TULSA, Okla. — Taking over as the winningest driver in preliminary night competition, defending Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink winner Kyle Larson to his ninth career preliminary night win during Monday’s 2nd Opinion Auto Center Qualifying Night.
In a four-way tie for the record with Rico Abreu, Christopher Bell and Sammy Swindell all having eight wins going into Monday’s JST Motorsports A-Feature, Larson railed the top of the Tulsa Expo Raceway from the start.
“Thought it was pretty similar track prep before the Race of Champions. I thought the bottom would live a little bit longer than it did in the Race of Champions, which it did. I was just surprised they didn’t move up in front of me until they caught traffic,” commented Larson. “Just worked out in my favor. Track position is really important when you have four or five good guys up front, and it’s who can get the lead the quickest.”
Chasing Cannon McIntosh through the opening circuits, Larson cut the gap to a half-second on Lap 9 and carried that momentum to the point on the next revolution.
Caution on Lap 18 as the battle at the front began to tighten in traffic, Larson had a great restart with Briggs Danner in a fight for second before the caution waved for debris a lap later.
A better start for McIntosh, who pulled next to Larson in the first and second turns, the HendrickCars.com No. 1k was to good off the cushion, leaving McIntosh to deal with Danner, who worked to second with 10 to go.
Danner closed the gap on Larson to a few car lengths in the final few laps. Trying to set up for a last lap swing for the lead, there was no passing Larson, who won by 0.505 seconds to lock into his 13th championship feature event.
Danner, into his second Saturday A-Feature, was trailed by McIntosh, who locks into a Ferguson Enterprises B Feature on Saturday.
Shane Golobic and Jerry Coons, Jr. completed the top five.
Monday’s 2nd Opinion Auto Center Qualifying Night had 69 drivers check in. The Flip Count reached four with all drivers ok. Monday also included the O’Reilly Auto Parts Invitational Race of Champions, which was topped by Christopher Bell.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1K-Kyle Larson[4]; 2. 55I-Briggs Danner[2]; 3. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[1]; 4. 17W-Shane Golobic[3]; 5. 85-Jerry Coons Jr[5]; 6. 3P-Justin Peck[7]; 7. 9U-Kameron Key[8]; 8. 98-Tanner Carrick[9]; 9. 44K-Jakeb Boxell[10]; 10. 2H-Nick Hoffman[14]; 11. 32-Gary Taylor[11]; 12. 32T-Trey Marcham[16]; 13. 3Z-Trey Zorn[19]; 14. 35L-Gaige Weldon[12]; 15. 68W-Jake Andreotti[18]; 16. 60X-Dillon Welch[6]; 17. 51B-Joe B Miller[15]; 18. 71G-Zach Hampton[13]; 19. 93-Ryder McCutcheon[23]; 20. 32A-Alex Sewell[20]; 21. 20H-Noah Harris[24]; 22. 55D-Nick Drake[21]; 23. 55K-Todd Kluever[22]; 24. 2B-Tanner Berryhill[17]
