TULSA, Okla. – Kyle Larson may have earned the victory in the 35th Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals, but there were numerous other winners and plenty of thrilling moments during an entire day of racing through the alphabet.
Lucas Oil Championship Day began just before lunch Saturday at Tulsa Expo Raceway.
Roy Larkin and Casey Hicks began the program by topping the twin M-Features, with Aaron Farney and Alex Schriever ruling a pair of L-Features. Courtney Crone was the only female racer to win on the day, splitting the K-Feature spoils with Brayton Lynch, the grandson of legendary crew chief Rusty Kunz.
Schriever’s L-Feature was time-shortened, while both of the K-Features also hit the time limit.
Kyle Simon and Lucas Scherb grabbed Kevin Studley J-Feature victories, and Jason McDougal and Justin Allgaier each claimed an I-Feature win to extend their days.
McDougal’s I-Feature score was part of a magical, six-feature run all the way up to the D-Feature, where he was running inside a C-Feature transfer spot on the last lap before being spun by Ryan Bernal.
The Broken Arrow, Okla., native officially advanced 54 positions from where he started in the I-Feature to his 12th-place finish in his D-Feature Saturday afternoon.
Eric Wilkins and Ryan Hall took home victory plaques in their respective H-Features, followed by Mike Goodman and Jonathan Halford, who topped G-Features to bring their groups of transfers onward.
Winning F-Features were teammates Jeffrey Champagne and Sam Johnson, with another pair of teammates reigning in the E-Features as Matt Wood Racing stablemates Ryan Bernal and Shane Golobic took the spoils of victory in those contests.
Tyler Thomas and Tucker Klaasmeyer split the twin D-Features between themselves, marking the final on-track action before the live television window opened and the MAVTV cameras began rolling.
Zeb Wise put together an impressive roll to make the MAVTV portion of the program, coming from seventh to fourth in his E-Feature and then storming from 19th to fourth to advance from D to C.
The first C-Feature saw Trey Marcham lead all 15 laps from the pole to win, followed by Daison Pursley, Parker Price Miller, Alex Sewell and Ethan Mitchell, while World of Outlaws Late Model Series director Casey Shuman rolled the middle in “an impersonation of Donny Schatz” to take the second C Main.
Gio Scelzi, Andrew Deal, Klaasmeyer and Ace McCarthy trailed Shuman at the finish but all advanced into the night’s second B-Feature to give themselves a shot at the big show.
The first 20-lap B-Feature saw Tanner Thorson soar around Blake Hahn for the point at halfway, with Thorson rolling on to the win as Hahn hung on for second to make the big dance once again as well.
Spencer Bayston, Logan Seavey, Brad Sweet, Chase Johnson and Colby Copeland completed the top seven in the first B-Feature.
The second B-Feature went caution-free in one of the few mains from the entire Saturday program to run green to checkered without incident. It also featured a late, and entertaining, battle in traffic.
However, in the end it was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for Clauson Marshall Racing who led all 20 laps and beat CB Industries’ Chris Windom for the top honors in the second B-main.
Brady Bacon, Joe B. Miller, Daryn Pittman, Jake Neuman and Cole Bodine filled out the list of transfers into the A-Feature from the second last chance race.
By virtue of a 10th-place finish in the first B-Feature, 16-year-old Daison Pursley of Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports received the 2021 Chili Bowl Rookie of the Year Award.
The 36th running of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals will see the race continue with its current format of six nights of racing, running from Jan. 10-15, 2022.
To view complete results from the alphabet soup portion of the program, advance to the next page.
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