Kyle Larson passed Zach Daum on lap eight and went on to win the 25-lap Warren CAT A Main at the 32nd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Raceway, while Chad Boat won the Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions (VIROC)
With the victory, Larson advances to Saturday’s A Main feature event and is guaranteed to start no lower than fifth in his Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) entry. It marks his fourth preliminary feature win at the Chili Bowl.
It appeared that two Toyota-powered cars would advance to Saturday’s A Main as Zach Daum ran in the top three for the first 20 laps before bad luck dashed any chance for a top finish. The three-time POWRi National Midget champion led the opening seven laps before being overtaken by Larson, but remained solidly in the top three until misfortune hit while under caution as he was forced to get hard on the brakes to avoid a flipped car and stalled while running third.
All five Toyota-powered entries advanced to Tuesday’s A Main. Logan Seavey made a strong debut with KKM with a fifth-place finish and will start Saturday’s event from the B Main.
Justin Allgaier placed 12th, with Daum finishing 16th after having to re-start from the back of the field after his last incident. Kyle Jones placed 17th. All three will begin in the C Mains on Saturday.
Toyota earned its third consecutive Vacuworx International Race of Champions victory earlier on Tuesday night as Chad Boat led wire-to-wire, holding off Larson for the checkered flag. Starting from the pole, Boat held a comfortable lead for much of the 20-lap event before Larson’s late run.
“With that many good cars, starting position is crucial, but it’s really no different than Saturday night,” said Boat after his win. “You have to put yourself in the position to be up front and set the pace of the race. We were lucky enough to do that with the draw tonight, but we had a great Pristine Auction/K&C Drywall/Lawson Dry Wall Toyota Spike. The car is working really well. I felt really good yesterday on practice day, but you don’t really know until you’re on the same track as a lot of good cars. That’s one of the great things the VIROC race does. This is definitely the most momentum we’ve had going into a Friday night and hopefully we can carry it on.”
Tracy Hines finished fourth, with Spencer Bayston seventh and Rico Abreu was tenth as Toyota-powered cars captured five of the top 10.
This year’s Chili Bowl features more than 350 entries with each fighting for one of the 24 openings in Saturday night’s “A Main” feature event. Qualifying continues for each of the next three nights with seven more Toyota-powered drivers expected to attempt to qualify on Wednesday.
# # #
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Tuesday Qualifying
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Finished
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VIROC Results
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Start/Finished
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01 Kyle Larson
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A Main – 1st
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84X Chad Boat
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1/1
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67 Logan Seavey
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A Main – 5th
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01 Kyle Larson
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8/2
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7A Justin Allgaier
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A Main – 12th
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24 Tracy Hines
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2/3
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5D Zach Daum
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A Main – 16th
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97K Spencer Bayston
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7/7
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15J Kyle Jones
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A Main – 17th
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97 Rico Abreu
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11/10
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71W Christopher Bell
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18/11
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Remaining Toyota Qualifying Line-Up
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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#17B Tanner Berryhill
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#4P Paul McMahon
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#2R J.J. Yeley
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#24S Landon Simon
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#5S Chase Stockton
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#5H Jack Hawley
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#47W Dylan Westbrook
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#5T Presley Truedson
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#25 Dave Darland
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#52 Blake Hahn
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#7F Michael Faccinto
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#84 Chad Boat
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#71 Ryan Robinson
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#15X Frankie Guerini
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#97K Spencer Bayston
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#76M Brady Bacon
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#24 Tracy Hines
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#97 Rico Abreu
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#56X Mark Chisholm
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#67K Holly Shelton
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#71K Tucker Klassmeyer
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#71W Christopher Bell
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Toyota Racing PR
