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Gibbs teammates top
field in Chili Bowl featureDAVID POOLEJoe Gibbs Racing teammates Tony Stewart and J.J. Yeley finished first and second Saturday night in the 50-lap championship feature at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla.
Stewart, the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup champion, also won the Chili Bowl in 2002 before winning his first Cup title that year.
Driving for a team he owns, Stewart started fifth in the feature and took the lead on the 10th lap and never gave it up. Yeley, heading into his second season in Nextel Cup this year, started seventh and passed Dave Darland for second about midway through the race to earn the runner-up spot.
The Chili Bowl is one of the year’s biggest events for midget cars. It is held indoors at the Tulsa Expo Center and this year featured a record 267 entries. Around 15,000 spectators packed the facility Saturday despite an ice storm that had the state of Oklahoma under a declared state of emergency.
Stewart joins Sammy Swindell, Cory Kruseman and Dan Boorse as the only drivers with more than one Chili Bowl title. Last year, Stewart’s bid ended the night before the feature when he flipped his car for the second time in the week of racing.
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