The 32nd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by
General Tire at Tulsa (Okla.) Expo Raceway continued Friday night, January 12,
with the fourth and final preliminary/qualifying race night heading into
Saturday’s big event, the 55-lap A-Main.
In parenthesis, following the name of the winning driver, is
the number corresponding to the number of heats/qualifiers/features they’ve won
during this event heading into Saturday’s A-Main.
Here is a quick recap of the fourth night of action in the
Chili Bowl.
Chili Bowl
Statistics, Night Four (Friday)
- - Car Count: 87 (345 total through four nights [86
Tuesday, 85 Wednesday, 87 Thursday])
- - Heats: 11 (each totaling 8 laps)
o
Heat Winners: Sam Hafertepe Jr. (1), Chad Boat
(2), David Budres (1), Dave Darland (1), Alex Schutte (1), D.J. Netto (1),
Thomas Meseraull (1), Damion Gardner (1), Tucker Klaasmeyer (1), Justin Grant
(1), Nick Knepper (1)
- - D-Features: 2 (each totaling 10 laps)
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D-Feature Winners: Brandon Tubbs II (1), Kody Swanson
(1)
- - C-Features: 2 (each totaling 12 laps)
o
C-Feature Winners: Sean Dodenhoff (1), Kyle
Bellm (1)
- - Qualifiers: 4 (each totaling 10 laps)
o
Qualifier Winners: Thomas Meseraull (2), Chad
Boat (3), Andrew Felker (1), Justin Grant (2)
- - B-Features: 2 (each totaling 15 laps)
o
B-Feature Winners: Tim McCreadie (1), Brent Beauchamp
(1)
- - A-Feature: 1 (totaling 25 laps; top three
advance to Saturday’s A-Feature)
o
A-Feature Winner: Justin Grant (3)
o
Laps Led: Damion Gardner (12), Justin Grant (9),
Chad Boat (4)
o
Hard Charger: Tim McCreadie +10
- - Number of Races Held (all heats/features): 22 (89
through four nights)
- - Number of Laps Completed: 227 (928 through four
nights)
- - Number of Flips: N/A
Notes of Interest
- - Justin Grant solidified his third starting spot
in Saturday’s A-Main feature with his victory Friday. In two previous Saturday
night A-Main starts, his best was a third-place result last year.
- - Grant’s preliminary night victory was the second
of his career. All four drivers that won preliminary features this week –
Grant, Kyle Larson (Tuesday), Rico Abreu (Wednesday) and Christopher Bell
(Thursday) – had also won prelim features prior to this year’s event.
- - Grant won three times Friday. In addition to
winning the feature, he also won his eight-lap heat and 10-lap qualifier.
- - Friday night’s runner-up, Spencer Bayston, will
compete in his second Saturday night A-Main feature. Bayston’s previous start
resulted in an 18th-place finish in 2015.
- - Andrew Felker, the Friday night third-place
finisher, also locked himself into his second career Saturday night A-Main and
first since 2013. He placed 20th in that race.
- - Also winning multiple times Friday night, in
addition to Grant, were Thomas Meseraull and Chad Boat, who each won a heat and
a qualifier. Boat has three victories in this year’s event, having won the 20-lap
VIROC race Tuesday night.
- - Dave Darland retied Sammy Swindell for most
career heat victories in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, winning his 13th
career heat. The pair came into the event tied with 12, with Swindell winning
his heat on Wednesday night.
- - Damion Gardner, fourth in the A-Main feature,
earned his ninth career heat victory, the sixth driver to reach that plateau.
He ties J.J. Yeley for fifth all-time, trailing only Sammy Swindell (13), Dave
Darland (13), Cory Kruseman (11) and Jerry Coons Jr. (10).
- - Other drivers adding to their heat victory
totals were Thomas Meserall (6), Chad Boat (4), Sam Hafertepe Jr. (3), Justin
Grant (3), Tucker Klaasmeyer (2) and Nick Knepper (2).
- - Three drivers – David Budres, Alex Schutte and
D.J. Netto – earned their first career Chili Bowl heat wins. A total of 340
drivers, including 11 this year, have won at least one heat race in the history
of the Chili Bowl Nationals.
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