Cory Kruseman Made the Trip to Tulsa Oklahoma for 2015 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals

Cory Kruseman’s week in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the 2015 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals began with flash photography as the team revealed a new aerodynamic body design for the #21K car

In 1987 race organizers Emmet Hahn and Lanny Edwards organized a two-night race event in the Tulsa, Oklahoma metropolitan area on an indoor quarter-mile racetrack at the Tulsa Expo Raceway. The Midget Nationals received its name from the Chili Bowl Food Company who sponsored the first event nearly thirty years ago. Similar to the way a warm bowl of chili brings comfort on a cold day in the dead of winter, the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals brings heated racing to spectators and drivers two weeks after Christmas in a part of the United States often covered in snow.

The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals has grown exponentially and now takes place over the course of four nights with hundreds of racers hoping to qualify for the A-Main on Saturday night. Racers such as Ventura, California resident Cory Kruseman travel halfway across the country to try their luck in the Chili Bowl with hopes of taking home a Golden Driller trophy. The Golden Driller trophy takes its likeness from a 76 foot tall statue of an oil worker leaning on an oil derrick removed from a depleted oil field in Seminole, Oklahoma. The Golden Driller statue is Tulsa, Oklahoma’s most recognizable monument.

Cory Kruseman’s 2015 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals racing began with a third place finish in the Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions which pits past winners against one another

Previous Chili Bowl winners include Tony Stewart, five-time winner Sammy Swindell, and Sammy’s son Kevin who has four wins to his name. The 2015 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals was the 29th annual running of the indoor midget race and the K&N sponsored team of Kruseman Motorsports left their home base in Ventura, California and traveled east with high hopes. Cory Kruseman is an accomplished sprint car and midget racer with two past Chili Bowl wins on his resume in 2000 and again in 2004. Having raced for most of his life, Cory also operates Cory Kruseman’s Sprint Car and Midget Driving School.

Cory began his week of racing in Tulsa, Oklahoma with the 7th annual Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions (VIROC). For 2015 sixteen drivers made the cut for the VIROC event, with $2,500 on the line for whoever took the win. Cory Kruseman’s best VIROC finish, prior to the 2015 event, had been seventh place in 2014. This time around Cory would start from the fifth position and quickly work his way up to second place. A yellow flag late in the VIROC forced the field to restart. Cory Kruseman went to the bottom of the track in an attempt to take the lead from Sammy Swindell, however a bottleneck cost Cory a position and he would end up taking third behind Sammy and Bryan Clauson.

Cory Kruseman started the B Feature in 11th and within three laps he began to make his way forward in the pack, however, Cory’s luck began to run out, as his tire began to run out of air

Cory started B Feature 1 in the 11th position and within three laps he was beginning to make his way forward in the pack. However, Cory’s luck began to run out, as his right rear tire began to run out of air. Cory held onto the number 21K midget and finished B Feature 1. In the end Cory would rank 30th out of 326 drivers, which isn’t exactly how the two time Chili Bowl champion would have liked to ended up. However, Cory and the Kruseman Motorsports team won’t let their 2015 finish discourage them, and the team is already making plans for the 2016 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.

In a daring pass just after the A-Main’s hallway point, Rico Abreu snuck past 2014 Chili Bowl champion Bryan Clauson. Kevin Swindell was involved in a crash early on in the race and subsequently had to make his way back toward the front. Kevin was able to move into second place, however he could not close in on Rico Abreu. Bryan Clauson made contact with Daryn Pittman on lap 39 and was sent to the back of the field. This allowed Damion Gardner to take home a third place finish in the 2015 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.