Buddy Kofoid ran in the top two throughout all 55 laps on the way to a runner-up finish in Saturday night’s 38th annual Chili Bowl Nationals to lead the Toyota contingent. The second-place finish marks a career best for Kofoid in the Chili Bowl after previously finishing fourth in 2022.
After starting from the pole, Kofoid held the lead for the opening lap, only to see a caution wave forcing a complete restart. As the green flag waved, Logan Seavey was able to get the jump for the lead. Kofoid would recover to retake the lead on lap four, but once again a yellow flag would wave, setting the field back to the previous lap standings.
Kofoid would run with Seavey throughout the event, but just past the half-way point, track conditions began to make passing extremely difficult just after catching lapped traffic. As the track narrowed, the top four would basically be locked in and that’s how they would finish with Seavey winning, Kofoid coming in second, followed by Corey Day in third and Toyota driver Daison Pursley taking fourth.
Pursley may have had the run of the day, earning the Hard Charger Award after driving from 20th to fourth in the first half of the race. Making his performance even more impressive was his ‘alphabet soup’ run, starting in the D Main and driving all the way into the feature.
In addition to Pursley’s Hard Charger Award, Toyota driver Kale Drake was named the 2024 Chili Bowl Rookie of the Year after finishing 14th in tonight’s A Main.
Overall, nine Toyota-powered drivers from four different teams qualified for the 24-car A Main feature on Saturday in an event that featured 374 entries.
Toyota Chili Bowl Notes:
– Collinsville, Oklahoma native Kale Drake earned Toyota’s second consecutive Rookie of the Year award after climbing from the B Main to finish 14th in Saturday’s feature event. The 18-year-old Keith Kunz Motorsports driver was making just his second national midget start. Jade Avedisian took home rookie honors in 2023.
– Toyota pilots Tanner Carrick, Buddy Kofoid and Spencer Bayston all earned Preliminary Night features over the course of the week.
– Jade Avedisian captured the first ‘Fuzzy Hahn Trophy’ as the top finishing female driver with an eighth-place finish in the B Main, missing out on the A Main by one position.
Quotes:
Buddy Kofoid, Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota: “I passed Logan (Seavey) and thought I completed a lap and the yellow came out and they said my transponder wasn’t working and put me back to second. There was still a long way to go, though, with 51 laps to go. I was able to stay with him and I thought I was a little better than him. Then we hit traffic and had a long line of cars, so I wasn’t going to be able to try to slide him until we got through traffic. Then the track started to go away and I knew we were pretty much going to have to stay at the bottom with the track conditions and that was it. The KKM guys gave me a great car. I just have to thank Toyota and Mobil 1 for giving me this opportunity.”
Daison Pursley, CB Industries Toyota: “It was unfortunate that I had to start so far back (20th), but it goes to show how good my car was. Everyone at CB Industries did a phenomenal job. I’m forever thankful for the opportunity I’ve been given by Toyota Racing, Pristine Auctions and Chad Boat Industries. (How did track conditions affect your run?) It’s hard to tell when you’re racing against drivers like Logan, Buddy and Corey, there’s really no telling. The track widened up fast and that was in my favor in being able to pass so many cars early. Unfortunately, it just locked down a little too early. Overall, though, everyone with the Chili Bowl did a good job this week. (About coming from the D) It was pretty crazy. I don’t ever want to have that much stress on me and have to pass so many cars again (laughing). Just shows goes to show how good a car I was in, where I was able to move around and do what I want. We just didn’t mesh together well on our qualifying night. Just unfortunate circumstances, but to come back on Saturday and have this great a run was pretty incredible.”
Toyota 2024 Chili Bowl Results
| Toyota-Powered Drivers | Hometown | Preliminary Finish | SaturdayStarting/Finish |
| Buddy Kofoid | Penngrove, CA | A Main – 1st | A Main 2nd |
| Daison Pursley | Locust Grove, OK | A Main – 16th | D Main – A Main 4th |
| Tanner Carrick | Lincoln, CA | A Main – 1st | A Main 7th |
| Spencer Bayston | Lebanon, IN | A Main – 1st | A Main 8th |
| Emerson Axsom | Franklin, IN | A Main – 5th | B Main – A Main 11th |
| Ryan Timms | Oklahoma City, OK | A Main – 2nd | A Main 12th |
| Kale Drake | Collinsville, OK | A Main – 6th | B Main – A Main 14th |
| Cannon McIntosh | Bixby, OK | A Main – 6th | B Main – A Main 20th |
| Steven Snyder | Rising Sun, MD | A Main – 4th | B Main – A Main 23rd |
| Jade Avedisian | Clovis, CA | A Main – 7th | B Main 8th |
| Brady Bacon | Broken Arrow, TX | A Main – 5th | B Main 10th |
| Bryant Wiedeman | Colby, KS | A Main – 6th | B Main 16th |
| Trey Marcham | Newcastle, OK | A Main – 7th | B Main 13th |
| Brent Crews | Denver, NC | A Main – 9th | C Main – B Main 15th |
| Gavin Miller | Allentown, PA | A Main – 9th | C Main – B Main 16th |
| Gary Taylor | Snohomish, WA | A Main – 10th | C Main – B Main 19th |
| Chris Windom | Canton, IL | A Main – 5th | B Main 19th |
| Blake Hahn | Sapulpa, OK | A Main – 15th | D Main – C Main 7th |
| Jerry Coons, Jr. | Tucson, AZ | A Main – 10th | C Main 7th |
| Jacob Denney | Galloway, OH | A Main – 17th | D Main – C Main 10th |
| Kris Carroll | Claremore, OK | A Main – 13th | C Main 11th |
| Parker Price-Miller | Kokomo, IN | A Main – 12th | C Main 15th |
| Ricky Stenhouse | Olive Branch, MS | A Main – 23rd | E Main – C Main 20th |
| Alex Bright | Collegeville, PA | A Main – 17th | D Main 6th |
| Gavin Boschele | Mooresville, NC | A Main – 15th | D Main 11th |
| Nick Drake | Mooresville, NC | A Main – 19th | D Main 12th |
| Landon Crawley | Benton, AR | A Main – 20th | D Main 13th |
| Justin Grant | Ione, CA | A Main – 20th | D Main 14th |
| Emilio Hoover | Broken Arrow, OK | A Main – 20th | D Main 20th |
| Taylor Reimer | Tulsa, OK | A Main – 21st | E Main – D Main 20th |
| Kenney Johnson | Bethany, CT | A Main – 23rd | E Main 7th |
| Danny Wood | Norman, OK | B Main – 5th | E Main 8th |
| Ryder Laplante | Calera, OK | B Main – 5th | E Main 9th |
| Jesse Love | Redwood City, CA | B Main – 5th | E Main 14th |
| Weston Gorham | Colleyville, TX | B Main – 8th | F Main – E Main 14th |
| Brayton Lynch | Springfield, IL | B Main – 5th | E Main 16th |
| Kyle Larson | Elk Grove, CA | A Main – 24th | E Main 20th (DNS) |
| Casey Shuman | Rattlesnake Bend, AZ | B Main – 8th | F Main 7th |
| Wout Hoffmans | Boxmeer, Netherlands | B Main – 9th | G Main – F Main 7th |
| Tom Harris | Banbury, OXF, UK | B Main – 9th | G Main – F Main 11th |
| Mike Hess | Riverton, IL | B Main – 8th | F Main 15th |
| Kyle Simon | Covington, OH | B Main – 7th | F Main 18th |
| Tanner Holmes | Jacksonville, OR | B Main – 15th | J Main – G Main 6th |
| Brody Wake | Lake Havasu City, AZ | B Main – 11th | H Main – G Main 11th |
| Sean McClelland | Tulsa, OK | C Main – 5th | K Main – H Main 11th |
| D.J. Estes | Burlington, TX | B Main – 13th | I Main – H Main 12th |
| Mariah Ede | Fresno, CA | B Main – 15th | J Main – I Main 11th |
| Jace McIntosh | Bixby, OK | C Main – 5th | K Main – J Main 8th |
| Dylan Menz | Jimbooma, QLD, Aus. | B Main – 16th | J Main 13th |
| Chad Frewaldt | Kansas City, KS | B Main – 16th | J Main 15th |
| Keith Martin | Cleburn, TX | B Main – 16th | J Main 16th (DNS) |
| Santino Ferrucci | Woodbury, CT | C Main – 6th | K Main 7th |
| Noah Harris | Broken Arrow, OK | C Main – 7th | L Main – K Main 9th |
| Dillon Welch | Carmel, IN | C Main – 8th | L Main – K Main 10th |
| Josh Hanna | Flint, TX | C Main – 6th | K Main 11th |
| Josh Baughman | Odessa, TX | C Main – 6th | K Main 16th |
| Brock Berreth | Tulsa, OK | C Main – 8th | L Main 7th |
| Josh Hawkins | Whitehouse, TX | D Main – 3rd | N Main – L Main 9th |
| Sam Johnson | Mooresville, NC | D Main – 8th | O Main (DNS) |
Toyota Racing PR
