Christopher Bell led 36 of 55 laps on the way to a second-place finish to lead Toyota at Saturday night’s 36th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. Rico Abreu placed third to give Toyota two of the three podium finishers.
Starting from the pole position after winning Thursday night’s preliminary feature, Bell immediately took the lead over Thorson, Justin Grant, Abreu and Buddy Kofoid.
By lap seven, the leaders had closed on the back of the field and were forced to dice through traffic, but the top five was able to remain intact.
Bell continued to pace the field before a yellow flag waved after Kyle Larson and Justin Grant made contact, with Grant, Friday night’s preliminary winner, getting upside down.
On the ensuing restart, Thorson closed on Bell and one lap later was able to move past for the lead. Behind the leaders, Kofoid had climbed up to third, with Larson in fourth and Abreu in fifth.
As the laps began to wind down, the leaders would once again encounter heavy lapped traffic and this time it was Bell who would take advantage. Running the high side around the lapped cars, Bell would take the lead, only to have contact behind him resulting in a flip, which would bring out the yellow and revert the field back to the standings from the previous lap, putting Thorson back into the lead.
Bell would make one more big run at Thorson on the restart, but wasn’t able to make it stick, with Thorson retaining the lead and driving to the victory with Bell and Abreu rounding out the top three, followed by Kofoid, Tanner Carrick and Larson. Thomas Meseraull would finish tenth as Toyota-powered drivers captured six of the top-10 finishing positions.
History was made earlier in the night when Toyota driver Kaylee Bryson drove from tenth to first to win the B Main and become the first woman in Chili Bowl history to qualify for Saturday’s A Main. She would finish 18th in the feature. Bryson also registered the best finish ever by a female driver in a preliminary qualifying night feature with a sixth-place finish on Tuesday night.
Overall, Toyota had 13 drivers qualify for the 24-car A Main feature on Saturday.
This year’s Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals featured 395 entries.
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Toyota Chili Bowl Notes:
– Toyota drivers captured all five of this year’s five preliminary night features. In addition, Justin Grant won the Race of Champions on Monday night.
– Thirteen Toyota-powered drivers advanced to this year’s A Main, featuring drivers from six different teams.
– Kaylee Bryson became the first female driver ever to advance to the Chili Bowl’s Saturday A Main event. Earlier in the week, she had established the best finish ever by a woman in her qualifying night feature event.
Quotes:
Tyler Gibbs, Toyota Racing Development general manager: “We’re really proud of Kaylee tonight to become the first woman to make the A Main at the Chili Bowl. She adds her name to the list of other female drivers who have made history as a part of the Toyota driver development program.”
Kaylee Bryson, Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota: “I’m more worried about myself as a driver. I don’t think I’m any different than anyone else. I put on my helmet and just go out there as a driver and race a hard race. This is my first time I’ve made the A Main at the Chili Bowl and I’m excited about that. Of course, it’s cool to hold the title as the first female to make the A Main here, but there’s going to be more after me.
It was pretty fun to run in the A Main. I’m just so blessed to be here and so grateful for the opportunity. I just hope we put on a great show for the fans. That was the toughest race I’ve ever been in. You’re out there with the best of the best. It’s teaching me every lap how to be a better driver and I get to learn from these guys. There’s no better place to learn than the Chili Bowl. The track was really big on the bottom for the first half. It was a decent track. It wasn’t too bad for passing. The track was completely different from the ‘B’. I’m just so happy to have been here and make the show.”
Christopher Bell, Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota: “I probably lost the race because Tanner was in second and searched around the track a little better than I did. I didn’t want to get off the bottom and nobody wanted to get off the bottom. I was trying to be patient in traffic. It got really slick, and I started to slow down in three and four and I started to consider running the middle, but Tanner beat me to it. It was gut-wrenching (when the yellow came out after passing for lead on lap 50). He got tight off of four which allowed me to get to him. There were cars on the top, cars on the bottom and cars in the middle. That’s when it was fun when you have to pick and choose your opportunity to get by him. I saw my chance and I was able to get by him. I felt that would have been my best opportunity to win if it had stayed green.”
Rico Abreu, Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota: “I didn’t want to be the last guy to the top and get beat, so I was probably one of the first guys and that let Buddy and Kyle get by. I could really work the bottom in three and four and was able to get back by. If you get 10 more laps, we might have had a different outcome. It was a good race.”
Toyota Saturday Race Results
| Car # | Driver | Hometown | Start/Finish |
| 71W | Christopher Bell | Norman, OK | A Main – 2nd |
| 97 | Rico Abreu | St. Helena, CA | A Main – 3rd |
| 67 | Buddy Kofoid | Penngrove, CA | A Main – 4th |
| 98 | Tanner Carrick | Lincoln, Calif. | A Main – 5th |
| 01 | Kyle Larson | Elk Grove, Calif | A Main – 6th |
| 7X | Thomas Meseraull | San Jose, CA | B Main to A Main – 10th |
| 52 | Blake Hahn | Sapulpa, OK | B Main to A Main -12th |
| 89 | Chris Windom | Canton, IL | B Main to A Main – 14th |
| 2J | Justin Grant | Ione, CA | A Main – 16th |
| 71K | Kaylee Bryson | Muskogee, OK | B Main to A Main – 18th |
| 8J | Jonathan Beason | Broken Arrow, OK | B Main to A Main – 20th |
| 81x | Dillon Welch | Carmel, IN | B Main to A Main – 22nd |
| 87 | Chase Johnson | Penngrove, CA | B Main to A Main – 23rd |
| 01K (R) | Bryant Wiedeman | Colby, KS | B Main – 7th |
| 84 | Michael Faccinto | Hanford, CA | B Main – 12th |
| 5G (R) | Gavan Boschele | Mooresville, NC | B Main – 14th |
| 1R | Brad Sweet | Grass Valley, CA | B Main – 15th |
| 1S | Spencer Bayston | Lebanon, IN | C Main to B Main – 16th |
| 08 | Cannon McIntosh | Bixby, OK | B Main – 17th |
| 26C | Chance Crum | Snohomish, WA | B Main – 18th |
| 1D | David Gravel | Watertown, CT | B Main – 18th |
| 32 | Gary Taylor | Snohomish, WA | B Main – 19th |
| 32T | Trey Marcham | Newcastle, OK | C Main to B Main – 10th |
| 83D (R) | Dominic Gorden | Clovis, CA | C Main – 7th |
| 51B | Joe B. Miller | Millersville, MO | C Main – 11th |
| 97K (R) | Brenham Crouch | Lubbock, TX | D Main to C Main – 12th |
| 26E | Cory Eliason | Visalia, CA | D Main to C Main – 16th |
| 25K | Taylor Reimer | Tulsa, OK | D Main – 11th |
| 1UK | Tom Harris | Banbury, OXF (U.K.) | E Main to D Main – 12th |
| 86 (R) | Brent Crews | Denver, NC | D Main – 15th |
| 97X | Jesse Love | Redwood City, CA | D Main – 17th |
| 4M | Brody Fuson | Bakersfield, CA | E Main to D Main – 20th |
| 61J | Jacob Denny | Galloway, OH | E Main – 7th |
| 85T (R) | Ryan Timms | Oklahoma City, OK | F Main to E Main 10th |
| 4T | Trey Gropp | Lincoln, NE | E Main – 10th |
| 4D | Robert Dalby | Anaheim, CA | E Main – DNS |
| 71E (R) | Mariah Ede | Fresno, CA | G Main to F Main 14th |
| 08m | Jace McIntosh | Bixby, OK | F Main – 14th |
| 91T | Tyler Thomas | Collinsville, OK | F Main – 18th |
| 9E | Chase Elliott | Dawsonville, GA | F Main – 19tb |
| 67K (R) | Jonathan Shafer | Ashland, OH | H Main to G Main – 6th |
| 20H | Noah Harris | Broken Arrow, OK | H Main to G Main – 13th |
| 1K | Brayton Lynch | Springfield, IL | H Main to G Main – 15th |
| 91A | Chris Andrews | Huron, OH | I Main – 10th |
| 4X | Carson Sousa | Red Bluff, CA | J Main – 7th |
| 27K | Tucker Klaasmeyer | Paola, KS | N Main to J Main 8th |
| 71 (R) | Steven Snyder Jr. | Rising Sun, MD | J Main – 13th |
| 71 (R) | Steven Snyder Jr. | Rising Sun, MD | J Main – 13th |
| 79S | Landon Simon | Indianapolis, IN | J Main – DNS |
| 08B (R) | Austin Barnhill | Rocky Point, NC | K Main to I Main – 14th |
| 56 | Mark Chisholm | Laramie, Wyoming | K Main to H Main – 8th |
| 91X (R) | Danny Wood | Norman, OK | L Main to the K Main – 7th |
| 7TX | Anthony Pope | Roseburg, OR | L Main – 11th |
| 79 | Ryan Hall | Midlothian, TX | N Main – DNS |
| 21D | Justin Dickerson | Pittsboro, IN | P Main to O Main – 10th |
| 4F | Chad Frewaldt | Kansas City, KS | O Main – 14th |
| 26 (R) | Kevin Rudeen | Spokane, WA | P Main – 8th |
| 79M | Cruz Pedregon | Torrance, CA | P Main – DNS |
| 16 | Santino Ferrucci | Woodbury, CT | DNQ |
(R) = Rookie
Toyota Racing PR
