Kyle Larson (center) locked himself into Saturday’s Chili Bowl Nationals championship event with victories in Tuesday night’s preliminaries. Brad Loyet (left) finished second in the A-Feature, with Spencer Bayston (right) in third. Photo by Pat Grant
From disaster to triumph, following a Heat Race crash, Kyle Larson raced to three feature victories during Tuesday’s Warren Cat Qualifying Night to open up the 29th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Center in Tulsa, OK.
His third career Preliminary Night A-Feature victory, Larson won his C-Feature from sixth, the B-Feature from thirteenth, and finally the 25-lap A-Feature to lock himself into the championship event of the 29th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals presented by General Tire.
“No, not at all,” the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year said when asked if he thought he’d be sitting in Victory Lane. “I thought it’d be tough to get to the ‘A’. I could get through the ‘C’ and thought it would be close on getting to the ‘A’ from the ‘B’. If I was to get to the ‘A’, I thought if I could finish in the top-six or seven, it would be a solid recovery. Everything seemed to fall my way after that heat race accident.”
Cracking the top-ten on lap 4 from 17th, two attempts following the caution saw the Kunz Motorsports No. 71k shoot to seventh on lap 6. Playing a caution on lap 10, Larson was able to race to third around early race leader, Levi Jones, on lap 12.
Claiming the runner-up spot on lap 15, Larson trailed the Daum Insurance No. 5d by nearly a straightaway. Inching closer and closer, traffic would have to come into play in order to have a shot at the Illinois shoe; and it did as Daum was forced to shut down to avoid and spin by Levi Jones and Alex Bright.
From the green flag with five laps remaining, Larson was uncontested to the checkered flag.
In his first time behind the wheel of Midget since running the Chili Bowl in 2014, Missouri’s Brad Loyet wheeled the Vacuworx Global No. 05 to the second podium step, despite nearly losing the handle at the race’s halfway point.
“It was one of those things where I kind of got caught early on following Daum and watching his line. Every time he’d make a mistake, I’d make one. My car was a little bit too snug and when I almost lost everything about half-way through the race, I sat back and relaxed, and realized that if we make some solid laps here, we’re going to be in the show on Saturday.”
On track to be the 2015 Chili Bowl Rookie of the Year, Indiana’s Spencer Bayston put his Racer’s for Autism No. 39b into Saturday’s feature event with the third and final transfer from Tuesday’s A-Feature.
“I’m really just in awe right now. I’m just in shock. I’m sitting here shaking, and trying to get through my mind that I just made it in the A-Main,” said Bayston. “Two years ago, I was sitting at home watching YouTube videos of Kyle, Brad, and Bryan, and all those guys race around here. To be racing against them is a true honor.”
Joey Saldana raced from twelfth to fourth with Terry Babb completing the top five.
Colten Cottle from twenty-third claimed sixth with Jake Neuman seventh. Racing through a B-Feature, New Zealand’s Michal Pickens clawed from twentieth to eighth with Zach Dam coming back to finish ninth. Joey Moughan rounded out the top ten.
The Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions saw Sammy Swindell claiming his fourth VIROC victory since 2009. Handed the fourth starting spot by son, Kevin, in a revenge draw, Sammy had to forfeit the No. 1 draw to 1990 Chili Bowl Champion, John Heydenreich, something he was less than pleased about. Even having to give up the pole, Swindell grabbed the lead on the opening lap, and was only challenged on the closing lap by Bryan Clauson, who pulled nearly even with Swindell on the cushion in the final turns. Clauson settle for second, after starting twelfth, with Cory Kruseman, Christopher Bell, and Kyle Larson completing the top-five.
Action continues with Wednesday’s River Spirit Casino Qualifying Night with 82 drivers scheduled to qualify. For more information, visit ChiliBowl.com.
Chili Bowl Nationals
Tulsa Expo Center – Tulsa, OK
Warren CAT Qualifier – Jan. 13, 2015
A-Feature
1. 71K-Kyle Larson
2. 05-Brad Loyet
3. 39B-Spencer Bayston
4. 21S-Joey Saldana
5. 88B-Terry Babb
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7. 3N-Jake Neuman
8. 63NZ-Michael Pickens
9. 5D-Zach Daum
10. R8-Joey Moughan
11. 2ND-Jeb Sessums
12. 27-Alex Bright
13. 15H-Sam Hafertepe, Jr.
14. 56-Levi Jones
15. 11A-Andrew Felker
16. 52C-Isaac Chapple
17. 8J-Jonathan Beason
18. 7SS-Wade Seiler
19. 79J-Jacob Patton
20. 35-Billy Wease
21. 78-Nick Wean
22. 17S-Dominic Scelzi
23. 19P-Robert Ballou
24. 71X-Tyler Courtney
VIROC VII
1. 1-Sammy Swindell
2. 63-Bryan Clauson
3. 21K-Cory Kruseman
4. 71-Christopher Bell
5. 71K-Kyle Larson
6. 39-Kevin Swindell
7. 97-Rico Abreu
8. 24-Tracy Hines
9. 71L-Damion Gardner
10. 5-Jerry Coons, Jr.
11. 47X-Tim McCreadie
12. 6K-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
13. 05-Brad Loyet
14. 1ST-J.J. Yeley
15. 15X-Chad Boat
16. 22-John Heydenreich
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