Tulsa World: Tennessee driver wins fifth Chili Bowl title

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Tennessee driver wins fifth Chili Bowl title

By JOHN RITTENOURE, World Correspondent
Published: 1/17/2009 11:30 PM
Last Modified: 1/17/2009 11:30 PM

Sammy Swindell made history Saturday night at the Chili Bowl Nationals. The veteran sprint car driver from Germantown, Tenn., became the first Chili Bowl driver to win the event five times.

A crowd of 15,751 watched Swindell cap a perfect weekend as he won five out of five races and earned $10,000 for his efforts. 2005 winner Tracy Hines drove his Tony Stewart-owned midget to second after briefly leading and Brad Kuhn passed pole sitter Jerry Coons Jr. on the final lap for third.

The 50-lap event started with Coons out front followed by Hines and Swindell. But Swindell fell to fourth after 15 laps and Hines took over the lead after Hines pushed out of turn four on lap 21. But suddenly Swindell started to move, climbing into second on lap 27. Swindell saw his chance on lap 34 and slipped under Hines for the lead. Swindell seemed to get stronger as the race wore on, winning easily.

In B feature action, Josh Ford made his pole-starting position stand in the opening 20-lapper while Casey Shuman took away the lead from Owasso driver Daryn Pittman with two laps remaining to win the second B.

Ford, of Oxnard, Calif., quickly moved out to a two-turn lead over Shane Cottle of Kokomo, Ind., after six laps in the first B. After a lap 10 yellow, the field closed up some on Ford, but he remained out front and earned himself a starting spot into the A feature along with the next five finishers. Cottle fell to third on the final lap as Cole Whitt got past to finish second.

Pittman seemed to have a lock on the second B with Tempe, Ariz., driver Shuman following closely but not mounting a challenge. The yellow waved on lap 17 for a stalled car and that was bad news for Pittman. On the restart Shuman shot down low and took the lead away leaving Pittman with second. Gary Taylor of Sapulpa charged into third. Thomas Meseraull, Chad Kemenah and Donnie Ray Crawford of Broken Arrow rounded out the top six transfer spots.

NASCAR Nationwide Series competitor Jason Leffler of Long Beach, Calif., held on over a hard-charging Kevin Swindell to win the first C feature. Following a lap 13 restart, Swindell, who had worked his way up from a 10th row inside starting position, shot into second but Leffler held his line the final two laps for the win. Bryan Clauson was running second prior to the yellow flag but gave way to Swindell after the restart.

NASCAR Sprint Cup star Kasey Kahne saw his night come to an end when he tangled with another car on lap 12 while running fifth. That would have been good enough to transfer into the B feature, but Kahne restarted on the rear of the race and only finished 11th.

Robinson, Ill., driver Mat Neely led all 15 laps to win the second C feature. Neely was chased by Zach Daum until the final lap when Johnny Rodriguez slipped by to finish second.

As the checkered flag waved, Frank Polimeda of Fort Lee, N.J., took a wild ride down the front stretch. Polimeda was racing for sixth when he tangled with another car and went high into the air, flipping at least eight times. Polimeda was shaken up and transported by EMSA to a local hospital to be checked out.

For results, see Sunday's World.

By JOHN RITTENOURE, World Correspondent

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