1/13/2010
Derrik Ortega
Chili Bowl Night 2
picture (Josh Grady makes a last lap pass in the heat race)
Night two here at the Chili Bowl couldn’t top the first night, but there still was some thrills and spills. The highlight of the heat races was the California Kid, Cole Whitt charged from 8th to win his heat race. There was also a first turn pile up in the 6th heat race where all but 3 cars stopped. Then two of the 3 cars that didn’t stop had flat left rear tires, and 5 cars total had flat tires and made it back out. Kevin Swindell was one of the 5 cars stopped with a flat tire, and ended up coming from 4th to win the heat race. Josh Grady from Farmington, NM started 8th and ran 6th in his heat race.
Cole Whitt came from 6th to win the Qualifier to take top points, and the pole for the A-main. Kevin Swindell earned the outside front row with another impressive run in the qualifier. A big surprise in the qualifiers was Illinois driver Daniel Adler coming from last to 2nd to earn the 6th starting spot in the A-main. Grady started 10th and ran 9th in his qualifer.
The B-Main highlight was a last lap attempt by Gary Taylor to make the transfer from the C to the B to the A. He had the 4th spot down the backstretch but Shane Hmiel got back around him in turn 4 to make the A-Main. Josh Grady made his way from the back of the B-main up to 8th.
Kevin Swindell took the lead from the outside front row early, and set the pace for the remainder of the race. Josh Ford brought out a yellow after a huge bicycle in 3 and 4 stalled the car. On the restart Bryan Clauson made contact with the outside wall trying to pass Tim McCreadie for 3rd. Brad Kuhn made a charge from 10th place to take the final transfer to Saturday’s A-main, by passing McCreadie in the final corner. Tim McCreadie and Brad Sweet rounded out the top 5. Daniel Adler hung on to a 6th place finish, while Bryan Clauson made his way back to 9th after his early mishap.