TOYOTA, DARLAND FINISH SECOND IN 22nd ANNUAL CHILI BOWL NATIONALS
TULSA, Okla. (Jan. 12, 2008) - Dave Darland started fourth and then climbed to second to give Toyota a runner-up finish in Saturday night's 22nd Annual Chili Bowl Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Raceway.
With the second-place finish, 9 Racing has logged a pair of victories and a second-place finish consecutively in the Copper World Classic, the Turkey Night Grand Prix and the Chili Bowl - three of the sport's most prestigious events. Tonight's performance was even more impressive considering Darland's 9 Racing team was racing in its first Chili Bowl in nine years.
"We're happy with the second-place finish," said Darland. "This is the first time that Steve Lewis and 9 Racing have had a team here in a while and to get this result, hopefully, he'll let us come back next year. The team really did a great job for me. The Toyota power was really good all weekend on the dirt. It was just hard to know what the track is going to do. When we pushed out there, the track was really wet and we just missed the set-up by a little bit. It wasn't too bad, but it was just a little too tight."
Jason Leffler also qualified for Saturday's A Main, but pulled off early due to a loose fuel line and finished 17th. Leffler began the race in the seventh starting position in the 24-car feature.
"To have just five Toyota-powered cars in a field of almost 300 and have two qualify for the A Main feature race and another who was in position to join them is a terrific accomplishment in our first multi-car effort here at the Chili Bowl," said Gary Reed, Toyota Racing Development vice president of special racing projects. "For Dave Darland and the whole 9 Racing team to finish second was just an outstanding achievement we can all be proud of."
Two other Toyota-powered drivers fell just short of qualifying for the A Main feature. Sammy Swindell was running fourth in the B Main and in a position to transfer midway through the race before he was taken out from behind by another driver, while his Cruz Pedregon Racing teammate Josh Wise, finished eighth in his B Main, falling two positions shy of transferring to the feature event
Approximately 285 entries were entered to compete over the four-day event to earn one of the 24 spots in the "A Main" feature event on Saturday.
This year's Chili Bowl was broadcast live on HBO Pay-Per-View on Saturday, with an immediate pay-per-view replay and additional replays on Sunday. The HBO Pay-Per-View racing telecast has a suggested retail price $24.95 and is available to more than 61 million pay-per-view homes in the United States and Canada and millions more worldwide. Ordering information is available at www.hbo.com. Viewers are encouraged to contact their local cable operator or satellite provider to order the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. Customers must have digital cable or satellite service to order. A subscription to HBO is not required.
"Quotes"
Cruz Pedregon, Cruz Pedregon Racing: "This is just a great event to participate in. Every time out the track changes, so you have to change your driving style along with it and the crew chief needs to keep up with as well. We were a little bit behind it, but we got into the wall pretty hard the other day. Fortunately, these cars are strong and all I ended up with was a little bit of a sore neck. Our Toyota motors were plenty fast, so much of this event is putting the power to the ground. The Chili Bowl is a fun race for me. This is my fourth event. My drag race schedule only allows me to do so many of these events. What I really need to do is run some events on my off-weekends, some local Ventura shows or wherever I can get some seat time. I like to come out, but I also like to come out and be competitive. I think I can hold my own with the proper amount of seat time eventually."
Josh Wise, Cruz Pedregon Racing: "It's definitely disappointing (to fall just short of qualifying for the A Main). We come out here to try to qualify for the A Main and put ourselves in a position to win, but we were behind off the trailer and you just can't overcome that here. It's just too close of a field and too many good cars and good drivers to compete with, so everything has to be right. We just weren't there this weekend, so we're going home early."
Sammy Swindell, Cruz Pedregon Racing: "We were in good shape, I think. We kind of got bumped around there and lost a couple of spots. But I kind of pushed the issue a little bit and something happened there. I don't know if we lost a retainer rocker or something, we were kind of down a cylinder, but it was OK because I could still run flat out. So I was just out there trying to hang on and qualify for the Main and hope we could get it fixed, but unfortunately, we got taken out (while running fourth).
