TULSA, Okla. — Breaking a four-year streak of Kyle Larson preliminary night victories, Buddy Kofoid earned his first Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals preliminary feature win Tuesday during Warren CAT Qualifying Night.
Delivering Keith Kunz win No. 31 at Tulsa Expo Raceway, the fight for the victory was nearly nonstop as Kofoid chased defending Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals champion Larson through the opening 24 revolutions.
Larson held the driver of the Keith Kunz Motorsports-Curb-Agajanian No. 67 at bay during several early restarts. Larson found traffic on lap 14, which allowed Kofoid to close in.
“I was trying to stay close to him in traffic. All the lappers were running their own race side by side, so you kind of had to pick through and be able to be there,” said Kofoid. “The opportunity never really came in traffic like I thought, and the top side started getting really treacherous in three and four.”
After a caution on lap 20, Kofoid dove low during the restart but was unable to advance before the caution flag waved again on lap 23. Reverting back to the last completed lap for the restart, Larson and Kofoid traded lines at both ends of the quarter-mile temporary dirt oval, only to have the caution flag wave yet again.
Taking the bottom for the final run, Kofoid railed the cushion to the lead off the second turn. Larson threw a barrage of slide jobs at Kofoid in the laps that followed. Larson cleared the nose of the No. 67 a few times, but each time Kofoid was able to turn back to Larson’s inside and regain the lead. Kofoid slammed off the turn two cushion on lap 28, which gave him the room he needed to secure the victory by 1.738 seconds.
The race for second saw Windom taking the position from Larson at the white flag, but Larson regained the spot at the checkered flag to lock himself into Saturday’s feature.
Windom settled for third, with Jake Swanson moving up seven spots to fourth. Racing from 13th, Thomas Meseraull completed the top five.
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