It was a tough night for 2020 ARCA Menards Series West Bounty Rookie Challenge contender Giovanni Scelzi at the 34th Annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.
Scelzi, son of former NHRA Funny Car legend Gary Scelzi, was involved in a pair of incidents not of his own doing in the A-main, leacving him 10th at the finish. Wednesday night’s results set the lineups for Saturday night’s chanpionship events, and finishing that deep in the field means Scelzi will have to race his way into the 55-lap A-main from the C-main.
World of Outlaws superstar David Gravel, who recently participated in the two-day ARCA Menards Series open test at Daytona, finished seventh in the feature. Gravel will make the transition to stock car racing on a part-time basis in 2020, and has stated his intentions to compete in the Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire at Daytona before kicking off a partial season in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series.
Former ARCA Menards Series winner Ryan Newman also raced his way into the night’s 30-lap feature event but he too was swept into an early race incident, along with Scelzi, which left him 21st at the finish. Newman is deep in Saturday’s “alphabet soup” and will have his work cut out for him if he hopes to make the feature. Newman, a former USAC open wheel standout before transioning to stock car racing, was making his first dirt midget start in 19 years.
Entries with ARCA ties on Thursday night include former series winner A.J. Fike, 2008 series champion Justin Allgaier, former East Series winner Cale Conley, 2018 DuQuoin winner Logan Seavey, and three-time series winner Christopher Bell.
Tonight’s action will be available on PPV basis on RacinBoys.com. Saturday’s championship events will be televised live on MAVTV starting at 7:30 pm ET.
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