TULSA, Okla. — With another fight to the finish during the 39th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink, Thursday’s Hasty Bake Qualifying Night A-Feature came down to the final lap with Tanner Thorson holding off Ryan Bernal and Christopher Bell for the victory.
Thorson said, “That yellow came out, and I’m like [Christopher] Bell is the last person I want behind me on a restart, so I’m looking for my guys to tell me kind of where to go, and I didn’t know, and I about gave it away when I thought Bell as to my inside, and it’s [Ryan] Bernal, and I’m like, ‘Holy crap, we’re about to get our doors blown off,’ so it was tricky.”
Thorson’s third career preliminary night victory in 12 starts since 2014, the fight for the win began with Karter Sarff, who drove around Thorson to lead the third and fourth laps.
Tight into the cushion on a Lap 5-restart, that allowed Thorson to retake the point. Battling next with Bell, the pair set sights on the leader, with Bell able to roll to the point on Lap 10.
Caution with nine laps to go, Bell and Thorson began trading top and bottom at opposite ends of the Tulsa Expo Raceway, with Thorson settling in the cushion to rocket back to the lead on Lap 25 before the caution waved.
Caution at the white flag, the stage was set for a green-white-checkered showdown with the battle going three deep as Ryan Bernal, who was nearly collected in the crash that caused the final restart, sticking the bottom to take the race three-wide through the final lap.
Burying the right rear into the cushion, Thorson held off the challenge, with Bernal grabbing the final transfer spot into Saturday’s A-Feature.
Matt Westfall moved from eighth to fourth with Jacob Denney rolling 11th to fifth.
Thursday’s Hasty Bake Qualifying Night had 79 drivers on hand, bringing the running competing entry total to 292 with another 86 slated for Friday night.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 88-Tanner Thorson[1]; 2. 87W-Ryan Bernal[5]; 3. 71W-Christopher Bell[4]; 4. 54-Matt Westfall[8]; 5. 67W-Jacob Denney[11]; 6. 81F-Frank Flud[13]; 7. 9U-Kyle Spence[10]; 8. 7M-Shane Cottle[7]; 9. 51F-Brody Fuson[21]; 10. 21H-Brady Bacon[20]; 11. 89X-Chris Windom[15]; 12. 77D-Dalten Gabbard[23]; 13. 2D-Matt Sherrell[9]; 14. 91-Jeff Stasa[22]; 15. 1S-Spencer Bayston[18]; 16. 3P-Drake Edwards[17]; 17. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[14]; 18. 41P-Parker Jones[6]; 19. 15D-Andrew Deal[19]; 20. 938-Bradley Fezard[12]; 21. 45B-Bradley Cox[24]; 22. (DNF) 55V-CJ Leary[3]; 23. (DNF) 5-Karter Sarff[2]; 24. (DNF) 21X-Casey Shuman[16]
