Tanner Thorson Dominates Chili Bowl Thursday Qualifier

Tanner Thorson (center) scored the win in Thursday night’s Chili Bowl Nationals qualifier at Tulsa Expo Raceway. Emerson Axsom (left) finished in second, with Brady Bacon (right) in third. Photo: DPCmedia

Defending Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals winner Tanner Thorson served notice with a dominating performance on Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night at Oklahoma’s Tulsa Expo Raceway.

After what looked like a rocky start to his night with a spin in his heat race, Thorson immediately bounced back to win his opening laps of competition. After charging from sixth to second in his qualifier, he went on to score the win and lock himself into Saturday’s A-Main.

“I thought my prelim night was over at the start of that heat race,” Thorson said. “I was just kind of waiting to get hit, luckily enough I didn’t and was able to keep going.”

Running the high line around the 1/5-mile layout in the A-Main, Thorson went unchallenged through four cautions, with each one keeping the leaders from contending with traffic. Slowing down for the final time on lap 24, the gap over second grew to 1.376-seconds at the finish.

Emerson Axsom finished in second, joining Thorson with a locked in spot in Saturday’s A-Main.

Brady Bacon, finished in third, with Tim Buckwalter in fourth, and Tanner Carrick in fifth.

Karter Sarff, Chase Johnson, Ryan Bernal, Dominic Gorden, and Joe B. Miller rounded out the top 10.

Action continues in the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals on Friday with Hard Rock Casino Tulsa Qualifying Night. For more information, visit ChiliBowl.com.

Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals
Tulsa Expo Raceway – Tulsa, OK
John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night – January 12, 2023

1. 88-Tanner Thorson*
2. 19T-Emerson Axsom*
3. 21H-Brady Bacon
4. 29-Tim Buckwalter
5. 98-Tanner Carrick
6. 21S-Karter Sarff
7. 86-Chase Johnson
8. 87W-Ryan Bernal
9. 71K-Dominic Gorden
10. 51B-Joe B Miller
11. 4C-Cody Jessop
12. 82-Landon Crawley
13. 2G-J.J. Yeley
14. 2D-Matt Sherrell
15. 51J-R.J. Johnson
16. 00-Anton Hernandez
17. 77W-Joe Wirth
18. 47W-Dylan Westbrook
19. 7MF-Chance Morton
20. 40-Max Adams
21. 57R-Daniel Robinson
22. 32W-Casey Shuman-DNF
23. 3N-Jake Neuman-DNF
24. 15D-Andrew Deal-DNF