The Battle For The Golden Driller Begins in Tulsa
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[/media-credit]The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals began in Tulsa Oklahoma today. The event is a week of hard core racing. This year’s event garnered over 500 driver entries. Each driver is bidding for a Saturday night A Main starting position.
The activities began with the first group of qualifiers running heat races and qualifying races and on into C main, B main, and A main features. The top 4 from the qualifying races qualified for the A main and the C and B main transferred their top 4. The A main transfers its top 3 finishers into the Chili Bowl on Saturday Night.
Each day of qualifying leading up to the Chili Bowl on Saturday Night will feature the same process of qualifying races up to the A main. Saturday will fill the field with transfer positions from consie races from those that did not qualify the first 4 nights.
The Midget race car for those who are new to open wheel and dirt racing, are 1000 lbs and 72 inches long. They run 4 cylinder engines that produce approximately 300 – 350hp.
Midgets came into being in 1933 and are not intended to run long distances. The average length of a race being 20 – 25 laps. The horsepower to weight ratio of these cars makes them both powerful and exciting to watch. Their short wheel base however, makes them prone to roll over crashes which made it necessary to add the roll bar system in the early 70’s.
The Chili Bowl is their Super Bowl race. It is held in Tulsa Oklahoma at the QT Center. The names that hold the Golden Driller are impressive in their own right. Names like Sammy Swindell, Kevin Swindell, Tony Stewart, and Tim McCreadie top the list. It’s those names and their car owners that create the first night draw with the Race of Champions.
In order to be in the Race of Champions you must have won a Golden Driller or been the car owner of someone who has won the Golden Driller. This year’s field was 14 cars. The starting positions were drawn for drivers by children selected from the stands. For the 4th year in a row Sammy Swindell drew the pole position. Returning to the Chili Bowl after a 3 year absence Tony Stewart started tail end Charlie in 14th in the 14.
Stewart arrived late yesterday and missed the practice and hot laps and so was climbing in his Spike chassis Chevy Performance Chevrolet number 14 for the first time when the Champions took the track for a few hot laps just before the Champions features.
The race was an action packed high energy highly contested event that saw Sammy Swindell take an early commanding lead. Son Kevin Swindell made a hard charge on the outside to catch the elder Swindell and started around him on the high side when a caution came out for Jason Leffler getting upside down. Leffler was not injured and the green came back in very short order. Stewart was charging through the field and was up to 6th when the caution again flew for a spin on the front stretch. When the green came back out Kevin Swindell charged hard to the outside and Sammy dived low to the bottom coming out of 4 to hold off the charge and took the checkers. Stewart finished 7th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr who was also slotted to run the race experienced mechanical difficulties and never started the race. Bryan Clauson of TSR finished 6th.
The A main was a hard fought return to grass roots racing. After an evening of difficulties Kyle Larson charged hard to the front taking the lead from George Ramey on lap 18 and he never looked back. Ricky Stenhouse Jr challenged briefly for the lead in heavy traffic but could not catch the charging Larson and finished in 2nd securing a place in the Chili Bowl feature on Saturday. The transferring drivers were in 1st place Kyle Larson, 2nd Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 3rd Michael Pickens.
The action picks up again tomorrow evening at5:30 CSTwith notables like Bryan Clauson, Tony Stewart, and Kevin Swindell running their qualifying races.
12 INDUCTEES ANNOUNCED AS “CLASS OF 2012” FOR NATIONAL SPRINT CAR HALL OF FAME
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[/media-credit]The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the names of its twelve inductees for 2012. Those that will be inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 2, during the twenty-third annual ceremonies in Knoxville, Iowa, are:
NOTES FROM THE NASCAR NATION: IT’S BEEN A BRUTAL SILLY SEASON FOR DAVID RAGAN
NASCAR’s 2011 version of silly season turned out to be as intense as the resolution of its Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship. Since early summer we have experienced the annual fun of tracking the garage rumors as we tried to determine which driver was going to land in what seat not to mention which crew chiefs were going to land on top of what pit box. Even the corporate sponsors for these racing teams often took center stage during silly season. Making it even more interesting is the fact that, as we get closer to the start of a new season, the 2011 silly season festival still hasn’t been officially resolved yet.
Throughout all of the numerous silly season scenarios, the name David Ragan seemed to surface in nearly every one of them. That was because of harsh economics that in turn led to major sponsorship problems. It also forced Roush Fenway Racing to make the difficult decision of trimming their operation from four to three teams. In short: Ragan found himself looking for a ride late in the year.
Everyone was expecting a long awaited break out season for Ragan in 2011. There was a brief point in time when it appeared he was going to do just that. He scored his first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup win last July at Daytona and there was even a brief period when he was considered to be a contender for the one of the wild card berths for the 2011 Chase line up. Unfortunately up and down performance levels, combined with bouts of bad racing luck, kicked in again. After completing his fifth full season in Cup racing, Ragan finished 2011 with one win, four top five finishes, eight top tens and 23d in the points.
However, as late summer turned into early fall, Ragan found himself with a huge problem regarding his future with Roush Fenway Racing. There were rampant silly season rumors that said his long time primary sponsor, United Parcel Service, would not be returning with the team. In September, Ragan was told by Roush Fenway Racing that he was free to consider other offers.
These rumors became reality in late October when United Parcel Service officially announced that it had renewed its contract as the official logistics partner of NASCAR but would be severely curtailing its role as a primary team sponsor. Granted it requires a huge sum of money to be the official anything of NASCAR, but in this case it’s a very lucrative deal for UPS. They provide a pick up and delivery service for race team at the tracks. In fact, on any given race weekend, the UPS center is often the busy part of any NASCAR garage.
However it was the second half of that UPS press release that hurt David Ragan’s cause. Company officials announced they would not be returning as his primary sponsor and opted, instead, to become an associate sponsor for Carl Edwards’ Roush Fenway Ford.
At this point you really have to give the Roush Fenway Racing marketing department an A for the effort that went into finding a replacement sponsor for Ragan’s team. Sadly, the nation’s state of harsh economics simply wouldn’t allow that to happen. Roush Fenway officially released Ragan in early December and announced it would become a three team operation for the 2012 season.
Now an official member of the 2011 NASCAR silly season, the rumor mill quickly swept up Ragan and stated he was the front runner to take over the #51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet owned by James Finch. While this operation doesn’t have the resources of a Roush Fenway ride, it certainly is considered to be in the upper echelon of the so called second tier teams in Sprint Cup racing.
Despite the presence of some very positive talks between the owner and the driver, a very benevolent Finch realized that the talent of a David Ragan could find himself being offered a better deal. The two men reportedly shook hands, on the possibility of working together, but didn’t actually sign a contract. It was a move that would loom very large during silly season.
However the highly unique 2011 silly season hadn’t even hit its stride yet. The first surprising development landed on December 6th following the stunning announcement that said Kurt Busch and team owner Roger Penske had “mutually agreed to part ways.” That meant the high caliber #22 Shell Pennzoil Dodge seat was now open. Despite a lengthy period of disagreeable behavior, it was still only natural that the silly season cycle would immediately place Busch, a former series champion and frequent race winner, at the top of the list.
Meanwhile the silly season hit hard at Richard Petty Motorsports in the middle of December. Their contract with long time sponsor Best Buy Stores was up for renewal and the garage rumors said their renewal was based on the subsequent replacement of driver A J Allmendinger.
At this point David Ragan had engaged in possible contract talks with the aforementioned James Finch as well as Penske Racing and now Richard Petty Motorsports. He was now in a professional holding pattern waiting to see which move Kurt Busch was going to make.
The silly season dominoes began falling hard and quick on December 21st. First off it was confirmed that Allmendinger had been officially released by Richard Petty Motorsports. A matter of hours later, Roger Penske surprised us all by announcing that he had signed Allmendinger as the new driver of the #22 Dodge. The following day Busch surprised us with the announcement that he was now the new driver of the James Finch ride.
Meanwhile, with the Penske ride now taken along with his original back up plan with Finch also claimed, Ragan’s name instantly rose to the top of the list to take over the empty seat at Richard Petty Motorsports. But there was yet another problem with this potential move. It seems that Best Buy Stores opted to move their sponsorship money over to Roush Fenway Racing’s #17 and #99 Fords driven by Ragan’s former team mates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. For the second time in approximately six months, Ragan again found his Sprint Cup future clouded by sponsorship issues.
Just when we all thought that all of these point-counter points were heading to some form of logical conclusion, the silly season sweepstakes started awarding prizes again. Once again the ensuing announcements turned out to be at the expense of David Ragan. During the final week of 2011 word got out that driver Aric Almirola was being considered for the Richard Petty ride. This was confirmed during the first week of January. The announcement also named Smithfield Foods and the U.S. Air Force as sponsors.
Aric Almirola spent the 2011 season in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series driving the J R Motorsports’ #88 Chevrolet owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Realizing that an upper tier Nationwide Series ride was far better than the prospect of of third tier Cup ride, Ragan’s name soon became attached as a primary candidate to take over the J R Motorsports seat. But, believe it or not, Ragan got bit by the cruelty of silly season again when the team announced that it had signed up and coming driver Cole Whitt to take over the ride.
No doubt about it, it’s been a brutal silly season for David Ragan. While the immediate prospects for the 2012 racing season are not very clear, it certainly doesn’t mean Ragan’s Sprint Cup career is over. He’s already proven that he’s a very talented driver and, off the track, a very good ambassador for any sponsor that chooses to be associated with him. Good things will turn up for this driver. It’s just a question of when.
