Stewart Splits Time Between Tulsa And Daytona

Day two of racing at the 26th annual Chili Bowl continues Wednesday at the QuikTrip Center in Tulsa.

Qualifying rounds continue through Friday and NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart is splitting his time between dirt track action in Tulsa and testing for the Daytona 500.

Stewart will race in qualifying rounds Wednesday before taking the next two nights off to join his crew for testing at Daytona.

Stewart, who won the Chili Bowl in 2002 and 2007, says that even though he is taking those two days to fly to Daytona, that it shouldn't distract him from a run at another Chili Bowl title.

"We will wait and see, we've gotta get through this weekend first though," said Stewart. "We will concentrate on the cup stuff for two days, but I can promise you my focus this week is not what we will be doing with NASCAR."

Stewart says he expects there to be a learning curve at the start of the NASCAR season after he brought in new crew chief Steve Addington and brought back former crew chief Greg Zipadelli as his competition director.

Yet he still wanted to take a shot at winning his third Golden Driller trophy and claiming some bragging rights at the Chili Bowl in a field of more than 260 drivers.