Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

Just my thoughts and opinions on some things for those that didn't have the luxury of being there.

Brad Kuhn continues to be one of, if not, the most underrated midget driver in the country.

Steve Buckwalter continues to silently be very good at the Chili Bowl.

Kevin Swindell put on a hell of a drive and would of probably won, without the Stenhouse incident....which by the way was a pure racing deal. Stenhouse bounced up the track after hitting the berm coming out of 4, and Kevin actually came down the track a bit as well and go the worst of the deal.. He could of lifted and made his move 2 laps later.

A lot more people might appreciate Kevin's drives if it weren't for Daddy stepping in and fighting his fight twice on opening night. Not only did he walk out onto the track and flip off Stenhouse after the above incident, he also was seen arguing with whoever it was Kevin banged wheels with earlier in the evening. All the while, while kevin was back in his pits, where he should of been.

Casey Shuman had an amazing run in the qualifier race to win on the last lap and looked like the favorite in the A main, but struggled on the top and had to follow on the bottom.

For how bad the track condition was in the A, it was a great race to watch.

With the exception of Sammy running away from everyone, the race of Champions was great to watch. Tons of close racing and slide jobs and most of it without banging wheels. If not for the last 10 laps of the A main, definately was the best race of the night.

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

I agree with all of the above, except that we Easterners were cheering like hell for Buckwalter. You didn't mention how ugly Sammy's car is, though. :-)

One question. Is there any inversion of the qualifiers or the mains? Those announcers flap continuously (they seem to think they are funny), but they rarely tell us anything useful.

Another question. Someone posted a message on here a week or so ago in which he wanted to make a deal for an indoor pit space. We wandered around this morning, and there doesn't seem to be any outside pit. Was I just confused about that message?

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

Does anyone really know? Ask 10 different officials about the Chili Bowl format, you get 10 different answers about the Chili Bowl format.

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

While of course I am not down there to view it personally. I like the fuel tank on Sammy's car. That is one of the reasons i think that the chili bowl is neat because it brings out some different stuff (such as sammy's tank, or bondio's car). Even though some is done with engineering and a purpose, other is done with nothing more than the intent to be talked about and to be different. I figured more people would enjoy that stuff and as the way i see it that it is more like the "old" days when stuff was fabricated and not bought. Now days everything is practically bought off a shelf and everything looks the same. Its jmo.

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

random draw for heat races with passing points. the top 40 in passing points go to the qualifying races with top 24 inverted. this means that the first 6 starters in each qualifier are inverted based on heat race points. it seems that they are running the C mains before the qualifiers. these are the guys with the least amount of points. the top 4 in each tag the back of the B's. after the qualifying races, the top 16 in points (combined heat race and qualifier) are locked into the A and the rest start straight up in the B's. Top 4 from the B's go to the A. The A is also started straight up...no inversion.

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

This seems to be the most logical explanation but there's never any passing points order posted and the questions about how certain race lineups are come to are ignored.

So there's no way of knowing if it's done this way.

Unless of course, you're Emmett Hahn or Tommy Estes.

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

I bet they know where the bank is!

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

I was not there,but from what I have seen in the last couple of years, and I feel last nights results help back this up. I think Casey Shuman is one of the most underated drivers in the country. The past couple of years he has really came on strong.

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

Got that right, Brent. He stands on the gas, gets the most out of the equipment he runs, ends up up front most of the time and rarely tears stuff up.

Re: Chili Bowl - Night 1 Thoughts
 

I thought it was nice seeing Jay Drake's name in the results. Looked like he ran well for being out of the seat the last couple of years.