By: Kevin Ramsell
DAYTONA BEACH, FL (Monday, January 19, 2009) - ROL Marketing Partners, LLC along with the American Speed Association has announced a partnership with all new racingonline.com website. The new site debuted on January 15, featuring local, regional and national news along with its famous forum message board.

“For over ten years, racingonline.com has been the website for race fans in Wisconsin and the Midwest and with the new owners having a group of people involved that are enthusiastic and passionate about this sport, it was an easy decision for the American Speed Association to be a part of it,” Dennis Huth, American Speed Association President stated. “This group will take racingonline.com from a local level to a national level and we are excited to help them achieve this goal.”

The opening weekend of the website saw tremendous numbers as the site had over 4,000 unique visitors and close to 260,000 hits.

Today’s Close Finishes story is an exclusive interview with Dennis Huth, the current President of the American Speed Association and the former NASCAR exec who directed the formation of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Huth, who ran the Truck Series from 1995-1999, has a unique perspective on the division and was gracious enough to lend his thoughts to the Truck Series' current situation of trying to cut costs and stay relevant in these challenging economic times.

To read this story, please click on the following web link to TruckSeries.com where the interview is presented as the headline feature on the front page of that site today. http://www.truckseries.com/cgi-script/NCTS_08/articles/000023/002335.htm

Lonnie Wheatley, TULSA, Okla. (January 17, 2009) – Sammy Swindell put the finishing touches on a perfect week by racing to victory lane in Saturday night's 23rd Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire 50-lap championship feature event, besting an event record of 281 competitors.

After slipping back as far as fifth for a brief moment at the race's midway point, the Tennessee shoe took to the upper reaches of the QuikTrip Center's ¼-mile Tulsa Expo Raceway clay oval and blitzed to the head of the pack in short order, taking the lead away from Tracy Hines on the 34th circuit.

"To pull this off the way we did, to be undefeated here in every race, it was fun," Swindell commented afterward. "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."

Swindell survived a set of cautions in the final handful of circuits along with a foray or two above the turns one and two cushion to capture an unprecedented fifth Chili Bowl title and the coveted Golden Driller trophy that goes along with it.

Lonnie Wheatley, TULSA, Okla. (January 17, 2009) – Twenty-three championship feature events dipping as far into the alphabet as Twin "L" Mains seems almost beyond comprehension.

It's set to happen though on Saturday, as a record 281 competitors from throughout the nation and beyond will sling the clay at the QuikTrip Center's Tulsa Expo Raceway in pursuit of the coveted Golden Driller trophy that will be awarded to the winner of the 23rd Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals presented by General Tire.

It has taken four full nights of qualifying competition to set Saturday's championship feature grid. And those four nights included a whopping total of 72 races amounting to 764 hair-raising laps to set the stage for Saturday's finale.

Brad Kuhn, Sammy Swindell, Tracy Hines and Jerry Coons, Jr., each collected feature wins to earn starting positions among the front two rows of Saturday night's 50-lap finale, with Hines drawing the pole position.

Lonnie Wheatley
Arizona native Jerry Coons, Jr., took center stage by topping the fourth and final qualifying card on Friday night at the 23rd Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire.

The reigning USAC Sprint Car and Silver Crown champion gunned into the lead at the outset and kept the Toyota-powered Wilke-PAK Motorsports Speedway Motors No. 11 Spike out front for the entire 25-lap distance atop the QuikTrip Center's Tulsa Expo Raceway ¼-mile clay oval.

Coons was chased to the stripe by Levi Jones in Tony Stewart's Kistler-powered Chevy/Bass Pro Shops No. 20 Spike, representing a flip-flop of Thursday night's first and second finishing car owners.

Also locking into Saturday night's 50-lap Chili Bowl championship finale was Missouri Midget ace Brad Loyet, who battled past defending race winner Damion Gardner for third place on the ninth round and held it the rest of the way.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 13, 2009) – Popular country music star Dierks Bentley, whose latest album "Feel That Fire" will be released in Feb. 3, will perform before thousands of race fans before and after the 31st annual Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night, Feb. 7 at Daytona International Speedway.

Bentley, who earned the Country Music Association's Horizon Award in 2005, has produced No. 1 hit singles such as "What Was I Thinkin'?," "Every Mile A Memory," "Lot of Leavin' Left to Do," "Come a Little Closer" and "Settle For a Slowdown." He was also the Academy of Country Music's Top Male Vocalist in 2003.

Bentley, who previously performed a pre-race and post-race concert for the 2007 Budweiser Shootout, will sing three of his hit songs from the Pre-Race Stage before the start of the Budweiser Shootout. The performance of his latest hit, "Feel That Fire." will be carried live on FOX as part of the festivities. After the checkered flag drops, Bentley will perform a 60-minute post-race concert from the Sprint FANZONE Entertainment Stage.

Lonnie Wheatley, TULSA, Okla. (January 15, 2009) – For the second time in as many nights, it was a past Chili Bowl champion reaching victory lane at the QuikTrip Center's Tulsa Expo Raceway. This time, it was 2005 Chili Bowl king Tracy Hines tracking down top honors in Thursday's 25-lap Warren CAT Qualifying night feature event at the 23rd Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire.

The triumph before a standing-room-only crowd came by the narrowest of margins though, as Hines flashed across the finish line in the Tony Stewart Racing Kistler Chevy-powered No. 21 Chevy/Bass Pro Shops Spike just 0.12-seconds ahead of fellow Hoosier State hotshoe Dave Darland.

Also assured of a starting slot in Saturday night's 50-lap Chili Bowl championship main event along with Hines and Darland is Illinois native and 2008 ARCA champion Justin Allgaier, who claimed the show position to lock into his third career Chili Bowl finale. Hines and Darland will both make their eleventh career championship feature starts on Saturday night.

Dirt-track racer Tim McCreadie, who won the 2006 Chili Bowl Nationals, was injured during Wednesday’s second night of competition at the 23rd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals indoors at Tulsa Expo Raceway.

McCreadie was leading the night’s first A Qualifier when the rear axle snapped in his machine and sent him into a violent flip over the catch fence at the fifth-mile dirt track.

Tim has been fitted for a back and neck brace. They are all anxious to hear what Dr. Trammell has to say once he gets a chance to talk to the doctors in Tulsa and review the MRI showing the fractured T3 vertebrate and bone fragments.

Tim makes his living as a short-track racer and does not have health insurance. The process to setup a trust to help a racer in need is quite involved and takes a while. In the meantime, Kevin Miller, Jason Smith and James Spink at USAC, with the appreciation and support of Chili Bowl promoters Emmett Hahn and Lanny Edwards, have offered to help manage the many offers from the racing community to assist with Tim's medical and recovery expenses. Donations should be made payable to:

USAC
C/O Tim McCreadie Support Fund
4910 West 16th Street

by Don Radebaugh
TOLEDO, Ohio -- Officials from the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and RE/MAX International announced today in a joint statement that the real estate industry leader would end its series title sponsorship of ARCA following the 2009 season.

“Economic conditions continue to present challenges to all segments of the business community, and especially those in the real estate industry,” said Ron Drager, ARCA President. “The challenge RE/MAX faces led them to inform us of their need to address a change in our relationship.”

The announcement signals the end of a nine-year run by RE/MAX as ARCA Series title sponsor, among the longest-running motorsports marketing programs of its type. ARCA has crowned a national stock car champion since 1953, and RE/MAX has been the title sponsor of the tour since 2001. The company will reduce its ARCA sponsorship role in 2010 to that of series presenting sponsor.

by Lonnie Wheatley
TULSA, Okla. -- Through two nights of competition at the 23rd Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire, Sammy Swindell stands undefeated.

After serving notice with a convincing Race of Champions triumph on Tuesday night, Swindell took on a field of 68 competitors in Wednesday night's Creek Nation Casino Qualifying Showdown at the QuikTrip Center's Tulsa Expo Raceway.

Piloting an unconventional Midget, at least in terms of appearance with an old super modified style tailtank, the four-time Chili Bowl king put a whooping on the mostly younger generation of racers by winning his heat race, qualifying race and then wiring the field in the 25-lap "A" Feature event.

Queried about the unique tailtank, Swindell simply said, "It's a secret," with a sly grin.

Only J.J. Yeley could keep Swindell in sight in the feature event. But, when Swindell cleared a group of three lapped cars on the white flag lap, the victory aboard the Esslinger-powered Venture Racing/ARIENCO/York Excavating No. 1 Spike was as good as sealed.