Checking the results from the five qualifiers there really weren't any surprises as the top two finishers from each night locked themselves into the Championship feature. On Monday night it was young Logan Seavey, the driver who many feel will be the next Open Wheel prodigy to make his way into NASCAR taking the win over Brady Bacon. The reigning Knoxville Nationals champion Brad Sweet looked to have that runner-up finish sewed up until a late bobble allowed Bacon to sizzle by. Have to give a mention to Chapin, Illinois, driver Paul Nienheiser who finished ninth in the opener despite minimal experience in a midget.
Kyle Larson dominated Tuesday's action going flag-to-flag from the outside of row one while pole sitter Zach Daum chased him to the checkers. ASCS National Champ Sam Hafertepe Jr. was an impressive fifth despite his lack of experience in a midget and NASCAR Cup driver Alex Bowman finished ninth.
Crowd favorite Rico Abreu won from the front row on Wednesday night prompting victory lane announcer Blake Anderson to wear a Rico Mullet hat while on one knee to conduct the interview. World of Outlaw Sprint Car regular David Gravel earned the second transfer spot, so you can maybe rate that as a bit of a "surprise" although we all know that Gravel can mash the gas. Late Model driver Tim McCreadie, who is actually a past champion here at the Chili Bowl, finished in the sixth spot.
Christopher Bell was Thursday night's winner as he looks for his third straight Chili Bowl championship while Shane Golobic transferred in second. The name that caught my eye though was Josh Most as the Modified racer from Red Oak, Iowa, started 22nd and raced his way up to fifth at the checkers. Tracy Hines finished seventh after taking a big air tumble in his heat race and the new Competition Director for the World of Outlaws Late Model series, Casey Shuman was eighth.
Finally on Friday night, somebody other than a Keith Kunz Motorsports driver won a feature with Justin Grant taking the win over Tanner Thorson. NASCAR Cup competitor Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who is no stranger to Open Wheel racing by any means finished in fourth and Brad Loyet returned to racing for the first time since his terrible shop accident when a tire exploded and made the feature race but finished last, 24th.
When Christopher Bell out dueled Kyle Larson for the win at the Turkey Night Grand Prix in California in November a few people made the assertion that Bell was in Larson's head. That's absurd I thought at the time, this is Kyle Larson. He is the driver who intimidates others with just his presence, not the other way around, but after watching the final lap of last night's Chili Bowl I think those "few people" might just be right! Larson had the race won, all he had to do was keep his car glued to the bottom as Bell had given up on the top. Christopher actually looked like he had resigned himself to running second, but when Larson missed his mark entering turn one, Bell snatched the gift and charged through the opening to take the lead. Kyle tried to squeeze back under Bell in the final set of turns even making a bit of contact, but wisely not enough to take them both out and just like that Bell had won his third straight Golden Driller by leading just that one most important lap. It will now be awhile before they meet on dirt again as both will now be on their way to Daytona for their full-time jobs.
We continue to build up our Special Events Calendar at Positively Racing as more schedules are released and there were a few items of interest this week.
Last week I mentioned the possibility that the Fair Board would take over the operation of the Dubuque Speedway in 2019, but that proved to be wrong when it was announced that Nick McCrady and Trackside Promotions would run the show at the high-banked 3/8th-mile oval next season. McCrady had a successful freshman year of promoting at the Maquoketa Speedway in 2018 and will now run two tracks this year.
And, speaking of Maquoketa, their schedule was released this week and included will be three Sunday afternoons of racing in October. Now for you young readers that might not seem like a big deal, but twenty or more years ago there wasn't a full schedule of racing going on every week in October. In fact, the only thing that you could count on at that time was for Verne Schumann to have his three Sunday afternoon specials at the old Hawkeye Raceway near Blue Grass. There was just something special about getting up on a Sunday, perhaps going to the early church service and then making the trip north with the fall foliage in full glory to watch some racing with a field of cars where you just never knew who might show up. Then you would be driving home with the sun just setting giving you its own version of Fall colors and be home in time to have a late dinner and get a full night of sleep before going back to work on Monday. I hope to revive those memories a time or two with a trip to Maquoketa next October.
As I was keying in the revised schedule at the Quincy Raceways I noticed two events for the Iowa Sprint Car League. A quick search of Facebook reveals that somebody is starting up a series for non-wing Sprint Cars with a schedule to be released soon.
Good news for race fans in the Sioux City area as they will not be losing a track with the announcement this week that the Raceway Park bull ring that sits just across the road from the Park Jefferson Speedway will continue to operate in 2019 with a new promoter and a new name, Interstate Speedway. Proof once again of my "Net Zero" theory. (Read through the archives if you are new to the Back Stretch)
Did you see the latest episode of Dirt Knights this week? Let's just say that it wasn't very complimentary of the Knoxville Raceway and its staff. Knoxville's 2019 schedule does not include its traditional July date for the Modifieds and Sport Mods and one has to wonder if that is the reason why the show was edited the way that it was. The 2018 event was run on the same night that the tornadoes hit in both Pella and Marshalltown which would explain the very small crowd that you see in the stands from the camera shots in the infield and I would guess that the bottom line from a financial standpoint did not look very good. It was the first one that I had missed for several years as we had a Sprint Invader race at Bloomfield that night that also somehow was able to be run despite the crazy weather and also drew a smaller than expected crowd.
As I watched the Knoxville episode I actually chuckled a few times when the drivers talked about how they were treated like "gum on the shoe" of the Knoxville officials because they were Modifieds and not Sprint Cars. What they don't realize is that is how ALL classes that race at Knoxville are handled.
The officials at Knoxville are strict, buttoned up and professional. I'll use the "we want to park together" situation that we saw on this episode as an example. The officials know that there are going to be 140 or more haulers that they will need to park in an orderly fashion so when you pull into the infield this isn't like other places where you go find an open spot that appeals to you and then set out three or four tires to save spots for your buddies who will be rolling in later. If you want to park together, you better wait for each other outside the track and then all come in together. And that still might not work out for you the way that you want. Why? Because if one of you has a big toterhome hauler and the other is on a small open flat bed trailer behind a pickup truck the Knoxville official is going to park the toterhome somewhere in the middle of the infield while the open trailer will be told to park up against the infield guardrail going down the backstretch and into turn three. And if you try to explain why you need to park together to him just remember that he has probably already heard the same argument ten times already tonight so don't be surprised if he uses a little colorful language with you because he still sees another fifty haulers in line and needs to get you moving.
Oh yes, and the reason why you don't get to park together is because by parking the haulers in this manner the fans in the stands will have a better chance of seeing the entire race track! I had the honor of working a full season at Knoxville in 1998 and before every race night we had an officials meeting at 4 p.m. It was not to discuss how we were going to treat the drivers like crap, it was to talk about how we were going to put on the best and safest program possible for both the drivers and the fans and I am confident that goal still runs true each race night at Knoxville whether it is Modifieds, Late Models, Sprint Cars or the annual Enduro that is on the schedule.
Todd Turner invited me to be a part of this week's Fast Talk segment at Dirt On Dirt. Check it out on Monday to see if my answers were good enough to make it to print! It might just be a one time thing, but I was honored to be asked. Turner, Michael Rigsby and the rest of the DoD team are living out my dream and I couldn't be happier for them.
Off topic a bit I saw a story this week where major league baseball players are concerned that potentially high salaried free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are still unsigned just weeks before Spring Training gets started. This is the second year in a row where free agency in baseball has not produced the huge contracts that were expected and I believe it is because the sport has finally hit that peak when it comes to salaries. Let's face it, the players can't just keep on making more and more money each year because eventually, to pay them, the cost of attending a game goes beyond the budget of the sport's fan base and now it looks like the owners are coming to that realization. If you think about it we have seen the same trend in NASCAR over the past few years as well.
Late Models have the weekend off this week as Speedweeks draw near and following is the Back Stretch Top 25 through the early season events.
| The "Back Stretch" | ||||
| Dirt Late Model Points | Poll | |||
| Pos. | Driver | Hometown | Points | |
| 1 | . | Bobby Pierce | Oakwood IL | 9.6 |
| 2 | . | Brandon Sheppard | New Berlin IL | 9.0 |
| 3 | . | Ricky Weiss | Winnipeg MAN | 7.8 |
| 4 | . | Scott Bloomquist | Mooresburg TN | 6.6 |
| 5 | . | Brandon Overton | Appling GA | 6.0 |
| 6 | . | Cade Dillard | Robeline LA | 5.4 |
| 7 | . | Hudson O'Neal | Martinsville IN | 3.6 |
| 8 | . | Chase Junghans | Manhattan KS | 3.0 |
| 9 | . | Michael Page | Douglasville GA | 3.0 |
| 10 | . | Travis Pennington | Stapleton GA | 3.0 |
| 11 | . | Jimmy Elliott | Cleveland TN | 2.4 |
| 12 | . | Kyle Beard | Trumann AR | 2.4 |
| 13 | . | Mark Whitener | Middleburg FL | 2.4 |
| 14 | . | Ray Cook | Brasstown NC | 2.4 |
| 15 | . | Austin Horton | Grantsville GA | 1.8 |
| 16 | . | Chris Simpson | Marion IA | 1.8 |
| 17 | . | Jadon Frame | 1.8 | |
| 18 | . | Jimmy Mars | Elk Mound WI | 1.8 |
| 19 | . | Jimmy Thomas | Phenix City AL | 1.8 |
| 20 | . | Cruz Skinner | Oxford AL | 1.2 |
| 21 | . | Dallas Cooper | Talladega AL | 1.2 |
| 22 | . | Mike Franklin | 1.2 | |
| 23 | . | Earl Pearson Jr. | Jacksonville FL | 0.6 |
| 24 | . | Joseph Brown | Columbus GA | 0.6 |
| 25 | . | Shannon Davis | 0.6 | |
| 26 | . | Will Herrington | Cochran GA | 0.6 |
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