2019 Chili Bowl Nationals wrap-up

The championship of the 2019 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire was settled with a thrilling last lap pass for the lead by Christopher Bell on his Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) teammate Kyle Larson.

Larson had grabbed the race lead from pole position starter and fellow KKM driver Logan Seavey on lap 20, but was unable to hold off Bell, who took the checkered flag just a car length ahead of Larson.

California’s Justin Grant finished third, with the “Macho Man,” Brady Bacon fourth, Zach Daum fifth and Tyler “Sunshine” Courtney sixth and the Hard Charger Award after he passed sixteen cars during the feature.  

The top ten ‘A’ main finishers were rounded out by Brad Sweet, CJ Leary, Seavey, and Tanner Thorson.  Favorites Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Shane Golobic did not finish the event.

350 cars and drivers took part in the event during the six nights and officials recorded 75 flips during the six nights with all the drivers able to walk away.  Bell who joined Kevin Swindell as the only three-time consecutive winners of the prized Golden Driller, closed out the event with the final recorded flip as he turned over his Toyota-powered Spike while he spun his victory donuts.

Crowd favorite and five-time event champion Sammy Swindell’s 2019 Chili Bowl run ended when he failed to advance out of his “C’ feature, while “The People’s Champ,” Dave Darland was disqualified from the ‘B’ feature when he ignored directions from track officials.

2005 Chili Bowl champion Tracy Hines failed to finish his ‘B’ feature and retired NASCAR star Kasey Kahne who plans a big slate of open-wheel races during 2019 was disappointed when his machine did not finish his ‘E’ feature.  

Surprising many midwestern fans with their strong performances were California racers Robert Dalby who advanced from the ‘C’ feature and Colby Copeland who advanced form the ‘B’ feature. Copeland finished fourteenth and Dalby 20^th.

The 34^th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire will be held January 13^th through the 18^th 2019. Hope to see you there next year!

Chili Bowl 2019- night four

The fourth preliminary night A-main feature at the 33^rd annual Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire was eventful from beginning to end. The first start was aborted when the midget of Joe Miller came to a stop in turn one. Pole sitter Danny Stratton in the Andy Bondio machine tried a little too hard to push the start and starter Roger Slack set Stratton back one row which moved defending champion Christopher Bell to the pole position. The third attempt to start the 25-lap finale was again called back when the car of Andrew Deal rolled to a stop in turn one.

Once the field was turned loose, Bell raced away to a comfortable advantage over Jerry Coons Jr., Strattion, Shane Golobic and Ryan Bernal in the Kevin Swindell entry. By running the low line through turns one and two and the high line on the cushion through turns three and four, Bell built a lead of 1.6 seconds before the caution flag flew on lap 7 when Thomas Meseraull tangled with another car and his 7R machine suffered a crushed tail tank but was able to continue.

When the green flag re-appeared Bell drove away from Coons as the cars of Golobic Bernal. CJ Leary and Stratton fought for third place. Once again Bell built a big lead of 1.7 seconds before the yellow flag flew again on lap 12. When racing resumed Bell streaked away again to a lead of 2.5 seconds when the field slowed again for Jake Morgan’s crash in turn four that eliminated the #19 car from the race.

Once the field was back to up to speed, on lap 20 Merseraull’s machine took a series of vicious flips into turn three that also caught up the cars of Tracy Hines and Kyle Cummins. The latter pair were able to continue, but “T-Mez” was done for the night. The last few laps of racing were wild as Golobic challenged Bell several times through turns three and four for the race lead but was unable to make the pass stick. 

At the finish the top four finishers were Christopher Bell, Shane Golobic, CJ Leary and Danny Stratton. This finish continues the Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) domination of the 2019 Chili Bowl was four KKM cars claiming all four preliminary night wins thusfar.

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.  

 

 

Keith Kunz Racing three for three!

 

 

With Christopher Bell's sweep of the Thursday night Chili Bowl Nationals preliminary night as he won his heat race, qualifying race and the 25-lap feature, Keith Kunz Racing (KKR) is for three for three with preliminary night feature wins so far this week at Tulsa Expo Raceway.

 

Bell built a lead of nearly five seconds at time during the John Christner Trucking feature race, but second place Shane Golobic closed to as close as one second in the closing laps, but got no closer. Third place was captured by Chase Johnson driving for Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) President Del Morris with veteran Tracy Hines fourth and Indiana's Caleb Armstrong fifth.

 

Ryan Bernal driving for Clauson-Marshall Racing started the featured 17th and finished sixth. Two other drivers started the A-Main after starting from the D-Main - both Tanner Thorsen and Michael Pickens both had trouble in their heat races and raced hard to make up for their earlier troubles.