With most of the motorsports world on hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve decided to highlight some of the sport’s legends on a daily basis. We begin each story within the pages of National Speed Sport News.
Mark Kinser’s journey in motorsports began selling copies of National Speed Sport News in the pits as a 10-year-old and culminated with his induction into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2014.
The son of legendary car owner and mechanic Karl Kinser, who is also a member of the Hall of Fame, Mark began racing in 1983 after graduating from Indiana’s Bedford North High School.
Using mostly hand-me-down equipment from his dad’s team, which was driven by Mark Kinser’s cousin Steve Kinser, Mark Kinser hit the road with the World of Outlaws in 1984. He was named co-rookie-of-the-year with Greg Wooley.
He won his first WoO feature in 1985.
He raced full-time with various car owners over the next decade, winning 22 WoO features along the way. But things changed when Steve Kinser went NASCAR racing, and Karl Kinser turned to his son to drive his car.
What resulted was a spectacular string of victories and a Hall of Fame career.
Mark Kinser won the World of Outlaws championship in 1996 and ’99 and ended his career with 203 WoO victories, which ranks fourth all time.
Kinser won the Knoxville Nationals three times and the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup at Pennsylvania’s Lernerville Speedway five times.
He also won two National Opens, the Kings Royal, a Historical Big One, the Western World Championship and the Gold Cup Race of Champions.
Kinser also won 13 All Star Circuit of Champions features.
