Monday, January 19, 2009 – Now a fixture in motorsports, the traditional trek to Tulsa, OK for the Chili Bowl Nationals has concluded. For Cole Whitt, this marks the beginning of a new season with Keith Kunz Motorsports. It also meant the chance to take the reigns of the new 2009 Toyota powered midget which he will pilot for the 2009 USAC National Midget Championship season.

Whitt was placed into the Friday night qualifying session. For those new to the format of the Chili Bowl, more than 290 midgets were entered in the event, the organizers then break drivers into one of four qualifying nights. From each night, only the top THREE drivers will automatically transfer to the Saturday night A Main. For those outside of the top three, the results from the qualifying evening determines which alphabet race the drivers will start on Saturday. Cole started Friday night with positive results in the qualifying races and he was able to move forward from his original starting position (that is based on a random draw) to accumulate some "passing points" (again unique to the Chili Bowl, the more cars passed, the more points). Once through the stressful heat and qualifier race, Cole accumulated enough points to make the Friday night A Main. In this A Main, Cole was able to put on a clinic of how to race the top and bottom of the indoor, 3/8 mile dirt oval track. Whitt made the most of this 25 lap race to finish in 5th position at the checkered flag. The move from 18th to 5th was the most cars passed by anyone in any of the four A Main evening races.

Photography by: John Lee

After the impressive run on Friday, Cole's hard work meant he was in the first B Main on Saturday. Again, unlike any other race, the day starts with 280 remaining competitors in a "letter" race. For this year, the first race of the day began with two "L" mains. Each of these "letter" races transfers four to six drivers to the next "letter" race where they tag the back of that race. So, for Cole, he was able to wait and watch for most of the day and prepare for his B Main event. There would be two B Mains and each of these events would move six additional race cars on to the big show, the Saturday night A Main. Cole waited patiently, and when the time came he was able to make a last lap pass around Shane Cottle for 2nd place in the 20 lap B Main. This result ensured a position for the A Main.

Cole was now in the A Main for the second year in a row. This is very impressive as again only 25 drivers from the more than 290 who started the event qualify. Current NASCAR drivers Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler, and Bryan Clauson were only a few of the competitors not able to make the show. For Cole, however, this accomplishment was only part of what he came here to do. Cole wanted to take the 17th starting position and improve on it. In the 50 lap feature the track was extremely fast on both top and bottom. This meant passing was not easy as everyone was "hooked up". Cole found a number of ways to stretch his Toyota powered Red Bull Bullet no. 71 into places that allowed the youngster to pass 11 cars and post an 8th place finish. Cole felt this was a positive step for 2009, "We had a great car and we were fast, reworking the track right before the main made the track hard to pass. I really want to thank Red Bull and Toyota for their support for 2009 and I am also very happy to be able to come back to Keith Kunz Motorsports again. We definitely started the year in the right direction with this finish. My Toyota-Bullet was great, and I want to thank all the guys on the team for their hard work in helping to achieve a top ten result at the Chili Bowl."

Cole will now wait until February to begin the USAC National Sprint and Midget season.

Look for previews and updates for those events. In addition, look for an exciting announcement about Cole's plans for next weekend.

Information on Cole please refer to: