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| Wednesday, January 14 UPDATES |
TUESDAY RESULTS
WEDNESDAY RESULTS
4:00 PM
Just spoke with Justin Allgaier's father, who indicated that this will most likely be Justin's
last midget race. Apparently Justin's stock car boss, Mr. Roger Penske, gave the example
of his"dumb driver" Gary Bettenhausen, who famously got was under contract with Penske
when he moonlighted at Syracuse and got hurt, ending his career. Penske said that as
long as Allgaier was committed to this year's Chili Bowl, then he can race, but if he gets
hurt, he doesn't have a contract with Penske anymore. "At least he's got a day job," said
dad, with a shrug.
There are more "big rigs" here than I've ever seen in the past. Who says the economy is
bad?
Some quotes from yesterday's press conference with Emmett Hahn, co-promoter of the
Chili Bowl:
"The media has asked me a 100 times why do these guys come to this race? The only
answer that I can come up with and I think Tony (Stewart) has said it before and that this
race is just fun. It's not like they are in a points race, but they all ant to win this thing and
they work very hard at this thing. But if something happens it's not the end of the world.
They don't lose a championship over it.
That's why we try to stress to our employees is that these guys are here to have fun. We
try to make a simple set of rules and have everything on a level playing field.
They ask me also, 'Did you ever think that this thing would bet to the size that it is?' I can
tell you not in my wildest dreams. Somebody said I didn't know that there were 296
midgets in the country. I don't think that there is. I think they grow about 50 of them
before this thing and lose about 50 of them after this thing. I think they take an old frame
and put some spare parts on them and rent these things.
We are very, very fortunate to have these guys and the talent that we have here. Most of
all, not another building in the world is like the Quick Trip Center (Tulsa Expo). There is
nothing this large. They can talk about the domes. What people don't understand is you
can take some of these domes, and you can probably put three or four of them in the
lower level sideways and that's how big this building is. So we are here in the central part
of the United States, it can be 75 or it can be 5, and we may see a little of both at this race
this weekend."
2:00 PM
The legendary Jack Hewitt is signing autographs every afternoon at the JW Hunt booth.
What a great opportunity!
I'm sure the local businesses around the Expo Center were glad to hear that promoters
Emmett Hahn and Lanny Edwards extended the week to include Tuesday as a regular
qualifying night, as that meant a LOT of people ascending on Tulsa a day early for the
festivities. Hotels and restaurants are regularly sold out during this week. I'm not sure
how much more expansion of the schedule this event can take, though, as there will
eventually be a limit to how much vacation time and expense fans will pay for this event.
Yes, the Beer Man is back entertaining everyone in the main grandstands. Glad some
things never change.
"Humpy" Wheeler, the just-retired General Manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway and a
master promoter, is the Grand Marshal for Saturday's events.
Sad to see Jack Miller, the legendary voice of the Chili Bowl PA system, here watching,
and not announcing. However, I am most happy that he's here at all.
12:00 PM
You might be aware that I just held my first "The Business of Racing" Driver Development
Seminar here in Tulsa just yesterday (which is why I did not do Live Updates yesterday). It
went extremely well, and all attendees seemed to enjoy the experience and get a lot out of
it. Many thanks to the speakers who gave up their valuable time here in Tulsa to address
my drivers and parents, including Misha Geisert, Program Manager for Tony Stewart
Racing (and former Program Manager for Mopar), and Doug Auld, Publisher and Editor
for Sprint Car and Midget Magazine. It was a great experience for me, and I hope to do
many more in the future (so stay tuned for an announcement about a future Seminar I'm
planning for May in Indianapolis - contact me for details).
There's a new Box Office at the Expo Center that takes up most of the main entrance
where a lot of people used to gather to visit.
The Chili Bowl Trade Show is running strong, with more than 100 vendors packed into the
Expo Center. When the pit area closes in the afternoon to shoo out the
non-pit-pass-buying public, most everyone heads to the Trade Show to check out the
goods and services on display. That's a good plan to ensure the Show vendors get a
good amount of traffic. I'm going to head over there today or tomorrow to chat with a few
folks and will report back here.
Tony Stewart's #14 TBA entry was moved from Friday to today just recently.
Hmmmm...although he said he's not going to race here this week (just visit and observe),
I'm wondering if we'll see ol' Smoke in the seat tonight.
10:00 AM
What a great night of racing last night! Quite a few yellows, but the racing action was
fantastic while it was green (but then again, any racing in January is good, isn't it?). If the
pace and action in the A Main was any indication of what we're going to see the rest of the
week, then we're in for one of the best Chili Bowls ever! The battle between eventual
winner Brad Kuhn and a super strong Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was epic, with Kuhn getting by
Stenhouse in the final two corners of the race! The crowd, which was exceptionally good
for a Tuesday event, loved it!
There is a new points system in place for the preliminary races. The normal system was
based on passing points - you'd get a certain amount of points for passing each car,
making the draw positions even more important. If you drew a spot closer to the front of
the lineup, you had less of a chance to pass cars - it was far better to draw in the back of
the lineup. This year, they decided to make it important to not only advance in the race,
but also not lose positions. You'll now get penalized (points taken away) if you fall back
from your original position.
The fumes that normally take over the Expo Center during each night of activities were not
too bad last night - not sure if the Chili Bowl staff is doing anything different, but it wasn't
bad. The fumes that DID bother me were from the designated smoking section right at the
top of the ramp, where smokers were allowed to gather and smoke until their lungs bleed.
Unfortunately, for those of us who have chosen to breathe clean air, their foul habit still
polluted our space.
The track slicked off a bit toward the end of the show last night, but was overall a good
surface. The Chili Bowl staff worked the dirt in between every segment of races. Let's
hope daily wear and tear does not change the competitive race track we saw last night.
9:00 AM
Welcome to Tulsa and the amazing Chili Bowl Midget Nationals!! I missed last year's
event, so it's especially sweet to be here this year!
The weather is always a topic of conversation here in Tulsa, and I'm happy to say that it's
going to be a perfectly nice week here in Oklahoma, especially if you come from a wintery
state like Ohio where I live. It might be cold for some people (30s, 40s, 50s), but I like it! I
drove out of some sloppy stuff in Ohio from Sunday night to Monday on the way here, but
once I finished going South to Columbus (OH) and started heading west toward
Indianapolis, it was dry and clear. In fact, after having to wear my snow boots and gigantic
snow coat because I had to dig out of 14 inches of snow in order to leave my driveway, I'm
sure the people of Oklahoma thought I was a strange sight in their springlike
temperatures, as the weather here was in the 50s when I arrived on Monday around 2:00
PM. At least - and thankfully - we're not expecting any bizarre ice storms like we
experienced two years ago.
With a record 296 entries, the Expo Center is pack into every corner. There's cars and
trailers in places I've never even seen before. With an entry count nearing 300, it makes
it even more important for teams to get a good (i.e. accessible) pit slot. Teams were
allowed into the Expo Center on Sunday, but started lining up to get their coveted spot as
early as Thursday (although there are certain big teams who have the same spot every
year, pre-arranged with the Chili Bowl staff)! That's a long wait!
WEDNESDAY RESULTS
4:00 PM
Just spoke with Justin Allgaier's father, who indicated that this will most likely be Justin's
last midget race. Apparently Justin's stock car boss, Mr. Roger Penske, gave the example
of his"dumb driver" Gary Bettenhausen, who famously got was under contract with Penske
when he moonlighted at Syracuse and got hurt, ending his career. Penske said that as
long as Allgaier was committed to this year's Chili Bowl, then he can race, but if he gets
hurt, he doesn't have a contract with Penske anymore. "At least he's got a day job," said
dad, with a shrug.
There are more "big rigs" here than I've ever seen in the past. Who says the economy is
bad?
Some quotes from yesterday's press conference with Emmett Hahn, co-promoter of the
Chili Bowl:
"The media has asked me a 100 times why do these guys come to this race? The only
answer that I can come up with and I think Tony (Stewart) has said it before and that this
race is just fun. It's not like they are in a points race, but they all ant to win this thing and
they work very hard at this thing. But if something happens it's not the end of the world.
They don't lose a championship over it.
That's why we try to stress to our employees is that these guys are here to have fun. We
try to make a simple set of rules and have everything on a level playing field.
They ask me also, 'Did you ever think that this thing would bet to the size that it is?' I can
tell you not in my wildest dreams. Somebody said I didn't know that there were 296
midgets in the country. I don't think that there is. I think they grow about 50 of them
before this thing and lose about 50 of them after this thing. I think they take an old frame
and put some spare parts on them and rent these things.
We are very, very fortunate to have these guys and the talent that we have here. Most of
all, not another building in the world is like the Quick Trip Center (Tulsa Expo). There is
nothing this large. They can talk about the domes. What people don't understand is you
can take some of these domes, and you can probably put three or four of them in the
lower level sideways and that's how big this building is. So we are here in the central part
of the United States, it can be 75 or it can be 5, and we may see a little of both at this race
this weekend."
2:00 PM
The legendary Jack Hewitt is signing autographs every afternoon at the JW Hunt booth.
What a great opportunity!
I'm sure the local businesses around the Expo Center were glad to hear that promoters
Emmett Hahn and Lanny Edwards extended the week to include Tuesday as a regular
qualifying night, as that meant a LOT of people ascending on Tulsa a day early for the
festivities. Hotels and restaurants are regularly sold out during this week. I'm not sure
how much more expansion of the schedule this event can take, though, as there will
eventually be a limit to how much vacation time and expense fans will pay for this event.
Yes, the Beer Man is back entertaining everyone in the main grandstands. Glad some
things never change.
"Humpy" Wheeler, the just-retired General Manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway and a
master promoter, is the Grand Marshal for Saturday's events.
Sad to see Jack Miller, the legendary voice of the Chili Bowl PA system, here watching,
and not announcing. However, I am most happy that he's here at all.
12:00 PM
You might be aware that I just held my first "The Business of Racing" Driver Development
Seminar here in Tulsa just yesterday (which is why I did not do Live Updates yesterday). It
went extremely well, and all attendees seemed to enjoy the experience and get a lot out of
it. Many thanks to the speakers who gave up their valuable time here in Tulsa to address
my drivers and parents, including Misha Geisert, Program Manager for Tony Stewart
Racing (and former Program Manager for Mopar), and Doug Auld, Publisher and Editor
for Sprint Car and Midget Magazine. It was a great experience for me, and I hope to do
many more in the future (so stay tuned for an announcement about a future Seminar I'm
planning for May in Indianapolis - contact me for details).
There's a new Box Office at the Expo Center that takes up most of the main entrance
where a lot of people used to gather to visit.
The Chili Bowl Trade Show is running strong, with more than 100 vendors packed into the
Expo Center. When the pit area closes in the afternoon to shoo out the
non-pit-pass-buying public, most everyone heads to the Trade Show to check out the
goods and services on display. That's a good plan to ensure the Show vendors get a
good amount of traffic. I'm going to head over there today or tomorrow to chat with a few
folks and will report back here.
Tony Stewart's #14 TBA entry was moved from Friday to today just recently.
Hmmmm...although he said he's not going to race here this week (just visit and observe),
I'm wondering if we'll see ol' Smoke in the seat tonight.
10:00 AM
What a great night of racing last night! Quite a few yellows, but the racing action was
fantastic while it was green (but then again, any racing in January is good, isn't it?). If the
pace and action in the A Main was any indication of what we're going to see the rest of the
week, then we're in for one of the best Chili Bowls ever! The battle between eventual
winner Brad Kuhn and a super strong Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was epic, with Kuhn getting by
Stenhouse in the final two corners of the race! The crowd, which was exceptionally good
for a Tuesday event, loved it!
There is a new points system in place for the preliminary races. The normal system was
based on passing points - you'd get a certain amount of points for passing each car,
making the draw positions even more important. If you drew a spot closer to the front of
the lineup, you had less of a chance to pass cars - it was far better to draw in the back of
the lineup. This year, they decided to make it important to not only advance in the race,
but also not lose positions. You'll now get penalized (points taken away) if you fall back
from your original position.
The fumes that normally take over the Expo Center during each night of activities were not
too bad last night - not sure if the Chili Bowl staff is doing anything different, but it wasn't
bad. The fumes that DID bother me were from the designated smoking section right at the
top of the ramp, where smokers were allowed to gather and smoke until their lungs bleed.
Unfortunately, for those of us who have chosen to breathe clean air, their foul habit still
polluted our space.
The track slicked off a bit toward the end of the show last night, but was overall a good
surface. The Chili Bowl staff worked the dirt in between every segment of races. Let's
hope daily wear and tear does not change the competitive race track we saw last night.
9:00 AM
Welcome to Tulsa and the amazing Chili Bowl Midget Nationals!! I missed last year's
event, so it's especially sweet to be here this year!
The weather is always a topic of conversation here in Tulsa, and I'm happy to say that it's
going to be a perfectly nice week here in Oklahoma, especially if you come from a wintery
state like Ohio where I live. It might be cold for some people (30s, 40s, 50s), but I like it! I
drove out of some sloppy stuff in Ohio from Sunday night to Monday on the way here, but
once I finished going South to Columbus (OH) and started heading west toward
Indianapolis, it was dry and clear. In fact, after having to wear my snow boots and gigantic
snow coat because I had to dig out of 14 inches of snow in order to leave my driveway, I'm
sure the people of Oklahoma thought I was a strange sight in their springlike
temperatures, as the weather here was in the 50s when I arrived on Monday around 2:00
PM. At least - and thankfully - we're not expecting any bizarre ice storms like we
experienced two years ago.
With a record 296 entries, the Expo Center is pack into every corner. There's cars and
trailers in places I've never even seen before. With an entry count nearing 300, it makes
it even more important for teams to get a good (i.e. accessible) pit slot. Teams were
allowed into the Expo Center on Sunday, but started lining up to get their coveted spot as
early as Thursday (although there are certain big teams who have the same spot every
year, pre-arranged with the Chili Bowl staff)! That's a long wait!
| LIVE UPDATES from the 2009 "CHILI BOWL MIDGET NATIONALS" |