LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — Kraig Kinser won his first sprint-car race in more than two years and Greg Wilson earned the $50,000 O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions title on the final night of the season during Saturday’s Hoosier Fall Classic at Lawrenceburg Speedway.
After Brian Paulus and Wilson led early, Kinser went to the front of the field prior to the midway point in the race. Kinser and preliminary night winner Chad Blonde waged a thrilling battle for the read, exchanging the lead several times.
But during the final yellow flag of the race, Blonde went pit side with a broken front end. Kinser held off Brandon Martin on the final restart and romped to victory.
“Chad was racing me hard. I’m not sure what happened to him, but he woke me up there,” said Kinser. “I started taking it easy there around the bottom and he just blew right by me. I was running hard to get back to him. I lost my brakes there at the end and moved to the top and the track was real good up there.”
Dale Blaney, Kelly Kinser and Dean Jacobs rounded out the top five.
Wilson finished seventh, while Smith came home ninth on the quarter-mile oval, giving Wilson the championship by two points.
“It’s going to take a while for this to sink in,” said Wilson, who won the title for the second-consecutive season. “The way the race unfolded was frustrating behind the wheel. I was leading the race and saw Danny spin in the infield and thought — alright just keep on it and try to win the thing, but we knocked the nose wing off and struggled the rest of the way through.”
Smith, however, claimed the owner’s championship for his No. 4 team.
“We had a pretty good year,” said Smith. “It’s disappointing for my fans and my sponsors and everybody who works on this thing for us to come up just two points short. I learned over the last several years that things happen for a reason. Sometimes you don’t know why, but you just go on down the road. I’m really proud of all my guys. We won the Owner Points so Greg and I will split the money. He isn’t going to take all of it. I’m going to get a little bit of it.”
The summary:
Fast Time: Kraig Kinser, 10.217 seconds (43 cars).
First Heat: Danny Smith, Todd Kane, Dean Jacobs, Kraig Kinser, Bill Rose, Kelly Kinser, Mike Miller, John Memmer, Joss Moffat, Dallas Hewitt, Ty Deckard.
Second Heat: Jesse Hockett, Jimmy Stinson, Nick Nabor, Paul May, Kirk Jeffries, Brad Stevens, Hud Horton, Keith Baxter, Dale Blaney, Johnny Johnson, Lee Stark.
Third Heat: Luke Hall, Tom Busch, Brandon Martin, Brian Paulus, Neil Shepherd, Geoff Dodge, Chris Nabor, Miranda Throckmorton, Shannon Jodrey, Arin McIntosh.
Fourth Heat: Wayne Mcpeek, Brock Mayes, Greg Wilson, Matt Westfall, Ryan Myers, Kent Wolters, Scotty Williams, Kyle Simon, Lance Grimes, Chad Blonde.
Dash: May, Martin, Mayes, Wilson, Smith, Paulus.
B Main: Blonde, Blaney, Ke. Kinser, Dodge, Memmer, Williams, Stevens, Miller, Throckmorton, Horton, Simon, Johnson, McIntosh, C. Nabor, Jodrey, Hewitt, Stark, Moffat, Wolters, Baxter, Deckard, Grimes.
Feature: Kr. Kinser, Martin, Blaney, Ke. Kinser, Jacobs, Mayes, Wilson, Rose, Smith, Busch, May, Shepherd, Dodge, Hall, Westfall, Mcpeek, Jeffries, Stinson, Kane, Myers, Paulus, Hockett.