Tony Stewart Racing announced this week that the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion will lead a ‘Team of Champions’ at the 2012 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals which begin on January 10.
First held in 1987, the indoor event held in Tulsa Oklahoma features midget races over the course of several days culminating in the A-Main ‘Chili Bowl’ named for one of the original sponsors of the event.
The newly crowned 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup champ will lead a team that includes 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 2011 United States Auto Club (USAC) National Drivers champion Bryan Clauson, and 2011 POWRi Rookie of the Year Jake Blackhurst.
The trip isn’t the first for Stewart. In fact for Stewart who rose through the Midget ranks early in his career, the event marks a homecoming of sorts. Stewart has won the event twice, in 2002 and 2007. This year’s trip however comes after a three year hiatus and Stewart is of course excited to head back.
“Having taken a few years off from competing in the Chili Bowl, I’m really looking forward to returning to Tulsa and the event in 2012,” Stewart said in a release. “It’s one of the biggest Midget races of the year and it’s just a lot of fun to compete in the Chili Bowl.”
While Stewart has won the event twice before, the last time he headed to Tulsa as the newly crowned NASCAR champion the ending wasn’t such a good one. In 2006, weeks after celebrating his 2005 NASCAR title Stewart had a horrific crash during a qualifying race. He suffered an injured right arm. X-rays later showed no broken bones. Other drivers have been injured at the Chili Bowl, some severally. In 2009 Tim McCreadie, the driver who won the Chili Bowl in 2006 after Stewart was injured and a former development driver for Richard Childress Racing, was critically injured during a qualifying race.
While Midget racing is some of the best racing in the world, it can also be some of the most dangerous. The potential for a career ending injury exists. Does this mean Stewart should stay on the sidelines? Of course not. As the reigning NASCAR champion, Stewart isn’t a robotic corporate spokesperson content to stand in the infield smiling and signing autographs. Stewart is one of the finest examples of a true racer NASCAR has ever had. Showing up on a Sunday at a NASCAR venue 36 times a season then disappearing for the rest of the week and the offseason, is not something NASCAR needs and its far from the driver Tony Stewart is.
The potential for injury exists everywhere and it’s certainly the furthest thing from Stewart’s mind. The Chili Bowl is a showcase of the best that American motorsports has to offer and led by Stewart a showcase of the best racers in the world.
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