TULSA, Okla. — A late caution turned into a charge to victory, as Oklahoma’s Christopher Bell rolled the hub of the Tulsa Expo Raceway to victory lane during Thursday’s Hasty Bake Qualifying Night at the 40th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink.
Already a winner during Monday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Invitational Race of Champions, Bell’s Thursday win is his ninth in JST Motorsports preliminary A-Feature competition.
“I didn’t think I was going to get there,” said Bell when asked about how hard he had to work for the win.
“When the yellow came out, I didn’t know how far away those guys were, but I really just didn’t have the pace, and everyone was really committed to the top, and I wasn’t able to keep up, so when the yellow came out, I knew I was going to have to do something different.”
Starting the JST Motorsports A-Feature from eighth, the front was commanded by Indiana’s C.J. Leary as Bayston, Bernal, and Windom all battled NOS livery for the runner-up spot.
Working into traffic, Leary’s challenger took the form of Ryan Bernal, with both wrestling a monster cushion, with Bernal finally getting the run for the lead with seven laps to run. Able to reclaim the point, the caution flew before Leary was able to get back around to complete the lap.
Caution again with five laps to run, and Bell up two spots since the previous restart, the Rheem No. 21cb was quick to get around Leary and set sights on Bernal.
Low line to three to go, Bell pulled up quickly and threw the slide in the first and second turns. Breaking Bernal’s momentum, the Bell shot back to the hub, and from there, pulled away by 0.778 seconds.
Battling his way by the NOS Energy Drink No. 87w, Leary punched his ticket into Saturday’s JST Motorsports A-Feature for the fifth time in his career. Bernal settled for third with Spencer Bayston and Kyle Cummins completing the top five.
Thursday’s Hasty Bake Qualifying Night saw a field of 82 drivers on hand to bring the week’s total to 304 through the first four nights.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 21CB-Christopher Bell[8]; 2. 55X-CJ Leary[1]; 3. 87W-Ryan Bernal[5]; 4. 1S-Spencer Bayston[3]; 5. 39G-Kyle Cummins[7]; 6. 88-Tanner Thorson[6]; 7. 89-Chris Windom[4]; 8. 5-Karter Sarff[11]; 9. 67-Jacob Denney[9]; 10. 67A-Ashton Torgerson[2]; 11. 2D-Matt Sherrell[17]; 12. 81F-Frank Flud[13]; 13. 21H-Brady Bacon[14]; 14. 55T-Trevor Cline[16]; 15. 19-Joel Myers Jr[10]; 16. 20Q-Brecken Reese[12]; 17. 41J-Parker Jones[19]; 18. 27X-Kalib Henry[21]; 19. 8B-Jeffrey Abbey[15]; 20. 23S-Kyle Simon[23]; 21. 41W-Brad Wyatt[20]; 22. 14F-Brant Woods[18]; 23. 11-Jacob Hughes[22]; 24. (DNS) 15D-Andrew Deal
