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RACING: News
February 05, 2007
Old and new Outlaws
By RON WHITE
Correspondent
T.J. Winegardner and Steve Kinser are polar opposites.
Kinser, 52, is recognized as the greatest sprint car driver in the sport's history.
He has 20 championships and more than 400 wins in the World of Outlaws series.
Winegardner? Zilch.
"This series runs a 700-horsepower engine. That's 200 more horsepower than
anything I've raced," said Winegardner, the 22-year-old hoping to make a new
career for himself in his first year as a full-time sprint car racer. The Pierson
racer's resume features a third-place finish last season on the United Sprint Car
Series tour.
Kinser is a ball of fire known for confronting other drivers after collisions on the
track.
Winegardner is a soft-spoken and reserved guy still young enough to be the
apple in the eye of his father, Tom Winegardner, who introduced T.J. to the sport
after finishing a military career that featured piloting F-16 fighter jets -- opting to
race the sprint cars that he loved to drive as a youth.
Kinser is the model of a steak-and-potatoes guy. Winegardner is a trained chef,
a guy who could prepare dishes Kinser couldn't pronounce.
For all of their differences, however, Winegardner and Kinser will be a
much-ballyhooed pair this week at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville.
Kinser returns to the World of Outlaws circuit, which will be featured for three
straight nights Friday through Sunday, after taking a year away from the sport he
has dominated for so long.
Winegardner, meanwhile, will strap into a World of Outlaws harness for the first
time as the local favorite, a kid still struggling to find sponsors and a young man
who doesn't know quite yet whether his dreams of a full-time racing career are
little more than a pipe dream.
"It's an honor to be going against some of the top names in the sport, but I'm not
going to back down," said Winegardner, who was identified as a natural by
someone with a lot of years in the sport.
"That's when we became serious about this," said Tom Winegardner, who
competed against his son last year, but has opted to focus on T.J.'s career in
2007.
Tom manages his son's busy schedule, which will include races on at least three
different sprint car circuits that will keep him on the road for nearly every
weekend this year. Weekdays are spent fine-tuning cars in the Winegardner
family's garage, where a half-dozen cars featuring T.J.'s 11T are housed, and
searching for sponsors, which T.J. will need if he hopes to turn his love of moving
fast into a profitable venture.
"We're always looking for sponsors. We hope to get someone local," Tom said.
Sponsorship may rest upon Winegardner's performance against a field that is
among the best in the 36 years of DIRTcar Nationals racing at Volusia Speedway
Park. The half-mile track, which is owned by DIRT MotorSports, will feature all 16
full-time racing teams from last season's World of Outlaws circuit when races are
held Friday through Sunday.
Racing actually begins on Tuesday with the start of the All Star Circuit of
Champions, which will run for three consecutive nights. That competition kicks off
12 consecutive days of racing at the track.
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