Rico Abreu (center) out dueled the competition to score the A-Feature victory in Wednesday’s Chili Bowl Nationals qualifier. Chris Windom (left) finished in second, with J.J. Yeley (right) in third. Photo by Pat Grant
Keith Kunz Motorsports took their second win in as many nights as California’s Rico Abreu stormed to his first career Preliminary Night victory during River Spirit Qualifying Night of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Center in Tulsa, OK.
Asked about his mindset in the late stages of the race, Abreu replied, “Don’t crash. You get those lapped cars running side-by-side in front of you then all you worry about is the guy behind you running you down.”
Gridding the field sixth, Abreu shot to fourth on the opening lap as Chris Windom took off with the race lead. Caution on lap 5, the restart saw the 2014 USAC National Midget Champion set sights on Trey Marcham and Blake Hahn. Racing for second, Abreu advanced by the pair for second with a low line pass on the front straightaway on the eighth lap.
Taking the Toyota No. 97 to the cushion, Abreu was followed by Hahn as the pair closed on Windom. Swapping the position following a restart on lap 9, the race for second kept pace with the leader, with Abreu working the cushion around Windom on lap 15.
Setting a torrid pace around the Tulsa Expo Raceway, Abreu worked traffic by lap 20. Giving up little ground to the race behind him, the California speedster crossed 2.875 seconds ahead of Chris Windom.
Abreu capped his victory with a reverse victory lap in honor of Donnie Ray Crawford.
“There’s a young man that was really close to him and he said if I won tonight, I should do it. I didn’t really think about it until after the checkered. It’s pretty special just to bring back those memories.”
Racing hard with Blake Hahn in the final laps, Arizona’s J.J. Yeley was wheel-to-wheel with the No. 8j for almost the entire last lap, edging Hahn in the final two turns for the final transfer into Saturday’s feature event.
“You have to run hard no matter what when you’re here. The race track got really treacherous and you had to be smooth. I think he (Blake) was trying to regain maybe the spot he had given up there, and obviously when you are coming down to the last couple of laps, you are going to do everything you can to get in that top-three,” commented Yeley of his final lap battle with Blake Hahn.
Completing the top-five, Sammy Swindell was quite the show having to advance position 45 times through the night’s D, C, B, and A-Features after losing the muffler on the J.C.T. No. 1 during his heat race.
Battling in the top three early on, Trey Marcham settled for sixth with Casey Shuman crossing seventh. From 23rd, Colby Copeland snagged eighth with Tyler Thomas ninth. Oklahoma’s Brady Bacon completed the top-ten.
Wednesday’s Qualifying Night saw 83 drivers drawing in.
Action continues with John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night on Thursday.
For more information, visit ChiliBowl.com.
Chili Bowl Nationals
A person by undergoing a massage can do away with all genital problems such as low sex drive, and premature ejaculation. cialis 40mg 60mg Though tadalafil online usa some people think that sex is overestimated in any relationship, but to others it is the foundation upon which the relation between two strangers is built. It empties mind of negative energy and increases the production of testosterone buy cialis australia which in turn increases the semen production and thus helps to ejaculate a large quantity of blood to flow in to the penis which is extremely required for the occurrence of erection. Watermelon- This is one of the best fruits that has ever viagra 100 mg found for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). Tulsa Expo Center – Tulsa, OK
River Spirit Casino Qualifier – Jan. 14, 2015
A-Feature
1. 97-Rico Abreu
2. 63K-Chris Windom
3. 1ST-J.J. Yeley
4. 8K-Blake Hahn
5. 1-Sammy Swindell
6. 73T-Trey Marcham
7. 17C-Casey Shuman
8. 51X-Colby Copeland
9. 91T-Tyler Thomas
10. 11W-Brady Bacon
11. 92-Brenden Bright
12. 68W-Jake Swanson
13. 5E-James Edens
14. 1T-Tony Roney
15. 88J-Jace VanderWeerd
16. 9E-Brody Roa
17. 38-Justin Grant
18. 19L-Landon Hurst
19. 37X-Tim Kent
20. 66-Shane Cockrum
21. 55D-Nick Drake
22. 7B-Austin Brown
23. 75X-Travis Berryhill
24. 62T-Taylor Simas
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.