Steve Kinser
Encyclopedia
Sprint car racing
Sprint cars are high-powered race cars designed primarily for the purpose of running on short oval or circular dirt or paved tracks. Sprint car racing is popular in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa....
racer. He has won 20 championships in the World of Outlaws
World of Outlaws
The World of Outlaws is an American motorsports sanctioning body. The body sanctions two major national touring series. It is best known for sanctioning a national tour of sprint cars. It later purchased a national tour of late model stockcars called the World of Outlaws Late Model Series...
(WoO) series, and currently drives the #11 Bass Pro Shops
Bass Pro Shops
Bass Pro Shops is a privately held retailer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor recreation merchandise. Bass Pro Shops is known for a large selection of hunting, fishing, and other outdoor gear.-History:The owner, John L...
car. Kinser left the World of Outlaws in 2006 to compete with the National Sprint Tour
National Sprint Tour
The National Sprint Tour was a United States sprint car racing league. It formed in 2005 as a rival to the World of Outlaws. The series folded after one season. The series was started by Brownfield Promotions, Inc. of Snohomish, Washington. The series featured 410 winged sprint cars...
series, but returned to the World of Outlaws for the 2007 season. ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
named him the 25th on their top drivers of all-time in 2008.
Background
Kinser was a high school wrestler and kung fu expert. He finished second in state as a junior, and won state as a senior. Both of his sons wrestled in high school, the youngest Kurt also won state as a senior, capping off the Bloomington High School SouthBloomington High School South
Bloomington High School South is a high school in Bloomington, Indiana. The school currently uses a schedule consisting of three 12-week trimesters. Each class period is 65 minutes, with a 45-minute SRT period on Mondays, 45-minute Panther Plus Periods on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday...
team's excellent season. In 2008, Kurt was a redshirt sophomore at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, competing at the 149 and 157-pound weight classes.
World of Outlaws career
He became a World of Outlaws driver in 1978. In 1987 he won 46 features, including 12 in a row, and 24 of the last 26 events. He has won the Knoxville NationalsKnoxville Nationals
The Knoxville Nationals is an annual sprint car event held at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. An Associated Press writer called winning the event "sprint car racing’s premiere title". It is nicknamed "The Granddaddy of Them All."-History:...
a record 12 times. He had won twenty WoO championships and 513 "A" features by 2005. He was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame
National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum
The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum is a Hall of Fame and museum for sprint car drivers, owners, mechanics, builders, manufacturers, promoters, sanctioning officials and media members....
in 2005. He has been described as the best sprint racer ever by both columnists and even his rivals.
World of Outlaws history:
- 1978- Champion- 11 wins…
- 1979- Champion- 23 wins…
- 1980- Champion- 28 wins…
- 1981- 3rd in points- 23 wins…
- 1982- 2nd in points- 13 wins…
- 1983- Champion- 18 wins…
- 1984- Champion- 19 wins…
- 1985- Champion- 15 wins…
- 1986- Champion – 18 wins…
- 1987- Champion- 46 wins…
- 1988- Champion- 27 wins…
- 1990- Champion- 27 wins…
- 1991- Champion – 36 wins…
- 1992- Champion- 31 wins…
- 1993- Champion- 19 wins…
- 1994- Champion- 29 wins…
- 1995- 9th in points- 18 wins…
- 1996- 4th in points- 10 wins…
- 1997- 3rd in points- 5 wins…
- 1998- Champion- 6 wins…
- 1999- 3rd in points- 11 wins…
- 2000- Champion- 10 wins…
- 2001- 3rd in points- 6 wins…
- 2002- Champion- 20 wins…
- 2003- Champion- 25 wins…
- 2004- Champion 17 wins…
- 2005- Champion- 20 wins.
- 2006- (NST)- 5 wins.
- 2007- 6th in points- 10 wins.
- 2008- 3rd in points- 7 wins.
- 2009-4th in points-2 wins
Other racing accomplishments
Steve failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
as a 26-year-old rookie in 1981 when his month was ended by a practice crash. He returned 16 years later in 1997
1997 Indianapolis 500
The 81st Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over three days, May 25–27, 1997. It was originally scheduled Sunday, May 25, however, rain washed out all activities for the day. The race was started on Monday May 26, but rain halted the race after only 15 laps...
and qualified 20th and finished 14th as a 42-year-old rookie in a Dallara
Dallara
Dallara Automobili is an Italian chassis manufacturer for various motor racing series, being most notable for its near-monopoly in Formula 3 since 1993...
-Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
. It was his only Indy Racing League start.
During his many tours of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
racing Sprint cars, Kinser won many feature races but January 4, 1986 he swaped his Sprinter for a VW
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
powered Midget
Midget car racing
Midget cars, also Speedcars in Australia, are very small race cars with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four-cylinder engines.-Cars:Typically, these cars have 300 to 400 horsepower and weigh...
(called a Speedcar in Australia) and won the 38th Australian Speedcar Grand Prix
Australian Speedcar Grand Prix
The Australian Speedcar Grand Prix is an annual dirt track racing meeting held for Speedcars. The meeting has traditionally been held in Sydney but on occasions has been held on tracks in Victoria and in 2000 the race was held at Perth's Claremont Speedway, not long before the 1/3 mile Showground...
at Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
s Liverpool Speedway
Liverpool Speedway
Liverpool Speedway was located in Green Valley, Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Liverpool was opened by Frank Oliveri, the mayor of Liverpool at the time, and ran until its sudden and unexpected closure in 1989...
.
Kinser has been selected several times to compete in the International Race of Champions
International Race of Champions
International Race of Champions, better known as IROC, was a North American auto racing competition, promoted as an equivalent of an American All-Star Game or The Masters...
, winning a race at Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega Superspeedway is a motorsports complex located north of Talladega, Alabama, United States. It is located on the former Anniston Air Force Base just outside the small city of Lincoln. It was constructed by International Speedway Corporation, a business controlled by the France Family, in...
in 1994
IROC XVIII
The eighteenth year of IROC competition took place in 1994. IROC XVIII was the first year the Dodge Avenger was used in competition, replacing the Dodge Daytona, and continued the format introduced in IROC XVIII...
. That year he also finished a career best 6th in IROC points.
In 1995 Steve landed a NASCAR Winston Cup Series ride as Drag racing
Drag racing
Drag racing is a competition in which specially prepared automobiles or motorcycles compete two at a time to be the first to cross a set finish line, from a standing start, in a straight line, over a measured distance, most commonly a ¼-mile straight track....
legend Kenny Bernstein
Kenny Bernstein
Kenny Bernstein is an American drag racer and former NASCAR and IndyCar team owner. He is nicknamed the "Bud King" for his success in the Budweiser King dragster, he has also been nicknamed "The King of Speed," because he was the first driver to break 300 miles per hour in the standing-start...
hired Kinser to drive his #26
King Racing
King Racing was the name of famed NHRA champion Kenny Bernstein's racing team which fielded cars in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series as well as in CART and the Indianapolis 500.-NASCAR:...
Quaker State Ford, but released him after only five starts after a best finish of 27th and average finish of 35th. The idea of bringing Kinser to NASCAR was due to Jeff Gordon
Jeff Gordon
Jeffery Michael "Jeff" Gordon is a professional NASCAR driver. He is the driver of the #24 Drive to End Hunger/DuPont/Pepsi Chevrolet Impala. He is a four-time Sprint Cup Series champion and a three-time Daytona 500 winner. He is third on the all-time wins list, with 85 career wins, and has the...
's success in sprint cars and midgets and bringing in one of the series best drivers would translate the same success.
Family
His family is also involved in racing, as his cousin Mark KinserMark Kinser
Mark Kinser is a retired American sprint car racing driver. He hails from Oolitic, Indiana.Cousin to Steve Kinser, Mark won the 1996 and 1999 World of Outlaws championship and the 1996, 1999, and 2000 Knoxville Nationals....
, was also a championship winning driver on the World of Outlaws circuit, and his son Kraig Kinser
Kraig Kinser
Kraig Kinser is an American race car driver. He was previously a member of the Ginn Racing driver development program....
is a member of Tony Stewart's World of Outlaws team. Kraig has also won the 2005 Knoxville Nationals. He has two other children, Stevie and Kurt. His cousin Sheldon Kinser
Sheldon Kinser
Sheldon Kinser , was an American race-car driver.Kinser, a Bloomington, Indiana native, died of cancer. He was a three-time USAC Sprint Car Series Champion . He also drove in the USAC and CART Championship Car series...
competed in the CART
Champ Car
Champ Car was the name for a class and specification of open wheel cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades, primarily for use in the Indianapolis 500 auto race...
series and raced in the Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
six times. Steve is the son of Bob Kinser another racecar driver.
Steve's distant cousin Karl Kinser was Steve's car owner 1978 to 1994. Karl has been the winning car owner and mechanic for 16 World of Outlaws championships and 12 Knoxville Nationals
Knoxville Nationals
The Knoxville Nationals is an annual sprint car event held at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. An Associated Press writer called winning the event "sprint car racing’s premiere title". It is nicknamed "The Granddaddy of Them All."-History:...
wins. Karl was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.