TULSA, Okla. — Logan Seavey held off the charge of Tanner Thorson to win the 37th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire at Tulsa Expo Raceway inside the SageNet Center.
On Friday Seavey won a midget race for the first time in more than a year, and he followed it up with an impressive victory in Saturday’s 55-lap finale aboard Kevin Swindell’s No. 39 machine.
“I don’t even know yet,” chuckled Seavey when asked how it felt to win. “I’ll let you know tomorrow, but for now, it feels awesome. It really set in when they handed me the Driller, and I got to talk to Kevin a little bit. He deserves it, and will probably get a lot more, so to win this race is special, but to win it in the No. 39 on our first try is really cool.”
The 23rd driver to top the Chili Bowl, the win is a first for Kevin and Jordan Swindell as car owners. The Swindell name now accounts for 14 overall wins in Chili Bowl competition. Of that, 10 came with a Golden Driller. The pair’s time in Tulsa this year also included his first win as a car owner at the Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout.
A redo on the restart after trailing Hank Davis, the reset for a spun car saw Seavey rolling out with the lead. Chased by Cannon McIntosh, who drove his Dave Mac Motorsports machine into the lead on lap 21 with a low side move off the fourth turn.
In traffic shortly after, McIntosh held the position but would find his lead challenged following a lap 30. Working the hub of the Tulsa Expo Raceway before varying his line at either end, Seavey took the Victory Fuel No. 39 back to the point on lap 31.
Taking second in the same breath, defending winner Thorson was in pursuit. Both changing up their lines to gain an edge on the other, the track finally migrated the field low with just a handful of laps to run.
Trying to set up Seavey for a last-lap run, the caution would bring about a green-white-checkered finish, with Seavey holding off Thorson by .306 seconds.
Falling back to fourth at one point, McIntosh battled back to third with California’s Shane Golobic in fourth. Emerson Axsom completed the top five.
Making up ten positions, Kyle Jones stormed to a sixth-place finish, with Mitchel Moles in seventh. Trey Marcham from 14th land eighth, followed by Tim Buckwalter, who made an impressive run from 23rd to ninth. Justin Grant completed the top 10.
The finish:
Feature (55 Laps): 1. 39-Logan Seavey[1]; 2. 88-Tanner Thorson[4]; 3. 08-Cannon McIntosh[3]; 4. 17W-Shane Golobic[6]; 5. 19T-Emerson Axsom[7]; 6. 7U-Kyle Jones[16]; 7. 89X-Mitchel Moles[9]; 8. 32T-Trey Marcham[14]; 9. 29-Tim Buckwalter[23]; 10. 2J-Justin Grant[10]; 11. 39T-Tim McCreadie[24]; 12. 5T-Kevin Thomas Jr[19]; 13. 26R-Zeb Wise[17]; 14. 89-Chris Windom[11]; 15. 19A-Daison Pursley[22]; 16. 40M-Chase McDermand[12]; 17. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[18]; 18. 84-Jade Avedisian[13]; 19. 67-Ryan Timms[21]; 20. 29S-Hank Davis[2]; 21. 24-Rico Abreu[5]; 22. 71-Kaylee Bryson[20]; 23. (DNF) 1S-Spencer Bayston[8]; 24. (DNF) 71M-Brent Crews[15]