TULSA, Okla. -- Wednesday night's performance could have easily made this a good enough week for 18 year-old Bryan Clauson. The Noblesville, Ind., racer found a fourth-place finish in the evening's Chili Bowl Midget Nationals Qualifying Night after hopping into a dirt midget car for the first time in more than a year and a half. Fortunately for NASCAR fans and Clauson's regular employer, Chip Ganassi Racing, the rising star never seems to settle for "good enough."

Clauson started 12th in the Chili Bowl's feature race on Saturday and piloted his Keith Kunz Motorsports Bullet Esslinger to a fourth-place finish in the highly anticipated 50-lap showdown. Despite being out of a dirt midget for so long, no dust was found on the shoulder of the Nationwide Series driver, who was pleased with the finish but clearly yearned for more.

"It's tough to be disappointed with a fourth-place finish but I am," Clauson said. "You only get a good enough car to win [the Chili Bowl] once in a couple of years and I thought I had that car. But to be out for so long and do what we did this weekend, having a shot of winning the Mecca of midget racing, was incredible."

Clauson followed a podium-bound trio of Damion Gardner, Dave Darland, and Shane Cottle and held off Jon Stanbrough, a 30-race open-wheel winner in 2007, for the fourth position. Clauson wasn't sure there was much he could do in order to advance the front of the pack more than he did.

"The bottom [groove] went away a little too fast," Clauson said. "I saw Darland try the bottom but at the halfway mark it just wasn't there. I knew I could get to the top early and grab a couple of positions but there was just no bottom at the end."

Fellow Nationwide Series competitor Jason Leffler became a Chili Bowl winner in the role of car owner as Gardner corralled a dominating win in a Leffler-supplied entry. The win culminates what was arguably Gardner's best week as a racecar driver as he also captured a win in Friday night's star-studded qualifying race. The California native, winless in 2007, is 2-for-2 in '08.

NASCAR development drivers Brady Bacon (of Chip Ganassi Racing) and Kevin Swindell (of Gillett Evernham Motorsports) grabbed sixth and seventh place, respectively. The two drivers, in Mopar-powered machines, qualified for the feature via the night's B-Main race.

Defending Chili Bowl winner and two-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart finished eighth after scoring an easy B-Main win. Tracy Hines, in a midget car owned by Stewart, finished ninth.

Leffler and Kasey Kahne, both potential favorites for the Chili Bowl win, suffered tire and mechanical failures that forced them out of the race before all 50 laps were completed.

Budding rivalry

While Stewart and Kahne are friends in the NASCAR garage, the teams owned by the two drivers may have a rivalry brewing: Levi Jones, a Stewart driver, spun out Brad Sweet, a Kahne driver, during the second B-Main race. With Sweet in position to transfer, Jones was met with a resounding chorus of boos following the fall of the checkered.

Hopes quickly dashed

J.J. Yeley had hoped to once again reach the podium of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals; however, he struck the cone at the start/finish line in his C-Main and was consequently black-flagged, forcing him to the rear of the field and out of contention to transfer.