BUFFALO TWP - He's called The King of the Outlaws - for good reason.

His court of crewmen isn't so bad, either.

After the hot laps had concluded and long before the World of Outlaws Commonwealth Clash 35-lap sprint car feature had begun, Steve Kinser felt there was something wrong with his engine.

There was no time to sort out the problem. His crew simply swapped out the old engine and plopped in a new one - in 9 minutes and 25 seconds.

"We were down a cylinder," Kinser said. "I don't know why. We didn't have time to figure it out. We needed to put in a new engine.

"My crew has been great. We've done all of this together."

With a new engine in place and his sprint car humming again, The King was crowned again as Kinser held off Jason Meyers and Sammy Swindell to win the Commonwealth Clash at Lernerville Speedway Saturday night.

Kinser has owned the Outlaw circuit. The win at the Sarver track was his seventh this season and 520th in his 26-year career behind the wheel of his sprint car.

Kinser has also owned Lernerville Speedway, picking up his 15th win at the track.

"It's hard to complain about a track when you win," Kinser said.

There was nothing for Kinser to complain about after a slow start.

Butler driver Jack Sodeman Jr. flipped his car on the front straightaway to bring out a red flag.

Just three laps later, Rob Eyler brought out another red flag when he rolled his car between turns three and four.

The second red allowed the crews to come out on the track and make adjustments to the cars. It almost helped Meyers.

Kinser, though, took the lead from Swindell on the ninth lap and never relinquished it despite Meyers nipping at his heals.

"We just didn't have enough time," Meyers said. "We needed a caution, but didn't get one. (Kinser) was having trouble with the lap traffic and our car was really, really good tonight."

Meyers said his car performed better than it had all season. Unfortunately for him, Kinser came away with the $12,000 prize.

"We really didn't have a good car all night until the main event," he said.

Meyers actually turned in faster lap times over the final few trips around the track than any other driver.

But Kinser was good at getting position on his competitors, using the lay of the track to his advantage.

"We were all over the place," Meyers said. "I started out at the bottom, then I went up to the top and actually felt good up there. Then I had to move down to get around a lap car and got stuck a little bit."

Kinser, however, found smooth sailing.

"The track had some different lanes in it," Kinser said. "The track was good both nights."

It was good in qualifying for Kinser's son, Kraig.

Kraig Kinser had the fastest lap of the 37 cars that started the night, turning in a time of 12.951 seconds. That's 125 miles per hour.

"I think every car is going to be good tonight," Kraig Kinser said after the qualifying laps.

It wasn't so good for the younger Kinser later in the night when he finished fifth in the B-main.

He was able to get into the feature in a Lernerville Speedway provisional slot.

But he started from the back of the 26-car pack and was able to work his way into 14th place.

Ed Lynch Jr. of Apollo finished eighth to place the highest among Lernerville regulars competing in the feature.