for those guys. A 1-2 finish for TSR is great.”

Kerry Madsen finished fourth and David Gravel ended fifth. Joey Saldana was sixth, Craig Dollansky seventh and Sammy Swindell earned the KSE Hard Charger Award after driving from 21st to eighth. Paul McMahan, who claimed the only other World of Outlaws event at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park this season, placed ninth and fast qualifier Daryn Pittman rounded out the top 10.