Motor Sports Weekly News

By: Drew Hierwarter

Sean Mizell photo

 

Sammy Swindell was perfect in Tulsa, Oklahoma over the weekend. The Tennessee open wheel star won all of his preliminary events and then swept to victory in Saturday night’s 50 lap feature event in the 23^rd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl for USAC midgets. Swindell dominated the tight little ¼ mile clay track that’s constructed every year inside the Tulsa Expo, and beat a record number of 281 entries to win the fifth Chili Bowl of his career.

 

After starting third and dropping back as far as fifth place during the middle stages of the race, Swindell, aboard an Esslinger powered Spike midget, took to the top of the track and blazed back to take the lead from Tracy Hines on the 34^th lap. After that all he had to do was survive several restarts after caution periods during the late stages of the race to take the win.

 

Behind Swindell and Hines, Brad Kuhn made a last corner move around Jerry Coons, Jr., for third, and NASCAR star J.J. Yeley completed the top five.

 

“To pull this off the way we did, to be undefeated here in every race, it was fun,” Swindell said in victory lane.  “We had a great car and a lot of good fortune that we didn’t get in trouble, and didn’t tear up anything or get banged around.”

 

“Slammin’ Sammy’s” week got off to a good start with a win in the “Race of Champions” on Tuesday. On Wednesday he won his heat race, qualifying race, and the night’s main event to move him into Saturday’s 50 lap feature.

 

Every year the Chili Bowl draws the biggest stars in USAC’s open wheel divisions and provides fans with a welcome break from the long cold racing off-season. Veteran driver Dave Darland followed Yeley home in sixth while Chris Windom came all the way from his 23^rd starting position to finish seventh. California native Cole Whitt moved from 17^th to eighth at the finish, while Steve Buckwalter just nipped Brad Loyet at the line for ninth. Windom was in only his second Chili Bowl feature event while for Loyet it was his first.

 

Past Chili Bowl Winners

 

2008 - Damion Gardner
2007 - Tony Stewart
2006 - Tim McCreadie
2005 - Tracy Hines
2004 - Cory Kruseman
2003 - Dan Boorse
2002 - Tony Stewart
2001 - Jay Drake
2000 - Cory Kruseman
1999 - Dan Boorse
1998 - Sammy Swindell
1997 - Billy Boat
1996 - Sammy Swindell
1995 - Donnie Beechler
1994 - Andy Hillenburg
1993 - Dave Blaney
1992 - Sammy Swindell
1991 - Lealand McSpadden
1990 - Jon Heydenreich
1989 - Sammy Swindell
1988 - Scott Hatton
1987 - Rich Vogler

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 10:06 am and is filed under USAC, Toyota, NASCAR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.