T.J. Jordan trails in first ever caution free running of the Chili Bowl

T.J. Jordan picked up the 1st last place finish of his Chili Bowl career in Saturday's SCRL Chili Bowl at the Tulsa Expo Center when his #11 Bass Pro entry completed all 55 laps under power.

For the second year in a row, the SCRL held it's annual Chili Bowl. The 1/4 mile dirt track is the host to the "biggest Midget race of the year" and it is nicknamed the "Super Bowl of midget racing". The Chili Bowl is a 55 lap midget car racing event that is held annually in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. Unlike the event that was held in 2020, this year's event had been pushed back a full four months with the format changing with the event starting out with the six heat races to help set the field, followed the next day by four Main races that would give five more drivers a chance to advance and on Saturday morning the remaining twenty six drivers would battle it out in qualifying to set the field. The format wasn't the only thing to change as the entry list was bumped up from 50 to 55 entries, a brand new league record.

In Qualifying, Shane Thomas, making his first ever attempt in the Chili Bowl, would win the pole with a time of 12.681 while T.J. Jordan would struggle, posting a time of 12.934, 0.253 seconds off Thomas's pole winning time, which placed Jordan 21st. Posting the slowest time in qualifying would be the #04 iRacing entry of Preston Paul, who posted the only time not in the twelve second number with a time of 13.112, 0.431 seconds off Thomas's time.

On race night, Paul would trail for the first lap before knocking the #093 Amoco entry of Kaitlyn Coyne on Lap 2 as Coyne would struggle on the dirt for the next twelve laps as she was adjusting to having never raced at the event or dirt in her SCRL career, but she finally would get into a groove as on Lap 15 she knocked the #06 Casey's entry of Matt Duct into last on Lap 15. Duct would trail for only two laps before he would fight back and would knock the #27 Heffner / Leland's entry of Yates Terzic into last on Lap 17. Terzic would remain within a half second of the car in front of him for the next three laps before knocking the #2 Welsh Chrysler Jeep entry of Kenny Kirkland into last on Lap 21. Much like with Terzic, Kirkland's stay in the final spot was only four laps as he knocked the #7 Middlewarth Potato Chips entry of Austin Athens into last on Lap 25, as Athens would also be making his first ever start on the dirt and was struggling and reported to his crew that his car was tight in the turns and loose on the straights.

Athens would trail in last for twelve laps before knocking T.J. Jordan into last for the first time in the race on Lap 37. Jordan's stay in last would last only two three laps before he knocked Coyne back into last on Lap 40. Coyne would once again trail the field as she had the slowest lap time of any of the twenty six drivers during the event and looked like she would trail the field for the first time in her career, but with the leaders quickly catching up to the tail end of the field, Coyne was determined and would pass Jordan and knock him back to last on Lap 47. Jordan would try everything he could to close the gap but he fell more then seven tenths of a second behind Coyne over the final laps and finished just four car lengths in front of the leaders when the Checkered Flag waved.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were: 25th was the aforementioned #093 of Kaitlyn Coyne, 24th was the #3 ACME Car Company entry of Carlos Rodriguez, 23rd was the #24 TheSnowPlow.com entry of Nathan Ormond and 22nd was the #7 of Austin Athens.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #11 has finished last in the Chili Bowl.
*This was the first time a driver trailed was "running" at the finish.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
26) #11-T.J. Jordan / 55 laps / running
25) #093-Kaitlyn Coyne / 55 laps / running
24) #3-Carlos Rodriguez / 55 laps / running
23) #24-Nathan Ormond / 55 laps / running
22) #7-Austin Athens / 55 laps / running

Throwback BUSCH: Veteran Matt Johnson picks up the lone Busch Series last-place finish at Langley

Matt Johnson picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Wrangler Jeans Busch Grand National Series career in the Season 1 Gene Lovelace 200 at the Langley Speedway when his #37 Hayes Jewelers Pontiac completed all 10 laps under power.

The finish came in his 21st start. 

Johnson would make his debut at Daytona, finishing 40th after being caught up in the big one. Johnson would continue to struggle to find any success in the Busch Series, scoring a best finish of 15th in the first Langley event and finish 30th or worse twelve times in the first sixteen races before scoring a series best runner up at Rockingham. The good finish would not be a sign of things to come as finishes of 39th at Caraway, 29th South Boston and 41st in the last round at Hickory would follow.

On race day, Johnson rolled off starting 18th while starting last was two-time last-place finisher the #88 unsponsored Pontiac of Keith Stevens, the ten laps would be calm much like other LCQ(Last Chance Qualifier) have been this season, as Johnson would fall back into the final spot over the final laps.

The remaining Bottom Five were; 41st was Richmond last-place finisher the #47 unsponsored Pontiac of Jesse Turner, 40th was Martinsville last-place finisher the #75 PET Dairy Pontiac of Jay Jefferson, 39th was second Richmond last-place finisher the #63 Ashby Sheet Metal & Machine Shop Pontiac of James Barker and 38th was the aforementioned #88 of Keith Stevens.

Through all the bad finishes, the team knew that sooner or later they would find success, and they were right; as only five races later, Johnson scored his first Busch Series win at Martinsville. Johnson would finish 41st in the final point standings and currently has five career wins in the SCRL.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #37 had finished last in the Busch Series as well at Langley.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
42) #37-Matt Johnson / 10 laps / running
41) #47-Jesse Turner / 10 laps / running
40) #75-Jay Jefferson / 10 laps / running
39) #63-James Barker / 10 laps / running
38) #88-Keith Stevens / 10 laps / running

Throwback LEGENDS: Trail Blazer gets first last-place finish of his career after rare gasket failure at Bowman Gray

Trail Blazer picked up the 1st last place finish of his ONL NASCAR Legends Series career in the Season 1 Bowman Gray 250 at the Bowman Gray Stadium when his #34 unsponsored Ford suffered gasket problems after completing 9 of the 20 laps.

The finish came in his 20th career series start. 

In his series debut for the league, Trail Blazer finished 12th in his league and series debut at Riverside, with his best finishing being 7th three times, at the first Talladega, Charlotte and at the second Atlanta event before finishing 18th in the last round at Talladega.

On race day, Trail Blazer would roll off the grid starting 19th while spring Riverside last-place finisher the #24 Casa Linda / Sahara Motel Ford of Chakat Whitelion would start in the final position. Whitelion would lose touch with the leaders and trailed the first eight laps when on Lap 9, Trail Blazer, who had moved up to 18th, began to smoke as he quickly pulled into the pits and into the garage, his team finding a rare problem, the gasket had broken, and with the race half over, it would take too long to repair, so the car was retired, listed as "out" by Lap 12.

Rounding out the Bottom Five was drivers who all finished a lap down to the race leaders; Finishing 19th was the #43 Southern Chrysler & Plymouth of Oreius Centaur, 18th was two time last-place finisher the #32 Bestline Products Plymouth of Draco Drakul, 17th was four time last-place finisher the #64 Woodfield Ford of dragonboy and finishing 16th was the aforementioned #24 of Chakat Whitelion.

The ONL NASCAR Legends Series would be the only place that Trail Blazer would race in, competing in both Season 1 and 2, but would never finish higher than 7th in Season 1, while in Season 2 he could only finish 13th in his first race back at the North Wilkesboro Speedway. He has yet to return to a race since the same Bowman Gray race in Season 2.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #34 had finished last in a Legends race as well as at Bowman Gray.
*This was the first time "gasket" was listed as a reason for a driver finishing last.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
20) #34-Trail Blazer / 9 laps / gasket
19) #43-Oreius Centaur / 19 laps / running
18) #32-Draco Drakul / 19 laps / running
17) #64-dragonboy / 19 laps / running
16) #24-Chakat Whitelion / 19 laps / running