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2007-2006 Press Releases

Ray Cashes in on Chili Bowl Nationals Creek Nation Casino Qualifying Night

TULSA, Okla. (January 10, 2007) – It was a pair of Badgers atop Wednesday night's Creek Nation Casino Qualifying event at Tulsa Expo Raceway's 21^st Annual O'Reilly Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, with Davey Ray cashing in the biggest stack of chips after outdueling Brad Kuhn in the 25-lap "A" Main event.

Ray, a former Badger Midget Auto Racing Association (BMARA), and reigning BMARA king Kuhn diced in such heated fashion over the middle portion of the race that third-generation teenage shoe Donnie Ray Crawford snuck into the mix and nearly posted a monumental upset in his Midget racing debut.

But in the end, it was Ray slipping away after the race's final caution with five laps to go to snare the win in front of Kuhn, with Casey Shuman making a late move around Crawford to claim the show position.  Moving up from the Micro ranks, Crawford netted the fourth and final lock-in position to Saturday night's 50-lap Chili Bowl championship main event.

Of the epic mid-race slide job battle with Kuhn, Ray commented, "It's fun when you can race with a guy that you know is not aiming to take you out.  Yeah, we rubbed there a little bit but that's pretty hard racing so I know nothing's intentional between Brad and I.  It's fun and it comes down to getting hairy like that."

While Ray took the limelight in the finale, 2006 National Midget Driver of the Year Kuhn was without question the star of the evening much of the way.  Kuhn charged from eighth to finish second in his heat race, ranking number one in passing points among 69 entries after heat race action.

Kuhn backed it up in his qualifying race, advancing from sixth to take the win and put the clamps on the pole position for the feature in the process.

But Ray was nearly matching him step for step.  Ray raced from fifth to win his heat race, then picked off four more positions by advancing from sixth to second in his qualifier to earn the front row outside starting slot for the feature.

Ray broke into the feature lead at the drop of Roger Slack's green flag and paced the early rounds in front of Kuhn, Thomas Meseraull, Shuman and Danny Lasoski.  Ray and Kuhn slipped away from the rest of the field and were encountering lapped traffic when the race's first caution flew after eleven laps for Turkey Night winner Billy Wease's turn four spin.

Following a tangle involving Damion Gardner and Mike Hess two laps later, the battle for the point intensified as Kuhn executed a bold slide job entering turn one to take command.  Ray rallied right back, recapturing the lead with a similar slide a lap later.

Kuhn tried to return the favor a half lap later and got crossed up, allowing a low riding Crawford to race by and suddenly enter the mix for the win.  Crawford had cracked the top five by disposing of Lasoski moments after the lap eleven interruption.  The young gun had then climbed to fourth by the time the Gardner-Hess tangle occurred.

With Ray riding the rim and Crawford on the low side, the young gun began challenging Ray for the lead when his pace was interrupted by a lap 18 stoppage for Russ Harper, who came to a stop in turn one.

With Ray leading the way, Kuhn battled past Crawford to reclaim second before the final caution appeared for Evan Sewell's turn one trouble with just five laps remaining.

Ray raced the cushion to perfection over the final laps to secure the win, popping a crowd-pleasing wheelie as he took the checkered flag in the Mecum Racing Chevy-powered No. 33x Mecum Auctions/DMI No. 33x Spike.

Kuhn, who raced from 15^th to fourth in last year's Chili Bowl championship feature event, settled for second aboard Dr. Kenneth Love's Stanton Mopar-powered No. 71x Spike.

"I kinda felt bad for the guys, I thought we had a better car and I plowed into the cushion and bent the Jacobs ladder pretty bad," Kuhn explained afterward.  "We were just kinda hangin' on and tried to make a go at Davey there, but he's a class act and I just got outdrove, almost spun out trying to get back by him.  We'll just take our second and move on and try to get that trophy on Saturday."

Shuman's late move aboard the Thornell Racing Sesco Mopar-powered No. 52s James Development General Contractors Stealth netted third.

Of his last gasp pass of Crawford, Shuman explained that, "I was really just trying to be a little more aggressive on the cushion to make sure I didn't get passed by somebody on the bottom.  I'm tickled to death with third, but fourth would have had us locked us in.  I was more trying to protect my position and it worked out, we got it at the end.

Crawford opened the racing world's eyes with his fourth place finish in the Keith Kunz Motorsports Fontana-powered No. 71k John Christner Trucking Bullet.

Joe Boyles made an impressive charge through the field by racing from 15^th to round out the top five, with 13^th-starter Jon Stanbrough, Meseraull, USAC Midget champion Jerry Coons, Jr., Matt Westfall and Lasoski completing the top ten.

Heat races were topped by Sammy Swindell, Ray, Don Droud, Jr., Brady Bacon, Gardner, Johnny Rodriguez, Boyles, Chris Rahe and Coons.  Mike Hess, Nick Knepper, Brian Ramstack and Cody Brewer won the 8-lap Last Chance races, with Kuhn, Shuman, Meseraull and Lasoski victorious in the 10-lap Qualifying races.

Swindell wired the field in the first 15-lap "B" Main, with Levi Jones emerging a top a dicey second "B" Main.  Swindell, a four-time Chili Bowl champion, was 20^th in the main event with Jones climbing to 14^th.

A total of 110 green flag laps were completed before the night's first flip occurred when New York's Jessica Zemken got upside down in turn four during the first Qualifying race.  Other Qualifying Race flippers included Jones, Rick Hendrix and Randy Hannagan, with Rodriguez toppling in the first "B" Main.  There were no injuries.

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Ray gets best of both worlds

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