Justin Grant won Friday's Prelim at the Chili Bowl (Ryan Black Photo)
Bryan Hulbert – TULSA, Okla. (January 14, 2022) Powering to his fifth Driven2SaveLives Preliminary Night Victory in the past six years, California’s Justin Grant held off the charge of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in the closing laps to lock into his sixth career Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire A-Feature event.
The win by Grant is the first of the week for RMS/NOS Energy Drink Team; ending the steak of preliminary wins by Keith Kunz Motorsports at four. The win is also the fourth of the week by a driver from California. Oklahoma’s Christopher Bell captured Thursday’s prelim victory.
Working by early leader, Sam Johnson, on Lap 16, Grant sailed the cushion until a restart on Lap 24 threatened his lead when Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. charged the hub to the top spot, only to have a caution negate the pass.
“That yellow doesn’t come out, I’m pretty sure Ricky [Stenhouse] wins that race,” stated Grant when asked about the challenge for the lead.
“We caught a big break there getting back to the lead and knowing that the bottom was there, and it was cleaning off, but I still didn’t feel that great down there so I kept trying to circle the top of one and two, and then he finally rolled up alongside me and I had to hustle down the backstretch and get that door closed.”
Adjusting to the bottom on the restart, it was a dogfight as the pair slammed tires several times trying to up the other with Grant finally getting the advantage. A slight amount of breathing room rolling to the white flag, that was quickly reduced to car lengths as Stenhouse returned to the cushion in three and four for one final attempt. Tight through the center, that allowed Grant to hold on by 0.504-seconds
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in second was followed closely by Zeb Wise, who tore a path through the field from 17th. Bryant Wiedeman was fourth with Sam Johnson posting a career-high fifth-place finish. Michael Faccinto crossed sixth, with Clinton Boyles rolling to seventh from 11th. Spinning on Lap 16, Kasey Kahne made a massive rebound to finish eighth with Chase McDermand ninth. Ethan Mitchell made up five spots to complete Friday’s top ten.
With preliminary nights complete, the official count of competitors into the 36th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire is a new record of 381. Officially, 395 entries were turned in without cancelation before the event.
On Friday night, the World Wide Technology Raceway Flip Count made it to 46 with everyone able to walk away.
Setting the stage of Saturday’s run through “The Soup”, the SageNet Center will open at 7:00 A.M. with Hot Laps at 9:00 A.M. (CT). Saturday is slated to start with double Q-Features. Lineups for each event are online at https://www.chilibowl.com/news/?i=103209&clk=featureNews. General Admission Pit Passes are sold at the event and never sell out.
Live coverage can be found on http://www.floracing.com until the event switches live to MAVTV after Opening Ceremonies.
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.
Friday, January 14, 2022
Drive2SaveLives Qualifying Night
Car Count: 83
Event Count: 381 (New Record)
OERB Heat Races: Top 40 in passing points advance to Qualifiers.
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 84-Michael Faccinto[2]; 2. 77X-Wayne Johnson[9]; 3. 31B-Kyle Beilman[1]; 4. 21-Daryn Pittman[10]; 5. 19F-Frank Flud[7]; 6. 57A-Jack Routson[5]; 7. 44D-Ty Hulsey[4]; 8. 50S-Rocky Silva[8]; 9. (DNF) 14S-Presley Truedson[3]; 10. (DNF) 79M-Cruz Pedregon[6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 97W-Zeb Wise[2]; 2. 11A-Andrew Felker[3]; 3. 95-Chris Andrews[4]; 4. 51Z-Zach Boden[6]; 5. 6X-Jesse Denome[1]; 6. 0Z-Landon Crawley[5]; 7. 51R-Ricky Thornton Jr[9]; 8. 47D-Conor Daly[8]; 9. 16X-Dave Axton[7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 32W-Casey Shuman[5]; 2. 08M-Jace McIntosh[1]; 3. 31M-David Budres[6]; 4. 87F-Johnny Kent[7]; 5. 75J-Jett Hays[8]; 6. 8B-Colby Deming[4]; 7. (DNF) 56M-Garrett Thomas[2]; 8. (DNF) 46-Kenney Johnson[3]; 9. (DNS) 53-Brett Wilson
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 72J-Sam Johnson[2]; 2. 11X-Donovan Peterson[6]; 3. 75B-Ryan Newman[9]; 4. 14-Dylan Postier[5]; 5. 14U-Austin Torgerson[7]; 6. 97R-Ryan Ellis[3]; 7. 101-Chuck McGillivray[1]; 8. (DNF) 10J-Lane Goodman[8]; 9. (DNF) 87W-Ryan Bernal[4]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 11B-Clinton Boyles[2]; 2. 40M-Chase McDermand[4]; 3. 01K-Bryant Wiedeman[5]; 4. 3G-Kyle Cummins[1]; 5. 1X-Anthony Esberg[3]; 6. 73-Dylan Ito[7]; 7. 12M-Jeff Champagne[9]; 8. 75T-Tyler Ross[8]; 9. 117-Ray Seeman[6]
Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 1UK-Tom Harris[1]; 2. 26E-Cory Eliason[2]; 3. 4T-Trey Gropp[7]; 4. 68C-Jimmy Gardner[4]; 5. 23S-Kyle Simon[6]; 6. 45H-Logan Calderwood[8]; 7. 39-Logan Seavey[5]; 8. 33-Jackie Burke[3]; 9. 27K-Tucker Klaasmeyer[9]
Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Ace McCarthy[8]; 2. 97K-Brenham Crouch[3]; 3. 9C-Colten Cottle[4]; 4. 20-Tadd Holliman[1]; 5. 2B-Brett Becker[7]; 6. 1H-Brad Wyatt[5]; 7. 2-Ronny Howard[9]; 8. (DNF) 00J-Jamie Speers[6]; 9. (DNF) 20W-Shawn Wicker[2]
Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 7R-AJ Hopkins[2]; 2. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[1]; 3. 68-Ronnie Gardner[8]; 4. 44X-Wesley Smith[4]; 5. 11G-Mike Goodman[6]; 6. 88W-Dustin Weland[3]; 7. 3C-Bryon Walters[7]; 8. (DNF) 1F-Ryan Thomas[5]; 9. (DNS) 16-Santino Ferrucci
Heat 9 (8 Laps): 1. 47S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[8]; 2. 19S-Kasey Kahne[4]; 3. 2J-Justin Grant[7]; 4. 1P-Terry Nichols[1]; 5. 12-Corbin Gurley[2]; 6. 14J-Jody Rosenboom[9]; 7. 71H-Bob Schaeffer[3]; 8. 0-Johnny Murdock[6]; 9. 7Z-Wes Benson[5]
D-Features: Top 2 advance to corresponding C-Feature.
D Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 27K-Tucker Klaasmeyer[6]; 2. 75T-Tyler Ross[3]; 3. 47D-Conor Daly[2]; 4. 71H-Bob Schaeffer[1]; 5. 1F-Ryan Thomas[5]; 6. 101-Chuck McGillivray[4]; 7. 117-Ray Seeman[8]; 8. 33-Jackie Burke[7]; 9. (DNF) 53-Brett Wilson[9]; 10. (DNS) 87W-Ryan Bernal; 11. (DNS) 20W-Shawn Wicker
D Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 10J-Lane Goodman[2]; 2. 46-Kenney Johnson[6]; 3. 14S-Presley Truedson[7]; 4. 50S-Rocky Silva[1]; 5. 56M-Garrett Thomas[3]; 6. 7Z-Wes Benson[8]; 7. 16X-Dave Axton[5]; 8. 0-Johnny Murdock[4]; 9. (DNF) 00J-Jamie Speers[9]; 10. (DNF) 79M-Cruz Pedregon[10]; 11. (DNF) 16-Santino Ferrucci[11]
C-Features: Top 4 advance to corresponding B-Feature.
C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 51R-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 2. 39-Logan Seavey[10]; 3. 45H-Logan Calderwood[1]; 4. 20-Tadd Holliman[2]; 5. 12-Corbin Gurley[5]; 6. 73-Dylan Ito[3]; 7. 1H-Brad Wyatt[7]; 8. 75T-Tyler Ross[12]; 9. 8B-Colby Deming[8]; 10. 88W-Dustin Weland[9]; 11. 57A-Jack Routson[6]; 12. 27K-Tucker Klaasmeyer[11]
C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 0Z-Landon Crawley[6]; 2. 3G-Kyle Cummins[1]; 3. 12M-Jeff Champagne[4]; 4. 1P-Terry Nichols[2]; 5. 44D-Ty Hulsey[10]; 6. 2-Ronny Howard[7]; 7. 1X-Anthony Esberg[3]; 8. 97R-Ryan Ellis[8]; 9. 6X-Jesse Denome[5]; 10. 3C-Bryon Walters[9]; 11. (DNF) 46-Kenney Johnson[12]; 12. (DNF) 10J-Lane Goodman[11]
Team Toyota Qualifiers: Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the A-Feature.
Qualifier 1 (10 Laps): 1. 72J-Sam Johnson[3]; 2. 97K-Brenham Crouch[1]; 3. 19S-Kasey Kahne[2]; 4. 47S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[6]; 5. 75B-Ryan Newman[5]; 6. 4T-Trey Gropp[4]; 7. 19F-Frank Flud[9]; 8. 08M-Jace McIntosh[7]; 9. 75J-Jett Hays[8]; 10. 68C-Jimmy Gardner[10]
Qualifier 2 (10 Laps): 1. 01K-Bryant Wiedeman[1]; 2. 2J-Justin Grant[4]; 3. 11B-Clinton Boyles[3]; 4. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[7]; 5. 11X-Donovan Peterson[5]; 6. 77X-Wayne Johnson[6]; 7. 14U-Austin Torgerson[9]; 8. 44X-Wesley Smith[10]; 9. 9C-Colten Cottle[8]; 10. 31M-David Budres[2]
Qualifier 3 (10 Laps): 1. 1UK-Tom Harris[2]; 2. 84-Michael Faccinto[4]; 3. 68-Ronnie Gardner[5]; 4. 7R-AJ Hopkins[3]; 5. 28-Ace McCarthy[6]; 6. 87F-Johnny Kent[1]; 7. 23S-Kyle Simon[10]; 8. 14-Dylan Postier[8]; 9. 2B-Brett Becker[9]; 10. 95-Chris Andrews[7]
Qualifier 4 (10 Laps): 1. 40M-Chase McDermand[3]; 2. 26E-Cory Eliason[1]; 3. 11A-Andrew Felker[2]; 4. 97W-Zeb Wise[4]; 5. 21-Daryn Pittman[5]; 6. 32W-Casey Shuman[6]; 7. 14J-Jody Rosenboom[9]; 8. 51Z-Zach Boden[7]; 9. 31B-Kyle Beilman[8]; 10. 11G-Mike Goodman[10]
Dave.com B-Features: Top 4 advance to the A-Feature.
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 97W-Zeb Wise[2]; 2. 32W-Casey Shuman[1]; 3. 11A-Andrew Felker[3]; 4. 19F-Frank Flud[5]; 5. 4T-Trey Gropp[4]; 6. 39-Logan Seavey[14]; 7. 08M-Jace McIntosh[7]; 8. 31M-David Budres[10]; 9. 75J-Jett Hays[9]; 10. 51R-Ricky Thornton Jr[13]; 11. 45H-Logan Calderwood[15]; 12. 23S-Kyle Simon[6]; 13. 31B-Kyle Beilman[11]; 14. 68C-Jimmy Gardner[12]; 15. 20-Tadd Holliman[16]; 16. 51Z-Zach Boden[8]
B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 21-Daryn Pittman[3]; 2. 26E-Cory Eliason[1]; 3. 44X-Wesley Smith[7]; 4. 7R-AJ Hopkins[2]; 5. 14U-Austin Torgerson[5]; 6. 9C-Colten Cottle[9]; 7. 14J-Jody Rosenboom[6]; 8. 12M-Jeff Champagne[13]; 9. 14-Dylan Postier[8]; 10. 0Z-Landon Crawley[11]; 11. 87F-Johnny Kent[4]; 12. 2B-Brett Becker[10]; 13. (DNF) 11G-Mike Goodman[12]; 14. (DNF) 3G-Kyle Cummins[14]; 15. (DNF) 1P-Terry Nichols[15]; 16. (DNS) 95-Chris Andrews
A-Feature: Top 2 advance to Saturday's A-Feature.
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2J-Justin Grant[4]; 2. 47S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[1]; 3. 97W-Zeb Wise[17]; 4. 01K-Bryant Wiedeman[9]; 5. 72J-Sam Johnson[2]; 6. 84-Michael Faccinto[5]; 7. 11B-Clinton Boyles[11]; 8. 19S-Kasey Kahne[14]; 9. 40M-Chase McDermand[3]; 10. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[15]; 11. 68-Ronnie Gardner[6]; 12. 11A-Andrew Felker[21]; 13. 75B-Ryan Newman[13]; 14. 77X-Wayne Johnson[10]; 15. 28-Ace McCarthy[8]; 16. 21-Daryn Pittman[18]; 17. 26E-Cory Eliason[20]; 18. 19F-Frank Flud[23]; 19. 97K-Brenham Crouch[12]; 20. 11X-Donovan Peterson[16]; 21. 1UK-Tom Harris[7]; 22. 32W-Casey Shuman[19]; 23. (DNF) 44X-Wesley Smith[22]; 24. (DNF) 7R-AJ Hopkins[24]
Lap Leader(s): Sam Johnson 1-16; Justin Grant 17-30
Hard Charger: Zeb Wise +17