Steve King was the National Championship Racing Association 360 Division Sprint Car Champion in 2002 and 2003. A fourth-generation farmer living in Jetmore, Kansas, King was a graduate in Animal Sciences from Kansas State University.

On the night of Wednesday, 09 August 2006, King crashed his sprint car into the Turn 3 fence during a preliminary race for the Knoxville Nationals. Mechanical failure was thought to have caused the accident. According to driver Ryan Pace - who, recovering from an injury sustained during a race the previous month, watched the event from the pit area - "All I saw was the chassis was twisted over to the right, so it had to be a left-front impact into the wall. I didn't see what made the crash happen. I just saw him hit it and it was a hard hit". Having suffered severe brain injuries in the accident, King was taken by helicopter to the Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines to undergo treatment, but passed away at 15h32 the following day.

King was survived by his parents, Daniel and Naomi King also of Jetmore, sister Danette King Amstein, her husband Todd and nephew and niece, Jarod and Erin Amstein, of Statesville, NC, grandmother, Helen A. King, of Dodge City, KS.

R.I.P