With a few Tulsa Shootout’s under his belt at the Tulsa Expo Center, Tanner Carrick was able to make his Chili Bowl debut over the last week, and the California native had a mix of some great speed and some tough luck.
“The Keith Kunz Motorsports team brought some extremely fast midgets to the Chili Bowl, and our car was really good all week long but some tough luck during our preliminary night feature set us back on Saturday,” Tanner Carrick said.
Making his Chili Bowl debut on Monday night aboard the potent Craftsman/CVC/TRD backed entry, Carrick would get off to a great start as he would race his way to a heat race win and set himself up nicely for a qualifier.
Needing to continue to make points in his qualifier to move into the feature event, Carrick would take a fifth place finish after a hard fought battle amidst a gaggle of cars and be forced into a ‘B’ Main.
Taking advantage of added laps on the Tulsa Expo Center Raceway, Carrick would forge his way to the win and punch his ticket into the 25-lap preliminary night feature event where his finish would dictate his Saturday evening starting position.
Gridding the starting line up from the 17th position, Carrick would continue to show the same speed he showed all Monday night as he worked his way forward and looked to improve his Saturday starting position lap after lap.
Finding himself in the Top-10 within the first handful of laps, Carrick would into the eighth position as he chased after a spot inside the Top-Five. After moving into eighth on the 10th lap, Carrick would then see the ugly side of Chili Bowl as contact would sent him into the fence and damage would end his prelim night as he would be scored 20th.
With his finish, the former USAC National Series Rookie of the Year would find himself in a bit of hole for Saturday as he would kick his night off from the seventh row of ‘D’ No. 2.
Getting his elbows up, Carrick was up for the challenge as he turned in a strong performance that saw him work his way forward to finish fourth and keep his Chili Bowl alive.
Lining up 19th in ‘C’ No. 2, Carrick would continue to charge hard as the competition level picked up with each Main he moved into. Making it happen on the tight confines, Carrick would forge his way into the Top-10 as laps ran out. Getting into ninth, Carrick would close in on a pack of cars where the transfer position loomed but he would simply run out of laps as his Chili Bowl would come to a close.
“It was great to be a part of this event finally, and I have to thank everyone associated with KKM for working so hard with so many drivers and cars in our camp,” Carrick added. “I am really looking forward to another busy year ahead in 2019.”
Tanner Carrick and the Keith Kunz Motorsports team would like to thank Craftsman, CVC, TRD, Spike Chassis, Cemex, Arai, and Shell Shock for their support.
2018 BY THE NUMBERS- Midget- Starts-2, Wins-0, Top 5’s-0, Top 10’s-0
ON TAP: Tanner Carrick will head to Florida February 8th and 9th to open the 2019 NOS Energy USAC National Midget Series season at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, FL.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay up to speed with Tanner Carrick by following him on Twitter @Carrick_Tanner or @CarrickMotorsp1.