By Reid Spencer, Special to Racin’ Boys (Tulsa, OK) -- On Thursday night, Tony Stewart was well satisfied with his efforts at track preparation, and the result was excellent racing in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Center.
Given the huge car count at the quarter-mile dirt Chili Bowl track, one of the most difficult challenges is keeping the track consistent throughout a succession of heat races, qualifying races and features that start in the morning and end late at night.
“There’s no physical cushion, but the top’s still the fast way around,” Stewart said. “We’re starting to get a middle back here, too. When you’ve got 96 cars that started the night, it’s hard to keep it the same for the whole night. Last night I was not happy with what we had until we got to the last two qualifiers, the “B” Mains and the “A” Main, and we finally got caught up with it.
“It was really narrow and really heavy early in the night. Tonight we tightened it up a little more. From the first heat race on, guys could go everywhere they wanted to go and pass. It’s a little slower pace, but the racing’s better, and guys can actually pass. They aren’t jumping their race cars trying to run on a six-inch ledge.”
Stewart may be a three-time champion at NASCAR’s highest level, but track preparation nevertheless is a passion for him. You’ll often find him on a track at Eldora Speedway, the dirt half-mile he owns.
Just because Stewart has stepped away from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series doesn’t mean he has abandoned the competitive side of racing—far from it.
“I wish I’d have finished a little better at the end of the year,” Stewart said of his final NASCAR campaign, in which he won at Sonoma and qualified for the Chase. “But I’m looking forward to all the stuff we’re going to be doing this year—late model racing, sprint car racing. I’m building a three-quarter midget to run a couple of (county) fair races this year.
“Going to run a lot of different things at a lot of different places. There are some tracks that I’ve never been to that I’m going to get a chance to go to on our schedule. We’re up to 71 races, and I’m guessing we’re going to get another 10 to 15 more races on the schedule before it’s all said and done.”
BELL DOMINATES THURSDAY’S “A” FEATURE
In a race punctuated by cautions, second-place starter Christopher Bell led 24 of 25 laps and ran away with Thursday night’s “A” Feature.
Bell, runner-up Danny Stratton and third-place finisher C.J. Leary earned spots in Saturday night’s “A” Main, the race that will decide this year’s winner of the Golden Driller trophy.
The Chili Bowl is a special race for Bell, who grew up in Norman, Okla.
“This is the Daytona 500 for us,” said Bell, who qualified for the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase and finished third in the championship standings. “I’ve been in this position a couple of times now and I’ve never been able to capitalize.
“I’m just going to try my hardest to make sure I don’t do anything to eliminate myself and be there at the end.”
ALLGAIER TUMBLES DOWN THE LINEUP WITH LAST-LAP FLIP
After winning his heat race early in the day and running third behind Shane Golobic and Stratton in his qualifying race, Justin Allgaier had visions of a top-three finish in the “A” feature and a transfer spot in Saturday night’s “A” Main.
But Allgaier couldn’t catch Leary for third, and in the final corner he drove wide into the cushion and flipped his midget racer, rolling twice before being hit by Thomas Meseraull, who couldn’t avoid the contact.
Losing fourth place in the last corner dropped Allgaier from the front row of Saturday’s “B” Main into the “C” Main, where both he and Kyle Larson will face an uphill battle to qualify for the championship race.
ANOTHER ROLE FOR KEVIN SWINDELL
Kevin Swindell, the only driver to win four consecutive Chili Bowl titles, earned rave reviews for his incisive analysis from the Racin’ Boys broadcast booth.
Confined to a wheelchair with a broken back after an August 2015 sprint car accident at the Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals, Swindell provided a unique depth of knowledge from a racer’s perspective in his first foray into television.