Stewart still fighting for berth in Chili Bowl main

TULSA, Okla. -- Tony Stewart admits he's not always a gracious loser. But after finishing fifth in Thursday night's 25-lap qualifying feature for the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals -- one spot shy of a guaranteed position in Saturday's A-Main championship event -- the two-time Cup Series champion was analytical, not angry.

For openers, he knew he hadn't exactly been beaten by a pack of nobodies. Winner Brad Kuhn is a two-time National Midget driver of the year; runner-up Jon Stanbrough was the winningest Sprint Car racer in America last season; third-place Shane Cottle is a cult hero among Midwest dirt-track devotees; and fourth-place finisher Cole Whitt, though just 16 years old, has shown blazing speed on the USAC trail.

Secondly, Stewart blamed himself for surrendering that critical fourth spot to Whitt in the closing laps. "Driver error," he sighed. "The car was loose and I was hunting around for a place where it would work better."

Stewart will start from the front row in one of Saturday night's two B-Mains, needing to finish fourth or better to transfer into the prestigious A-Main, which he has won twice.

An hour after Thursday's race, Stewart slumped in the lounge of his team's transporter, mulling the event's 280-plus entries and its multi-layered qualifying system.

"Dude, people have no idea how tough this race is," Stewart said. "The odds of having a perfect night, when everything goes your way -- from drawing your [heat race] spot to how you run in the preliminary feature -- are incredible."

Fellow Sprint Cup driver J.J. Yeley can testify to that. A flat tire in a qualifying event ended Yeley's evening. He'll start deep in Saturday's wild string of last-chance events.

Brady Bacon, a Chip Ganassi Racing development driver who runs the USAC circuit for Kasey Kahne Racing, fought his way from a 10th-row feature start to finish 13th.

Stewart admits he'll show up at the Tulsa Expo Center on Saturday in a very different mindset than in previous years.

"I'm not in [the field] yet," he said bluntly. "In past years we've had good preliminary nights, so the weight was off us. We'd show up knowing we were going to start third, fourth or wherever. This time we're gonna have to fight hard just to start 13th or 14th."

The Chili Bowl semifinals will be streamed on NASCAR.COM at 10:30 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 11.

Friday night's entries include NASCAR drivers Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler, P.J. Jones and Gillett Evernham Motorsports development driver Kevin Swindell.

Chili Bowl on HBO

HBO Pay-Per-View presents the live, with no commercials, television broadcast of the 2008 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday (Jan. 12). The HBO Pay-Per-View telecast has a suggested retail price of $24.95, and will be available to all cable and satellite homes throughout the U.S. and Canada. Order directly from your digital cable or satellite TV system or contact your provider's customer service for details. A subscription to HBO is not required. Visit http://www.hbo.com/events/chili/.