Leffler finishes third but counts night as Chili victory

TULSA, Okla. -- After Jason Leffler's third-place finish in Friday night's 25-lap Chili Bowl Midget Nationals qualifying feature, someone asked the Nationwide Series driver if it was the best race he'd ever lost. It wasn't a smart-aleck question. After all, the car that passed him for the lead (and the eventual victory) with just four laps remaining belonged to Leffler himself, driven by his friend and employee Damion Gardner.

"None of 'em are good to loose," Leffler said with a wounded grin. Then he brightened a bit, nodded in Gardner's direction, and said, "But I was glad it was him."

What the Tulsa Expo Center's capacity crowd witnessed, really, was Leffler experiencing both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. He was part of a stirring duel with California star Cory Kruseman, who crashed just as Leffler took the top spot with 19 laps complete. Early on, the quarter-mile dirt oval had only one fast groove on the extreme inside, but soon a two-man freight train came chugging along up top, consisting of USAC legend Dave Darland and Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne. Darland, up from 14th starting spot, was the first to find traction in the high lane, and Kahne, who started eighth, jumped upstairs once Darland cleared him. Together they chased down the leaders, and it wasn't until the high-flying Darland nearly passed Gardner for second that Gardner made his own winning move to the top of the track.

"I could hear him out there," Leffler said of Gardner. Leffler was tempted to try the outside himself, but, as the leader, was wary of experimenting. "Sometimes it'll take you a lap, a lap and a half to figure the top out," he shrugged. "By then you can be [passed] three or four times."

Darland stole second from Leffler in the final laps. Kahne finished fourth, locking himself into a guaranteed starting position in Saturday night's Chili Bowl A-Main.

"I tried the top early in the race, and it didn't work out," Kahne said. "But then I saw Dave up there, and I followed him."

Gillett Evernham Motorsports development driver Kevin Swindell finished a spectacular fifth, having risen from an eighth-row start. Craftsman Truck Series driver Tracy Hines, in a Tony Stewart Racing entry, placed 11th. NASCAR veteran P.J. Jones missed the qualifying cut, as did World of Outlaws Late Model racer Josh Richards in another Stewart car.

Kahne races with heavy heart

Kasey Kahne's maternal grandfather died on Friday morning. It was a somber day in his pit area, since the team includes Kasey's brother and two cousins.

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/.