Hagen
Tops Bully Dog Qualifier at the Chili Bowl
Defending Race Winner
Sammy Swindell Crashes While Leading…
 Lonnie
Wheatley, TULSA, Okla. (January 14, 2010)
– The 24th Annual Lucas Oil
Chili Bowl Nationals started out in
unpredictable fashion on Tuesday night.
That trend continued to escalate
with Thursday night’s Bully Dog
Qualifying main event as the leader got
tangled up in traffic two laps shy of the
checkered flag and then three drivers
ending up on the podium that each locked
into a first career Chili Bowl
championship main event.
After
sweeping into the lead on the ninth round,
five-time and defending Chili Bowl king
Sammy Swindell appeared to be well on the
way to another checkered flag when he was
collected by a flipping car along the
frontstretch just as the two laps to go
signal was indicated.
Taking
full advantage was Riverside,
California’s Darren Hagen, who paced the
final three laps atop the QuikTrip
Center’s Tulsa Expo Raceway clay oval to
top Thursday night’s 25-lap Bully Dog
Qualifying main event at the 24th
Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
Chasing
Hagen to the stripe was the unheralded
Tony Roney of Herculaneum, MO, with New
Zealand’s Brad Mosen taking the third
lock-in position to Saturday night’s
main event.
With all three locking into a Chili
Bowl finale for the first time, it will be
a new experience for five of the nine
drivers locked into Saturday’s 50-lapper
as Tuesday winner Zach Daum and
third-place runner Shane Golobic will also
embark upon new territory.
After
starting Thursday night’s feature inside
the fourth row, Hagen was up to fourth
within the initial pair of circuits before
making his way past front row outside
starter Shane Cottle for third on the
fifth round.
“I
told the guys after the qualifier that was
my fault, I got schooled by Sammy,”
Hagen explained of a qualifying race that
put him mid-pack in the feature.
“I told ‘em I won’t waste any
more time this time.”
While
Hagen worked his way up to third, 2005
Chili Bowl champ Tracy Hines paced the
opening eight circuits before
third-starting Swindell stepped up the
pace and slid into the lead through turns
one and two on the ninth round.
With
Swindell and Hines leading the way into
traffic by the 16th round,
Hagen held third through the race’s
middle stages in front of Cottle and Mosen.
“To
be honest, I thought I was just going to
be blessed to run third,” Hagen
commented afterward.
Hagen
closed the gap on Hines in traffic though,
and took over second on the 19th
lap after the pair swapped positions the
previous round.
Sitting in second proved the
perfect place to be as the closing laps
clicked off.
With
Swindell just two laps away from matching
his son Kevin’s victory just one night
earlier, disaster struck for the
Germantown, TN, veteran shoe in the form
of a wildly-flipping Jonathan Hendrick
down the frontstretch.
Swindell was unable to avoid the
melee that also collected Billy Pauch,
Jr., and rejoined the field at the tail to
salvage a 13th place finish in
the final rounds.
“When
I saw that, he must have had nowhere to
go,” Hagen explained of the incident
that happened just ahead of him.
“A guy with that much talent and
that good of reaction time, I thought he
had it wrapped up tonight.”
At
the head of the field, Hagen paced the
final three circuits aboard the Esslinger-powered
RFMS Racing RFMS Liberty Village/McGladrey
& Pullen No. 3 Spike to secure the
prominent win.
In
Hagen’s wake, the complexion of the
field changed drastically when second
runner Hines jumped the turn two cushion
and fell back in the field.
Mosen
immediately moved into second only to have
Tony Roney slip by on the low side on the
final lap to snare runner-up honors in the
Fontana-powered Simpson/Saldana No. 1T
Stealth.
“I
am a little in shock,” Roney commented
afterward.
“I never expected to do this; my
goal was to get into a ‘C’ Main
(Saturday night), which you had to make
the ‘A’ tonight to do that. At the
end, I thought I might get third if I
played my cards right.
A little luck and it happened, it
was awesome.”
Mosen
settled for the show position in Simon
Longdill’s Synergy V8-powered CRC/Transitainer
No. 19nz Aggressor, joining Kiwi teammate
Michael Pickens in Saturday night’s
championship feature field.
Pickens posted a second-place run
on Tuesday night.
"Running
against those guys, you’ve just got to
make every leap you can past the guys,”
Mosen explained. “You’re
not gonna give them any chances.
Until Tony (Roney) turned up, I was
pretty happy with second but third is good
enough as well.”
After
slipping as far back as eighth, Cottle
rallied in the final three rounds to
finish fourth in Daryl Saucier’s
Chevy-powered DSR Fuel Systems No. 1st
Beast, with California youngster Kyle
Larson rounding out the top five in the
Corey Tucker Racing/BCI Esslinger-powered
Stadelhofer Construction No. 39i Spike.
NASCAR
star Kasey Kahne mixed it up among the
top-ten the entire distance before
crossing the stripe in sixth, with Thomas
Meseraull in seventh.
Hines’ late race miscue relegated
him to eighth at the line, with Jesse
Hockett and 2008 Chili Bowl champion
Damion Gardner completing the top ten.
Cottle,
Mosen, Michelle Decker, Hines, Hagen,
Terry McCarl, David Gough and Garrett
Hansen topped heat race action for
Thursday night’s 67-car field, with
McCarl, Kahne, Roney and Swindell winning
the qualifying races.
Cody
Darrah and Donnie Ray Crawford won the
twin “C” Mains, with Shane
Hollingsworth and Hansen winning the
“B” Mains.
Jimmy Light climbed from a fourth
place “C” Main finish to claim third
in a “B” Main before finishing out the
night 12th in the “A” Main.
Mosen
established himself as this year’s
leading Chili Bowl rookie contender with
his third-place finish.
Mosen was the only rookie contender
to make Thursday night’s feature cut and
just the sixth rookie this week to race
into preliminary night “A” Main
action.
While
Hendrick’s wild ride down the
frontstretch was the most notable, nine
other drivers took tumbles during the
night including Billy Lawhead in hot laps,
Ted Kirkpatrick and Joe Bob Lee in heat
race action, Riley Adair and Ron Bach in
“C” Main competition, Decker and
Austin Brown in the first “B” Main and
Justin Melton and Steve Knepper in the
second “B” Main.
Action
at the 24th Annual Lucas Oil
Chili Bowl Nationals resumes with Friday
night’s E3 Spark Plugs Qualifier, with
racing action set to go green at 6:00 p.m.
Friday’s action fills in the
final pieces of the puzzle for
Saturday’s Rockstar Energy Drink slate
of championship feature events.
 Thursday
Night’s Bully Dog Qualifier Results from
the 24th Annual Lucas Oil Chili
Bowl Nationals:
Heat
Races (Top 40 in passing points to A
Qualifiers; Balance to twin C Mains)
Heat 1: 1. #1ST Shane Cottle,
Kokomo, IN; 2. #39I Kyle Larson, Elk
Grove, CA; 3. #23T Tanner Swanson,
Kingsburg, CA; 4. #91J P.J. Jones,
Torrance, CA; 5. #0 Glenn Styres, Ohsweken,
ONT; 6. #19K Klint Angelette, Thibodaux,
LA; 7. #87B Stuart Snyder, Lincoln, NE; 8.
#2R Riley Adair, Tulsa, OK; 9. #50 Ted
Kirkpatrick, Waterloo, IL
Heat 2: 1. #19NZ Brad Mosen,
Auckland, NZ; 2. #91X Kasey Kahne,
Enumclaw, WA; 3. #1T Tony Roney,
Herculaneum, MO; 4. #71X Henry Clarke,
Villa Park, CA; 5. #5K Jimmy Light, West
Springfield, PA; 6. #89JR Todd McVay, Lees
Summit, MO; 7. #61 Chad Pitts, Little
Rock, AR; 8. #14AJ Wayne Johnson, Oklahoma
City, OK; 9. #51X Ronnie Gardner, Norco,
CA
Heat 3: 1. #7D Michelle Decker,
Guthrie, OK; 2. #05H Jesse Hockett,
Warsaw, MO; 3. #37X Jason Grady,
Farmington, NM; 4. #7E Caleb Armstrong,
New Castle, IN; 5. #2X Nic Faas,
Huntington Beach, CA; 6. #0Z Johnny
Murdock, Dallas, TX; 7. #11B Scotty Weir,
Marion, IN; 8. #111 Ryan Durst, Lincoln,
NE; 9. #7 Austin Brown, Millstadt, IL
Heat 4: 1. #11 Tracy Hines, New
Castle, IN; 2. #75P Cruz Pedregon,
Brownsburg, IN; 3. #17E Tanner Berryhill,
Tulsa, OK; 4. #39L Billy Lawhead, Tulsa,
OK; 5. #4B Ronnie Burke, League City, TX;
6. #99J Eric Todd, Falcon, MO; 7. #31V
Victor Davis, Ventura, CA; 8. #90 Toni
Lutar, Richmond, BC
Heat 5: 1. #3 Darren Hagen,
Riverside, CA; 2. #118 Kyle Steffans, St.
Charles, MO; 3. #75 Billy Pauch Jr.; 4.
#45C Chris Coker, Greenville, TX; 5. #25K
Steve Knepper, Belleville, IL; 6. #89 Cody
Darrah, Red Lion, PA; 7. #8X Donnie Ray
Crawford, Broken Arrow, OK; 8. #76K
Michael Koontz, Bloomington, IN
Heat 6: 1. #F5 Terry McCarl,
Altoona, IA; 2. #86 Shane Hollingsworth,
Lafayette, IN; 3. #71K Jay Drake, Val
Verde, CA; 4. #1 Sammy Swindell,
Germantown, TN; 5. #6R Jody Rosenboom,
Rock Rapids, IA; 6. #19S Patrick Stasa,
Kingman, KS; 7. #27B Joe Bob Lee, Cache,
OK; 8. #8E Murray Erickson, Odessa, TX
Heat 7: 1. #6 David Gough,
Machesney Park, IL; 2. #44D Damion
Gardner, Concord, CA; 3. #68 Jonathan
Hendrick, Fortville, IN; 4. #40 Jason
Leffler, Long Beach, CA; 5. #25A Aaron Ott,
York Springs, PA; 6. #04 Cap Henry,
Bellevue, OH; 7. #71T Tim Pyle, Portland,
OR; 8. #83 Kurt Blackaby, Bentonville, AR
Heat 8: 1. #47 Garrett Hansen,
Manhattan Beach, CA; 2. #2T Thomas
Meseraull, San Jose, CA; 3. #11J Justin
Melton, Flower Mound, TX; 4. #37M Johnny
Rodriguez, Elk Grove, CA; 5. #22 Brian
Camarillo, Camarillo, CA; 6. #47JR Ron
Bach, Santa Paula, CA; 7. #12 Nathan High,
Goodyear, AZ; 8. #73E Billy Balog,
Chippewa Falls, WI
C
Mains (Top 4 in each transfer to back of
corresponding B Main)
C Main 1: 1. #89 Cody Darrah, Red
Lion, PA; 2. #7 Austin Brown, Millstadt,
IL; 3. #11B Scotty Weir, Marion, IN; 4.
#5K Jimmy Light, West Springfield, PA; 5.
#89JR Tim McVay, Lees Summit, MO; 6. #90
Toni Lutar, Richmond, BC; 7. #19K Klint
Angelette, Thibodaux, LA; 8. #71T Tim
Pyle, Portland, OR; 9. #0Z Johnny Murdock,
Dallas, TX; 10. #61 Chad Pitts, Little
Rock, AR; 11. #2R Riley Adair, Tulsa, OK;
DNS -- #27B Joe Bob Lee, Cache, OK; #76K
Michael Koontz, Bloomington, IN; #50 Ted
Kirkpatrick, Waterloo, IL
C Main 2: 1. #8X Donnie Ray
Crawford, Broken Arrow, OK; 2. #12 Nathan
High, Goodyear, AZ; 3. #87B Stuart Snyder,
Lincoln, NE; 4. #99J Eric Todd, Falcon,
MO; 5. #19S Patrick Stasa, Kingman, KS; 6.
#47JR Ron Bach, Santa Paula, CA; 7. #04
Cap Henry, Bellevue, OH; 8. #73E Billy
Balog, Chippewa Falls, WI; 9. #31V Victor
Davis, Ventura, CA; 10. #83 Kurt Blackaby,
Bentonville, AR; 11. #51X Ronnie Gardner,
Norco, CA; 12. #111 Ryan Durst, Lincoln,
NE DNS -- #8E Murray Erickson, Odessa, TX
A
Qualifiers (Top 16 in combined passing
points to A Main; Balance to twin B Mains)
A Qualifier 1: 1. #F5 Terry McCarl,
Altoona, IA; 2. #44D Damion Gardner,
Concord, CA; 3. #11 Tracy Hines, New
Castle, IN; 4. #05H Jesse Hockett, Warsaw,
MO; 5. #86 Shane Hollingsworth, Lafayette,
IN; 6. #0 Glenn Styres, Ohsweken, ONT; 7.
#23T Tanner Swanson, Kingsburg, CA; 8. #4B
Ronnie Burke, Jr., League City, TX; 9. #40
Jason Leffler, Long Beach, CA; 10. #68
Jonathan Hendrick, Fortville, IN
A Qualifier 2: 1. #91 Kasey Kahne,
Enumclaw, WA; 2. #19NZ Brad Mosen,
Auckland, NZ; 3. #14AJ Wayne Johnson,
Oklahoma City, OK; 4. #6 David Gough,
Machesney Park, IL; 5. #39I Kyle Larson,
Elk Grove, CA; 6. #71K Jay Drake, Val
Verde, CA; 7. #6R Jody Rosenboom, Rock
Rapids, IA; 8. #25K Steve Knepper,
Belleville, IL; 9. #37X Jason Grady,
Farmington, NM; 10. #75P Cruz Pedregon,
Brownsburg, IN
A Qualifier 3: 1. #1T Tony Roney,
Herculaneum, MO: 2. #91J P.J. Jones,
Torrance, CA; 3. #1ST Shane Cottle,
Kokomo, IN; 4. #118 Kyle Steffans, St.
Charles, MO; 5. #11J Justin Melton, Flower
Mound, TX; 6. #75 Billy Pauch Jr.,
Frenchtown, NJ; 7. #47 Garrett Hansen,
Manhattan Beach, CA; 8. #2X Nic Faas,
Huntington Beach, CA; 9. #22 Brian
Camarillo, Camarillo, CA; 10. #39L Billy
Lawhead, Tulsa, OK
A Qualifier 4: 1. #1 Sammy Swindell,
Germantown, TN; 2. #2T Thomas Meseraull,
San Jose, CA; 3. #3 Darren Hagen,
Riverside, CA; 4. #37M Johnny Rodriguez,
Elk Grove, CA; 5. #71X Henry Clarke, Villa
Park, CA; 6. #7E Caleb Armstrong, New
Castle, IN; 7. #25A Aaron Ott, York
Springs, PA; 8. #7D Michelle Decker,
Guthrie, OK; 9. #45C Chris Coker,
Greenville, TX; 10. #17E Tanner Berryhill,
Tulsa, OK
B
Mains (Top 4 in each transfer to A Main)
B Main 1: 1. #86 Shane
Hollingsworth, Lafayette, IN; 2. #75 Billy
Pauch Jr., Frenchtown, NJ; 3. #5K Jimmy
Light, West Springfield, PA; 4. #68
Jonathan Hendrick, Fortville, IN; 5. #0
Glenn Styres, Ohsweken, ONT; 6. #7 Austin
Brown, Millstadt, IL; 7. #11B Scotty Weir,
Marion, IN; 8. #4B Ronnie Burke Jr.,
League City, TX; 9. #71X Henry Clarke,
Villa Park, CA; 10. #75P Cruz Pedregon,
Brownsburg, IN; 11. #6R Jody Rosenboom,
Rock Rapids, IA; 12. #37X Jason Grady,
Farmington, NM; 13. #118 Kyle Steffens,
St. Charles, MO; 14. #40 Jason Leffler,
Long Beach, CA; 15. #89 Cody Darrah, Red
Lion, PA; 16. #7D Michelle Decker,
Guthrie, OK
B Main 2: 1. #47 Garrett Hansen,
Manhattan Beach, CA; 2. #71K Jay Drake,
Val Verde, CA; 3. #7E Caleb Armstrong, New
Castle, IN; 4. #8X Donnie Crawford, Broken
Arrow, OK; 5. #87B Stuart Snyder, Lincoln,
NE; 6. #2X Nic Faas, Huntington Beach, CA;
7. #23T Tanner Swanson, Kingsburg, CA; 8.
#17E Tanner Berryhill, Tulsa, OK; 9. #45C
Chris Coker, Greenville, TX; 10. #22 Brian
Camarillo, Camarillo, CA; 11. #12 Nathan
High, Goodyear, AZ; 12. #25K Steve Knepper,
Belleville, IL; 13. #11J Justin Melton,
Flower Mound, TX; 14. #25A Aaron Ott, York
Springs, PA; 15. #39L Billy Lawhead,
Tulsa, OK DNS -- #99J Eric Todd, Falcon,
MO
A
Main (25 laps – Top 3 advance to
Saturday Night's Main Event)
1.
#3 Darren Hagen, Riverside, CA; 2. #1T
Tony Roney, Herculaneum, MO; 3. #19NZ Brad
Mosen, Auckland, NZ; 4. #1ST
Shane Cottle, Kokomo, IN; 5. #39I Kyle
Larson, Elk Grove, CA; 6. #91X Kasey Kahne,
Enumclaw, WA; 7. #2T Thomas Meseraull, San
Jose, CA; 8. #11 Tracy Hines, New Castle,
IN; 9. #05H Jesse Hockett, Warsaw, MO; 10.
#44D Damion Gardner, Concord, CA; 11. #86
Shane Hollingsworth, Lafayette, IN; 12.
#5K Jimmy Light, West Springfield, PA; 13.
#1 Sammy Swindell, Germantown, TN; 14.
#71K Jay Drake, Val Verde, CA; 15. #14AJ
Wayne Johnson, Oklahoma City, OK; 16. #75
Billy Pauch, Frenchtown, NJ; 17. #6 David
Gough, Machesney Park, IL; 18. #37M Johnny
Rodriguez, Elk Grove, CA; 19. #91J P.J.
Jones, Torrance, CA; 20. #47 Garrett
Hansen, Manhattan Beach, CA; 21. #68
Jonathan Hendrick, Fortville, IN; 22. #8X
Donnie Ray Crawford, Broken Arrow, OK; 23.
#F5 Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA; DNS -- #7E
Caleb Armstrong, New Castle, IN
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