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CUP: Stewart, Stenhouse Have Chili On Menu
Tony Stewart will be racing for his third Chili Bowl championship...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted January 10, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Tony Stewart spent part of last weekend racing in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals. (Photo: Getty Images)
While NASCAR fans are eagerly anticipating Thursday’s on-track testing at Daytona International Speedway, Tony Stewart and Ricky Stenhouse start racing today in a very different form of motorsports.

Stewart and Stenhouse, the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series champions, respectively, are in Tulsa, Okla., for the start of the 2012 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, which run through Saturday night at the QuikTrip Center’s Tulsa Expo Raceway.

According to Chili Bowl officials, more than 260 drivers are entered in the competition to capture the prestigious “Golden Driller” trophy that the winner receives annually. Nineteen drivers in the field won series or track championships in 2011, and the field represents 31 different states, along with Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Finland.

This event is the Daytona 500 of Midget racing, with four nights of qualifying action Tuesday-Friday that will set Saturday’s feature grids. The top three finishers from each night will lock into Saturday’s 50-lap championship “A” Main and race for the Golden Driller.

Stewart, a two-time Chili Bowl winner, has assembled a powerhouse four-car team for this year’s event, his first as a driver since 2008. The team consists of Stewart, Stenhouse, 2011 United States Auto Club (USAC) National Drivers champion Bryan Clauson, and 2011 POWRi Rookie of the Year Jake Blackhurst.

Like he does in all forms of motorsports, Stewart is going all out to win at the Chili Bowl this time out.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Stewart the driver races away from NASCAR to have fun and get back to his roots; Stewart the race-team owner knows a strong showing is good for business as well. This week, he’ll drive a special carbon fiber entry known as “Back In Black,” as he tries to give his long-time partner Chevrolet its second Chili Bowl title.

“I’m also glad that we’ll be able to give our partners, Chevrolet and Chevrolet Performance Parts, another shot at a Golden Driller,” Stewart said. “I think it’s very feasible that we could get four cars in the A-Main on Saturday night. Bryan Clauson and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. — they’re guys who are going to be a threat in every A-Main they start. It’s going to be a lot of fun to be part of this deal and I think we’re going to have a good chance of putting a car in the winner’s circle.”

For his part, Clauson said he’s fired up about racing with the two NASCAR champions.

“It’s really exciting to be part owner of a team that includes some of the best in the business,” said Clauson. “Tony Stewart and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are definitely guys you want to have as teammates and it’s exciting to see a younger guy like Jack Blackhurst make his first start. Ricky has been a long-time friend of mine and I’m really excited to have him in one of our cars for this year’s race. It’s something we’d talked about for the past few years and, any time you can add the NASCAR Nationwide Series champion to your slate of drivers, it’s a great thing.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the reigning Nationwide Series champion. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Last summer, Stewart won his first World of Outlaws winged sprint car race and he said that gave him a lot of confidence during the NASCAR championship run.

And don’t overlook the fun factor. Stewart races in different series for the sheer enjoyment of it and for the fact that he feels it makes him a better racer in NASCAR.

“I guess if I were unable to drive at the NASCAR level anymore, I would love to go back and race the sprint cars as much as possible,” Stewart said last fall. “We ran 25 races with the winged Sprint car (in 2011) and had a lot of fun doing it. So I guess if we were not running NASCAR, I guess that's what we probably would do.”

As for the debate about whether NASCAR drivers should race in other series, Stewart has no doubt that he should.

“To me you only get one chance at life,” he said. “You need to live it the way you want to live it. Not worrying about what can happen, worry about what you're making happen.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.

DAYTONA PRESEASON THUNDER TESTING: During the Jan. 12-14 test sessions at Daytona International Speedway, fans can submit questions and comments through Twitter @SPEED (http://www.twitter.com/speed) using the #daytonatesting hashtag.
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