Crawford, the 2007 Chili Bowl Rookie of the Year, locked his #8k Maxim Chassis/Hard 8 Racing – Jon Kantor/Mopar/Kantor Oil Company/Simpson Racing Products/Hamilton Group Funding midget into the Saturday night championship finale. After the wild finish Crawford said, “It still hasn’t sunk in yet, I’m still not sure I won it! Everything fell into place. About lap 20 we lost brakes and I was sweating bullets every time I saw a caution, I just wanted that race to get over. The right place at the right time, I guess, is how you describe that.”
2008 Chili Bowl winner, “The Demon” Damion Gardner from Concord, California will have some work to do to his car before Saturday’s finale as he flipped across the finish line in second place to lock himself into the finale. Gardner piloted his #05g Spike Chassis/Loyet Motorsports/Esslinger/Loyet Landscape Maintenance Inc./Meramec Heights Collision/Butler Build Motorsports Equipment/Vacuworx International/Beaver Stripes & Graphics midget into the 2011 Chili Bowl finale. Gardner did his best to describe the finish from his point of view saying, “I wasn’t sure if he (Whitt) was going to make a run on me but he did, it’s the Chili Bowl so he was trying to get the victory. I clipped him a little bit and turned him a little bit. I got off the brakes to let go of him and I saw the 8 car (Crawford) inside of me so I just gassed it. I knew I was going to ricochet off him a little bit and the 71 (Whitt), it was kind of like a running back going for the touchdown between two lineman. I knew I was probably going to flip, but I’ll just land somewhere on the other side. One through three was good enough.”
Thomas Meseraull, Donnie Ray Crawford, and Damion Gardner (Image Credit: MidgetMadness.com)
Grabbing the third and final lock-in position for Saturday’s finale was San Jose, California’s Thomas Meseraull. He will climb behind the wheel of the #2T Spike Chassis/Mark Bush/Esslinger/Pro Shocks/Outlaw Disc Brakes midget on Saturday and race in his third consecutive Chili Bowl finale. “I’m shocked to be here, it’s kind of bittersweet, the motor didn’t run right,” Meseraull said. “We’re a little worried, we don’t have a spare motor and hopefully we can get that all figured out. But it’s pretty awesome to be locked in the feature.” Rounding out the top ten were Kevin Ramey, Bobby East, Brad Sweet, Cole Whitt, Matt Mitchell, Mike Spencer, and Gary Taylor. Cole Whitt led most of the race but found himself in seventh place after the three wide last corner smash up caused his car to barely limp across the finish line. Thursday Night brings another qualifying race and more great racing from Tulsa, Oklahoma’s QuikTrip Center.