Sprint car driver Landon Brooks proved he’s still crafty behind the wheel of a midget during Tuesday’s Chili Bowl Nationals preliminary night.
Brooks, who last climbed aboard a midget at last year’s event, looked like a seasoned pro as he wheeled his Matt Wood Racing No. 57w to victory.
“I ran the Chili Bowl last year and then this is the only one I’ve ran since then,” Brooks said. “(I) don’t run them often. I ran them for a little while a couple years ago with the Xtreme Outlaws.
“But, obviously, don’t run them full time.”
Brooks became the 54th driver to win a prelim feature at the Chili Bowl. His teammate, Shane Golobic, nearly gave the team a perfect two-for-two sweep of prelim features on Monday.
However, Kyle Larson got the better of Golobic. Less than 24 hours later, Golobic helped tune Brooks’ midget to victory.
“It felt good for the whole team,” Brooks began. “Obviously Shane wants to win really bad. We all wanna win really bad. But, Shane’s been fighting for a long time.
“I was so bummed yesterday when I seen that yellow come out. I see us pretty much staring at the checkered flag. Just happy to get it done for the team. Shane had me in an absolute rocket ship.
“I could go anywhere. I felt like we built off of last year and obviously we went the right way.”
With Matt Wood Racing firing on all cylinders and both drivers locked into Saturday’s A-main, the pole shuffle may be the difference in a potential victory.
For Brooks, it’ll be a new experience, but one that he feels will help him get up to speed and prepared for the 40-lap feature.
“I’m super excited for it,” Brooks said. “I’m looking forward to getting around that caliber of cars and seeing how my pace is compared to them and trying to get up to their pace before the feature.”
