Christopher Bell won Thursday's prelim at the Chili Bowl (Brendon Bauman Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
Bryan Hulbert – TULSA, Okla. (January 14, 2021) Winning for the seventh time since 2014, Oklahoma’s Christopher Bell threw the iRacing/CB Industries No. 14 into high gear and ran away from the field through the closing laps of Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night.
“Chad [Boat] has got this thing tuned up and it’s driving really good but man, those yellows were killing me at the beginning of the race. I just wanted to get some green flag laps in. I knew this thing was good where I could stick the bottom nice and run up if I needed to,” stated Bell.
Locked into his eighth Championship A-Feature in as many years, Bell's run to the lead began from the fourth starting spot. Chasing Steve Buckwalter and Spencer Bayston through the opening laps, the first five revolutions were Buckwalter on point before coming under fire as the RMS No. 1s of Bayston made the advance off the second turn on Lap 6. Brady Bacon and Christopher Bell in tow, Bell rolled the cushion from third to first only to have the pass called back by the caution working Lap 8.
Back to Lap 7, Bayston, Bacon, and Bell again went at it for the lead with Bell to second on the restart. Getting momentum, the lead was in hand once again, but just like before, the caution negated the pass on Lap 9.
Keeping the No. 84 in tire tracks on the restart, the three-time Chili Bowl Champion made the slide for the top spot through turns one and two on Lap 11.
Asked about having to make the pass for the lead so many times, Bell said, “It’s was frustrating. You’re only going to get so many shots at the lead with those guys. Spencer [Bayston] and Brady [Bacon] and really talented drivers so I knew when they got put back in front of me, they were going to take my line away and I was going to have to find something else. Didn’t want that to happen, but luckily my car was good enough I could kind of go where they didn’t.”
Holding off Bayston through the next restart on Lap 13, the next laps saw California’s Buddy Kofoid move to second in the Keith Kunz Motorsports No 67. Green through Lap 17, the final restart saw Bell find traffic on Lap 24 with just under 1.5-seconds on the field.
Slowed little through the closing laps, Bell captured the win by 0.973-seconds. Buddy Kofoid took second with Brady Bacon third. Spencer Bayston ended up fourth with Joe B. Miller fifth. Making up seven spots, Logan Seavey was sixth with Tim Buckwalter, Trey Gropp, Andre Deal, and Matt Sherell completing the top ten.
John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night had 64 drivers make the call.
Eight Fatheadz Eyewear Heat Race wins went to Zeb Wise, Buddy Kofoid, Chance Crum, Spencer Bayston, Jeffrey Champagne, Christopher Bell, Brady Bacon, and Steve Buckwalter. A pair of C-Features was won by Jason McDougal and Brent Shearer. Team Toyota Qualifiers went to Kaylee Bryson, Carson Garrett, Spencer Bayston, and Christopher Bell. Dave.com B-Features were topped by Noah Gass and Zeb Wise.
The World Wide Technology Raceway Flip Count made it to 34, with all drivers uninjured.
The 35th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire continues Friday, January 15, 2021, with Driven2SaveLives Qualifying Night. The River Spirit Expo Center opens at 9:00 A.M. with Hot Laps at 4:00 P.M. and Racing at 5:00 P.M. (CT). A limited number of Pit Passes will be available to the General Public.
Reminder to all who attend that masks are required while inside the River Spirit Expo Center.
Those who cannot make it can see the action live on http://www.floracing.com.
For continued updates on the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire, follow the event on Social Media (@cbnationals) and at http://www.chilibowl.com.
Results:
Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire
Tulsa Expo Raceway - Tulsa, Okla.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night
Car Count: 64
Event Count: 245
Fatheadz Heat Races: Top 40 in passing points advance to Qualifiers.
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 37W-Zeb Wise[2]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 3. 35L-Cody Ledger[4]; 4. 17B-Ryan Bickett[8]; 5. 8B-Brock Berreth[6]; 6. 11X-Donovan Peterson[7]; 7. 58-Norman Rose[5]; 8. (DNF) 87F-Johnny Kent[3]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 67-Michael Kofoid[3]; 2. 15X-Carson Garrett[2]; 3. 321-Chad Winfrey[7]; 4. 68S-Andy Bradley[8]; 5. 117-Ryan Ellis[1]; 6. 21D-Justin Dickerson[4]; 7. (DNF) 11G-Mike Goodman[6]; 8. (DNF) 51X-Joe Walker[5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 47C-Chance Crum[1]; 2. 39-Logan Seavey[3]; 3. 49J-Joe B Miller[6]; 4. 29-Tim Buckwalter[7]; 5. 2H-Nick Hoffman[5]; 6. 08J-Jace McIntosh[4]; 7. 84S-Shaun Shapel[2]; 8. 5H-Casey Hicks[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 1S-Spencer Bayston[2]; 2. 1G-Chase Stockon[1]; 3. 88-Terry Babb[3]; 4. 5W-Ben Worth[5]; 5. 17X-Tres Mehler[7]; 6. 28Q-Sean Quinn[4]; 7. (DNF) 22Z-Zac Millikin[6]; 8. (DNF) 40-JT Imperial[8]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 72C-Jeffrey Champagne[1]; 2. 19P-Austin Prock[2]; 3. 11A-Andrew Felker[5]; 4. 15D-Andrew Deal[7]; 5. 2L-Matt Linder[3]; 6. 71D-Jeff Wheeler[8]; 7. (DNF) 12S-Brent Shearer[4]; 8. (DNF) 15N-Joey Brasil[6]
Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 84X-Christopher Bell[1]; 2. 31K-Frankie Guerrini[3]; 3. 2D-Matt Sherrell[7]; 4. 22T-Don Droud Jr[2]; 5. 53R-Sean Robbins[4]; 6. 17-Tanner Berryhill[6]; 7. 7M-Brody Roa[8]; 8. 7MF-Chance Morton[5]
Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 21H-Brady Bacon[8]; 2. 20G-Noah Gass[2]; 3. 21G-Trey Gropp[6]; 4. 83-TJ Smith[7]; 5. 4B-Jason McDougal[3]; 6. 78M-Merle Scherb[5]; 7. 17D-Garrett Smithley[1]; 8. 25C-Courtney Crone[4]
Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 25B-Steve Buckwalter[6]; 2. 71-Kaylee Bryson[3]; 3. 93-Kyle Bellm[2]; 4. 79M-Keith Martin[5]; 5. 56X-Mark Chisholm[4]; 6. 26M-Marshall Skinner[1]; 7. 15-Aaron Farney[7]; 8. 69-Stephen "Gravy" Fairfield[8]
C-Features: Top 4 advance to corresponding B-Feature.
C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 4B-Jason McDougal[1]; 2. 17-Tanner Berryhill[2]; 3. 7M-Brody Roa[3]; 4. 11G-Mike Goodman[6]; 5. 25C-Courtney Crone[12]; 6. 51X-Joe Walker[11]; 7. 15-Aaron Farney[5]; 8. 08J-Jace McIntosh[4]; 9. 5H-Casey Hicks[8]; 10. 58-Norman Rose[7]; 11. 17D-Garrett Smithley[10]; 12. (DNF) 69-Stephen "Gravy" Fairfield[9]
C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 12S-Brent Shearer[7]; 2. 7MF-Chance Morton[9]; 3. 87F-Johnny Kent[10]; 4. 21D-Justin Dickerson[3]; 5. 117-Ryan Ellis[1]; 6. 26M-Marshall Skinner[5]; 7. 78M-Merle Scherb[2]; 8. 84S-Shaun Shapel[8]; 9. 28Q-Sean Quinn[4]; 10. (DNF) 22Z-Zac Millikin[6]; 11. (DNS) 40-JT Imperial; 12. (DNS) 15N-Joey Brasil
Team Toyota Qualifiers: Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the A-Feature.
Qualifier 1 (10 Laps): 1. 71-Kaylee Bryson[2]; 2. 21G-Trey Gropp[4]; 3. 21H-Brady Bacon[6]; 4. 83-TJ Smith[1]; 5. 2D-Matt Sherrell[5]; 6. 17B-Ryan Bickett[3]; 7. 93-Kyle Bellm[8]; 8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]; 9. 8B-Brock Berreth[9]; 10. (DNF) 53R-Sean Robbins[10]
Qualifier 2 (10 Laps): 1. 15X-Carson Garrett[1]; 2. 25B-Steve Buckwalter[6]; 3. 22T-Don Droud Jr[9]; 4. 11A-Andrew Felker[2]; 5. 47C-Chance Crum[4]; 6. 1G-Chase Stockon[7]; 7. 5W-Ben Worth[8]; 8. 56X-Mark Chisholm[10]; 9. (DNF) 37W-Zeb Wise[5]; 10. (DNF) 68S-Andy Bradley[3]
Qualifier 3 (10 Laps): 1. 1S-Spencer Bayston[5]; 2. 29-Tim Buckwalter[2]; 3. 39-Logan Seavey[3]; 4. 67-Michael Kofoid[6]; 5. 72C-Jeffrey Champagne[4]; 6. 35L-Cody Ledger[7]; 7. 19P-Austin Prock[1]; 8. 11X-Donovan Peterson[10]; 9. 79M-Keith Martin[8]; 10. 71D-Jeff Wheeler[9]
Qualifier 4 (10 Laps): 1. 84X-Christopher Bell[4]; 2. 15D-Andrew Deal[2]; 3. 49J-Joe B Miller[5]; 4. 20G-Noah Gass[1]; 5. 31K-Frankie Guerrini[3]; 6. 2H-Nick Hoffman[9]; 7. 321-Chad Winfrey[6]; 8. 88-Terry Babb[7]; 9. 2L-Matt Linder[10]; 10. 17X-Tres Mehler[8]
Dave.com B-Features: Top 4 advance to the A-Feature.
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 20G-Noah Gass[2]; 2. 35L-Cody Ledger[4]; 3. 19P-Austin Prock[6]; 4. 7M-Brody Roa[13]; 5. 2H-Nick Hoffman[5]; 6. 72C-Jeffrey Champagne[1]; 7. 17-Tanner Berryhill[12]; 8. 321-Chad Winfrey[3]; 9. 11G-Mike Goodman[14]; 10. 88-Terry Babb[7]; 11. 71D-Jeff Wheeler[10]; 12. 11X-Donovan Peterson[8]; 13. (DNF) 4B-Jason McDougal[11]; 14. (DNF) 2L-Matt Linder[9]; 15. (DNS) 5W-Ben Worth; 16. (DNS) 68S-Andy Bradley
B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 37W-Zeb Wise[6]; 2. 93-Kyle Bellm[5]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]; 4. 31K-Frankie Guerrini[2]; 5. 7MF-Chance Morton[14]; 6. 83-TJ Smith[1]; 7. 17B-Ryan Bickett[4]; 8. 17X-Tres Mehler[9]; 9. 87F-Johnny Kent[13]; 10. 12S-Brent Shearer[11]; 11. (DNF) 8B-Brock Berreth[10]; 12. (DNF) 21D-Justin Dickerson[15]; 13. (DNF) 1G-Chase Stockon[3]; 14. (DNF) 56X-Mark Chisholm[8]; 15. (DNF) 53R-Sean Robbins[12]; 16. (DNS) 79M-Keith Martin
A-Feature: Top 2 advance to Saturday's A-Feature.
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 84X-Christopher Bell[4]; 2. 67-Michael Kofoid[7]; 3. 21H-Brady Bacon[2]; 4. 1S-Spencer Bayston[3]; 5. 49J-Joe B Miller[8]; 6. 39-Logan Seavey[13]; 7. 29-Tim Buckwalter[11]; 8. 21G-Trey Gropp[5]; 9. 15D-Andrew Deal[12]; 10. 2D-Matt Sherrell[14]; 11. 71-Kaylee Bryson[6]; 12. 31K-Frankie Guerrini[24]; 13. 15X-Carson Garrett[9]; 14. 11A-Andrew Felker[15]; 15. 47C-Chance Crum[16]; 16. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[22]; 17. 20G-Noah Gass[17]; 18. 93-Kyle Bellm[20]; 19. 22T-Don Droud Jr[10]; 20. 7M-Brody Roa[23]; 21. (DNF) 25B-Steve Buckwalter[1]; 22. (DNF) 35L-Cody Ledger[19]; 23. (DNF) 37W-Zeb Wise[18]; 24. (DNF) 19P-Austin Prock[21]
Lap Leader(s): Steve Buckwalter 1-5; Spencer Bayston 6-7, 9; Christopher Bell 8, 10-30;
Hard Charger: Frankie Guerrini +12