Chili Bowl 2019 – night five

Friday night’s preliminary feature at the 33^rd annual Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire was all Justin Grant as he captured the 25-lap feature from the pole position. Grant who earlier won his qualifier race, battled Tanner Thorson the entire race which was run without a caution, at a pace that many observers believed was a Chili Bowl record for the distance.

Grant’s victory his third consecutive preliminary night win broke the stranglehold of Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) which had won all the preliminary races before Friday night. Finishing third behind Grant and Thorson was Chad Boat while fourth place fell to NASCAR star Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with KKM’s Tucker Klaasmeyer fifth.

Notable performances during the night came from Kevin Thomas Jr. and Spencer Bayston, both of whom suffered misfortune in the heat races and did not finish. Thomas Junior won his ‘C’ feature race to advance into the ‘B’ feature in which he finished third to start 22^nd in the ‘A’ main featured and he moved up to finish 14^th at the drop of the checkered flag.

Bayston finished second behind Thomas Jr. in their ‘C’ feature and finished fourth in his ‘B’ feature and started the ‘A’ man in 24^th position. Over 25 laps Bayston worked his way up to finish ninth to win the night’s hard charger award.

350 cars made an appearance on track during the five nights of competition and on the final night every car and driver gets a chance to race once more. Racing in Tulsa Oklahoma begins at 10 AM Saturday morning with the ‘O’ main, then advances backwards through the alphabet to the crowning of the 2019 Chili Bowl champion at the end of the 55-lap ‘A’ main.

Chili Bowl 2019 – night two

Night two of the 2019 33^rd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire in Tulsa Oklahoma were spiced up with the 20-car 20-lap Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions. 

Tanner Thorson in Clyde Lamar’s Arai-sponsored #3C midget went wire-to-wire from his outside front row starting position to win over Keith Kunz Motorsports’ (KKM) Kyle Larson and his KKM teammate Christopher Bell who had started fifteenth. Ryan Bernal in Kevin Swindell’s #39 finished fourth and JJ Yeley fifth.

The night’s 25-lap A feature was captured by Kyle Larson in the KKM McDonald’s sponsored machine. Larson powered past early leader Zach Daum on the high side down the back stretch on lap five went to the cushion and motored away as Daum fought off the challenge of Sam Hafertepe Junior. 

Following a caution flag period with  25 laps completed for Larry Wright’s blown engine, Daum held off the charge of Jonathon Beason up from his tenth place starting position in his Hard Eight Racing entry as Larson drove away to a one-second advantage at the drop of the checkered flag.

2018 United States Auto Club (USAC) Light up the World Beverages Western States Midget champion Michael Faccinto used the low groove around the Tulsa Expo Raceway to finish in fourth place with Hafertepe Jr. fifth.

2018 USAC National sprint car champion Tyler “Sunshine” Courtney wound up with a disappointing sixth-place finish after he ran fourth for much of the race. Announcer and racer Dillon Welch placed seventh with NASCAR rising star and former USAC midget rookie of the year Alex Bowman finished ninth.

Author’s note: Kudos to Southwest Airlines and Avis Rent A Car for their excellent customer service provided during the author’s eventful trip from the West Coast to Tulsa.

How competitive was the Chili Bowl?

A snapshot of championship diversity

 

 

 

 

By now, most racing fans know that Christopher Bell a member of the powerful Keith Kunz Motorsports/Toyota Racing Development team successfully defended his title as the 2018 Chili Bowl Nationals champion. Bell took the victory after his teammate and fellow NASCAR star Kyle Larson suffered an engine failure midway through the 55-lap feature race.

KKM Toyota -powered Spike chassis entries won three of the four 2018 Chili Bowl preliminary night features and Bell’s win is KKM’s fourth consecutive Chili Bowl win since 2015. KKM was dominant on Saturday as in addition to claiming the feature win, all three steps of the podium went to KKM drivers – Rico Abreu was second and Spencer Bayston was third.

With such domination by one team, some may ask the question with 345 entries in 2018, how competitive and diverse is the Chili Bowl? Consider the starting field for the first of two C-Main 15 lap features which included Tanner Thorson the 2016 USAC (United States Auto Club) National Midget Champion and  2017 National Midget Driver of the Year, 2008 ARCA stock car champion Justin Allgaier who finished third in the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity series, and Steve Buckwalter, who has over 30 wins on the tough ARDC (American Racing Drivers Club) midget circuit and was their 2010 series champion.

That trio was joined by multi-time ASCS (American Sprint Car Series) Northwest division champion Roger Crockett, three-time POWRi midget series champion Zach Daum, World of Outlaws late model series champion and 2006 Chili Bowl champion Tim McCreadie, and multi-time USAC Southwest sprint car champion RJ Johnson.

As if that is not a tough enough field, it also included two-time USAC National Sprint Car champion Brady Bacon, Sprint Car Challenge Tour (SCCT) sprint car series star Colby Copeland, CJ Leary who won four USAC National sprint car features in 2017 USAC/CRA multi-time winner Jake Swanson, three-time King of West sprint car champion Kyle Hirst and USAC National Sprint car series star Thomas Meseraull who was the 2004 BCRA (Bay Cities Racing Association) Midget series champion.  

Of the twenty cars and drivers in the first C-Main race, only the top six advanced to the tail of the first B-main race – Thorson, Allgaier, local driver Ace McCarthy who races with the POWRi series, Daum, Bacon and Leary. Of those six drivers only one -Tanner Thorson-was able to advance to the night’s 55-lap feature where he finished fourth behind his three former teammates, as for 2018, Thorson drives for the Dooling-Hayward Motorsports/Richard Childress Racing team.