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.

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