Justin Grant Delivers On Friday’s Qualifying Night At The Chili Bowl; Saturday Mains Up Next

Story By: BRYAN HULBERT / CHILI BOWL – TULSA, OK – With slower traffic becoming a major factor in the closing laps, California’s Justin Grant managed to hold off the charge of Kyle Cummins and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. for his fourth career Chili Bowl preliminary night victory since 2017 on Friday’s Driven2SaveLives Qualifying Night.

“I had them side-by-side like six rows deep just trying to pick my way through and about had one guy slide me back on the last lap,” chuckled a nearly out of breath Justin Grant of the closing laps and trying to keep point on the field.

Leading from the start, Grant kept several restart challenges in his tire tracks. Going caution-free from Lap 11 to the checkered flag, Grant entered traffic with a 3.213-second advantage on Lap 24. Mired in traffic through the closing five laps, Kyle Cummins was closing fast.

Within car lengths, as the white flag came into view, the NOS Energy No. 2J managed to hold the Glenn Styres – Jack Yeley Racing No. 3g to a 0.552-second disadvantage at the checkered flag.

“I knew we had a pretty good lead looking up at the board, and I felt good, then started getting tight on the curb, but fortunately, traffic made me hustle, get the right rear tire stood back up, and start hitting my marks,” stated Grant. “I saw Kyle coming on the board and knew it was time to stop being patient and start moving them out of the way.”

After suffering a DNF in the eighth Fatheadz Eyewear Heat Race, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. had elbows up as the Driven2SaveLives No. 17s tore through the field from the C-Feature to missing the lock into Saturday’s A-Feature by 0.164-seconds after advancing 31 times.

Like Stenhouse, Nevada’s Tanner Thorson had to rebound from a DNF in the opening Heat Race. Becoming the night’s Hard Charger in the A-Feature with 16 positions gained through the A-Feature, Thorson advanced 29 times overall. Challenging for second early, Daryn Pittman crossed fifth.

Damion Gardner in sixth was chased by Chili Bowl Rookie Jesse Love. Aaron Reutzel crossed eighth with J.J. Yeley, from the B-Feature, making up eight spots to ninth. As high as third through the Feature’s mid-point, the No. 68 of Ronnie Gardner ended up tenth.

With 64 Drivers making the call for Friday’s Driven2SaveLives Qualifying Night, the 35th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire saw a total of 309 Drivers officially draw in out of 320 entries received.

Fatheadz Eyewear Heat Races went to Hunter Schuerenberg, Jesse Love, Anthony Nicholson, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Cummins, Brent Beauchamp, and Justin Allgaier. C-Feature wins went to Chris Tarrant and Michelle Decker, with Team Toyota Qualifiers going to Ronnie Gardner, Jesse Love, Bill Balog, and Damion Gardner. Dave.com B-Features were won by J.J. Yeley and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.

The 35th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire concludes on Saturday, January 16m 2021. The River Spirit Expo Center opens at 8:00 A.M. with Hot Laps on track at 10:00 A.M. (CT). The first event of the day will be a pair of M-Features. A limited number of Pit Passes will be available to the General Public. The Booth opens with the building.

Reminder to all who attend that masks are required while inside the River Spirit Expo Center.

Those who cannot make it can see the action live on http://www.floracing.com.

Results:

Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire
Tulsa Expo Raceway – Tulsa, Okla.
Friday, January 15, 2021
Driven2SaveLives Qualifying Night

Car Count: 64
Event Count: 309

Fatheadz Heat Races: Top 40 in passing points advance to Qualifiers.

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 19S-Hunter Schuerenberg[2]; 2. 18-Travis Welpott[1]; 3. 37X-Bill Balog[5]; 4. 4CM-Cody Jessop[8]; 5. 101-Chuck McGillivray[3]; 6. 19R-Gage Rucker[4]; 7. (DNF) 08-Tanner Thorson[7]; 8. (DNF) 44D-Evan Turner[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 97K-Jesse Love[1]; 2. 21-Daryn Pittman[5]; 3. 7JR-JD Black[2]; 4. 88N-Tim Estenson[7]; 5. 14X-Jody Rosenboom[4]; 6. (DNF) 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer[3]; 7. (DNF) 35T-Casey Schmitz[8]; 8. (DNF) 99-Anthony Macri[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2J-Justin Grant[4]; 2. 56I-Luke Icke[6]; 3. 68-Ronnie Gardner[3]; 4. 61-Kenny Koelsch[2]; 5. 2G-JJ Yeley[5]; 6. 88W-Dustin Weland[1]; 7. (DNS) 715-Robert Bell; 8. (DNS) 11Y-Travis Young

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 9J-Anthony Nicholson[1]; 2. 73B-Tyler Edwards[2]; 3. 72J-Sam Johnson[3]; 4. 11H-Harli White[4]; 5. 80-Josh Hawkins[7]; 6. 44W-Eric Wilkins[5]; 7. 15L-Luke Howard[8]; 8. 11W-Aaron Werner[6]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 57W-Kasey Kahne[1]; 2. 14-Jesse Colwell[3]; 3. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[5]; 4. 32W-Casey Shuman[8]; 5. 96-Cody Brewer[7]; 6. 14R-Jake Nail[2]; 7. 1K-Brayton Lynch[4]; 8. 36-Kevin Reed[6] Brewer docked two positions at the end of the race for advancing before the cone on the single-file restart.

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 3G-Kyle Cummins[6]; 2. 15F-Kinzer Edwards[3]; 3. 44X-Wesley Smith[2]; 4. 81G-Chase Jones[1]; 5. 10J-Lane Goodman[4]; 6. 27S-Austin Wood[5]; 7. 0-Johnny Murdock[7]; 8. (DNS) 19U-Pierce Urbanosky

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 2X-Brent Beauchamp[4]; 2. 28-Ace McCarthy[6]; 3. 71G-Damion Gardner[7]; 4. 87-Aaron Reutzel[8]; 5. 22L-Lucas Scherb[1]; 6. 72X-Chris Tarrant[5]; 7. 60-Earl McDoulett Jr[3]; 8. 20Y-Austin Yarbrough[2]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 1A-Justin Allgaier[4]; 2. 7G-Jimmy Glenn[3]; 3. 14B-Jonathan Halford[1]; 4. 27B-AJ Burns[6]; 5. (DNF) 1X-Anthony Esberg[2]; 6. (DNF) 7-Michelle Decker[5]; 7. (DNF) 17S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[7]; 8. (DNF) 0T-Alex Schriever[8]

C-Features: Top 4 advance to corresponding B-Feature.

C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 72X-Chris Tarrant[2]; 2. 44W-Eric Wilkins[1]; 3. 19R-Gage Rucker[4]; 4. 35T-Casey Schmitz[3]; 5. 14R-Jake Nail[5]; 6. 60-Earl McDoulett Jr[8]; 7. 88W-Dustin Weland[7]; 8. 20Y-Austin Yarbrough[11]; 9. 0-Johnny Murdock[6]; 10. 44D-Evan Turner[9]; 11. 11W-Aaron Werner[10]; 12. (DNS) 19U-Pierce Urbanosky

C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 7-Michelle Decker[2]; 2. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer[4]; 3. 08-Tanner Thorson[5]; 4. 17S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[6]; 5. 1K-Brayton Lynch[7]; 6. 15L-Luke Howard[3]; 7. 0T-Alex Schriever[8]; 8. 36-Kevin Reed[10]; 9. 715-Robert Bell[11]; 10. 99-Anthony Macri[9]; 11. 27S-Austin Wood[1]; 12. (DNF) 11Y-Travis Young[12]

Team Toyota Qualifiers: Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the A-Feature.

Qualifier 1 (10 Laps): 1. 68-Ronnie Gardner[7]; 2. 3G-Kyle Cummins[6]; 3. 4CM-Cody Jessop[3]; 4. 56I-Luke Icke[5]; 5. 10J-Lane Goodman[10]; 6. 19S-Hunter Schuerenberg[4]; 7. 14B-Jonathan Halford[8]; 8. 88N-Tim Estenson[1]; 9. 61-Kenny Koelsch[9]; 10. (DNF) 15F-Kinzer Edwards[2]

Qualifier 2 (10 Laps): 1. 97K-Jesse Love[4]; 2. 2J-Justin Grant[6]; 3. 73B-Tyler Edwards[1]; 4. 32W-Casey Shuman[3]; 5. 28-Ace McCarthy[5]; 6. 7G-Jimmy Glenn[2]; 7. (DNF) 80-Josh Hawkins[8]; 8. (DNF) 72J-Sam Johnson[7]; 9. (DNF) 101-Chuck McGillivray[10]; 10. (DNF) 81G-Chase Jones[9]

Qualifier 3 (10 Laps): 1. 37X-Bill Balog[2]; 2. 21-Daryn Pittman[5]; 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 4. 2G-JJ Yeley[9]; 5. 2X-Brent Beauchamp[6]; 6. 9J-Anthony Nicholson[4]; 7. 96-Cody Brewer[8]; 8. 7JR-JD Black[7]; 9. 18-Travis Welpott[1]; 10. 1X-Anthony Esberg[10]

Qualifier 4 (10 Laps): 1. 71G-Damion Gardner[5]; 2. 14-Jesse Colwell[3]; 3. 57W-Kasey Kahne[4]; 4. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[2]; 5. 44X-Wesley Smith[7]; 6. 11H-Harli White[8]; 7. 27B-AJ Burns[1]; 8. 22L-Lucas Scherb[10]; 9. (DNF) 1A-Justin Allgaier[6]; 10. (DNF) 14X-Jody Rosenboom[9]

Dave.com B-Features: Top 4 advance to the A-Feature.

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 2G-JJ Yeley[1]; 2. 10J-Lane Goodman[2]; 3. 15F-Kinzer Edwards[10]; 4. 44X-Wesley Smith[3]; 5. 14X-Jody Rosenboom[12]; 6. 80-Josh Hawkins[6]; 7. 35T-Casey Schmitz[16]; 8. 11H-Harli White[5]; 9. 88N-Tim Estenson[8]; 10. 101-Chuck McGillivray[11]; 11. 44W-Eric Wilkins[14]; 12. 27B-AJ Burns[7]; 13. (DNF) 19R-Gage Rucker[15]; 14. (DNF) 7G-Jimmy Glenn[4]; 15. (DNF) 72X-Chris Tarrant[13]; 16. (DNF) 22L-Lucas Scherb[9]

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 17S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[15]; 2. 08-Tanner Thorson[13]; 3. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[1]; 4. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer[14]; 5. 9J-Anthony Nicholson[3]; 6. 72J-Sam Johnson[7]; 7. 7-Michelle Decker[11]; 8. 96-Cody Brewer[6]; 9. 14B-Jonathan Halford[5]; 10. 7JR-JD Black[8]; 11. 1X-Anthony Esberg[12]; 12. 19S-Hunter Schuerenberg[2]; 13. (DNF) 1A-Justin Allgaier[4]; 14. (DNF) 61-Kenny Koelsch[10]; 15. (DNF) 18-Travis Welpott[9]; 16. (DNS) 81G-Chase Jones

A-Feature: Top 2 advance to Saturday’s A-Feature.

A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2J-Justin Grant[2]; 2. 3G-Kyle Cummins[1]; 3. 17S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[18]; 4. 08-Tanner Thorson[20]; 5. 21-Daryn Pittman[5]; 6. 71G-Damion Gardner[3]; 7. 97K-Jesse Love[6]; 8. 87-Aaron Reutzel[14]; 9. 2G-JJ Yeley[17]; 10. 68-Ronnie Gardner[4]; 11. 32W-Casey Shuman[15]; 12. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[22]; 13. 28-Ace McCarthy[13]; 14. 57W-Kasey Kahne[11]; 15. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer[24]; 16. 4CM-Cody Jessop[12]; 17. 37X-Bill Balog[7]; 18. 44X-Wesley Smith[23]; 19. 73B-Tyler Edwards[16]; 20. 15F-Kinzer Edwards[21]; 21. 2X-Brent Beauchamp[10]; 22. 10J-Lane Goodman[19]; 23. (DNF) 56I-Luke Icke[8]; 24. (DNF) 14-Jesse Colwell[9]

Lap Leader(s): Justin Grant 1-30
Hard Charger: Tanner Thorson +16