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