TULSA, Okla. — Chaos reigned and so did Logan Seavey, who landed his fourth JST Motorsports preliminary A-Feature win in as many years during Hard Rock Hotel Casino Tulsa Qualifying Night at the 40th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink.
The second win of the week for car owners Kevin and Jordan Swindell, the win for Seavey’s fifth overall preliminary night win since 2019.
Giving chase to Justin Grant through the first 11 laps, a slip on the cushion let Seavey swing into the lead for two laps before Grant was able to slip back to the top as the pair hit slower traffic with Steven Snyder, Jr. and Gavin Miller into the mix.
Caution with 13 laps to run, Gavin Miller in second was in hot pursuit on the restart.
Taking the lead with ten laps to run, Miller’s advantage was short-lived as Seavey, who had slipped back to fourth, came charging back to the front on Lap 22.
On getting back to the front, Seavey said, “Yeah, at the point of the caution, I didn’t really know where my opportunity was going to come. I went from third to the lead to 4th and felt like a blink of an eye. Justin slid me, and I looked up, and I was in fourth real quick, so I had to kind of settle back in and make a few minor adjustments with my car.”
Justin Grant in the mix for the final transfer spot for Saturday night, the two started going line for line, with Miller sending it a little too hard; clipping the wall with his right rear and flipping wildly over the top of Grant, and collecting Steven Snyder Jr.
Pulling away with the lead on the restart, the chaos was turned up to 10 for second as Wout Hoffmans, Grant, and Daryn Pittman went to war with Pittman holding the spot to the white flag.
Through the first and second turns, a touch too much into the cushion on exit gave Grant the advantage he needed to secure the runner-up spot in a drag race to the line, as Seavey won by 1.536 seconds.
Grant’s last-lap pass puts him in his ninth Saturday night JST Motorsports A-Feature. Pittman in third will start Saturday in the first Ferguson Enterprise B-Feature with Wout Hoffman delivering his best preliminary night performance in fourth. Giovanni Scelzi from 13th completed the top five.
A record attendance was reached on Friday, with 387 out of the 406 entries received confirmed at the draw. The previous record was 381, set in 2021. Friday’s Hard Rock Hotel Casino Tulsa field was comprised of 83 entries.
The finish
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 39-Logan Seavey[3]; 2. 87-Justin Grant[1]; 3. 21-Daryn Pittman[4]; 4. 14J-Wout Hoffmans[2]; 5. 71C-Giovanni Scelzi[13]; 6. 2-Jesse Love[17]; 7. 28-Ace McCarthy[11]; 8. 19A-Hayden Reinbold[6]; 9. 9A-Ronnie Gardner[9]; 10. 94-Hayden Wise[19]; 11. 07W-Austin Wood[21]; 12. 54-Matt Westfall[10]; 13. 75-Mario Clouser[12]; 14. 66B-Broedy Graham[18]; 15. 71H-Mason Hannagan[8]; 16. 19B-Jack Berger[16]; 17. 77-Joe Wirth[24]; 18. 95-Chris Andrews[20]; 19. 14-Jett Nunley[23]; 20. 63X-Frankie Guerrini[22]; 21. 98P-Ryan Padgett[15]; 22. (DNF) 97-Gavin Miller[7]; 23. (DNF) 40X-Steven Snyder Jr[5]; 24. (DNF) 5U-Michael Faccinto[14]
