TULSA, Okla. (January 16, 2014)
Three nights of fabulous Chili Bowl racing and three first time preliminary winners. Tonight the 2013 USAC Champion Christopher Bell joined Beason and Armstrong as first time winners.
The Oklahoma boys have won two of the three features. Right from his first heat Bell and Kunz/Toyota/ Beast team set the tone for the night but as impressive as Bell was the performance of defending Champion Kevin Swindell would have sent a strong message that he was not yet done with this Championship.
The Kunz Toyota Team with Christopher Bell
After a flat put him out of his heat the young Swindell had to overcome a 13th starting position in the C Feature and the B Feature to find his way to the night’s major final. Swindell’s Feature race was equally sensational bringing the Team car home in fourth place after starting 17th.
Bell drove the Kunz Toyota perfect, lapped traffic and the race long challenge from Damion Gardiner were never a threat to the USAC Champion and he crossed 2.150 seconds ahead of Gardiner.
There was a late race rush on Pickens by Swindell but the New Zealander was able to keep the defending Champion in fourth place and in the process earns a spot in the Saturday nights final…
Bell the 2013 USAC Champion from Oklahoma and now with his first Chili Bowl Feature win under his belt answered questions from the media about how he felt after his win.
Christopher Bell “The Chili Bowl is the race to me. If there was one race I could run, it would be here, especially with it being in my home state. I guess this is one of the few times I get to race in Oklahoma, which is around my home crowd; it really is something special to me.” Bell continues ““There was one time I passed the first lapped car and then he (Damion) moved to the bottom because he had been running the top and then he started keeping up with me,” said Bell of Gardner closing in. “I kept seeing his nose down there and I was like ‘Aw crap, Damion is down there’.”
Bell did his time racing in the POWRi Micro Series and his spectacular success in the Kunz Toyota/Beast Team made him an early choice amongst the fans and media to take out the 2014 Chili Bowl Nationals. Chris Bell has started his Chili Bowl Campaign in the most positive manner possible
B-Main: 15 Laps – Top 4 advance to A-Feature.
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 39-Kevin Swindell[13]; 2. 7M-Kevin Ramey[2]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[8]; 4. 81-Heath Duinkerken[4]; 5. 91B-Kevin Bayer[6]; 6. 27R-Kyle O’Gara[5]; 7. 75X-Landon Simon[14]; 8. 77K-Kevin Olson[15]; 9. 35T-Tyler Robbins[16]; 10. 21H-Ty Hulsey[11]; 11. 05J-Jason Johnson[7]; 12. 56X-Mark Chisholm[12]; 13. (DNF) 23-Jimmy Light[10]; 14. (DNF) 17-Michael Koontz[3]; 15. (DNF) 19P-Patrick Stasa[1]
B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 35S-Matt Sherrell[3]; 2. 19S-Richard VanderWeerd[6]; 3. 62-Taylor Simas[8]; 4. 37-Brady Short[1]; 5. 6-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[13]; 6. 71S-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 7. 33-Davey Ray[2]; 8. 25J-Matt Juhl[7]; 9. 43-Dakoda Armstrong[12]; 10. 4A-Aaron Pierce[11]; 11. 6A-David Gough[10]; 12. 82H-Mike Hess[9]; 13. 69-A.J. Fike[15]; 14. 7J-Shawn Jackson[14]; 15. (DNF) 2B-Bill Balog[4]; 16. (DNF) 11C-Chett Gehrke[16]
A-Feature: 25 Laps – Top 3 lock into Saturday’s Championship Feature.
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 97-Christopher Bell[1]; 2. 47-Damion Gardner[2]; 3. 63NZ-Michael Pickens[4]; 4. 39-Kevin Swindell[17]; 5. 25B-Steve Buckwalter[7]; 6. 56L-Danny Stratton[9]; 7. 11A-Andrew Felker[8]; 8. 24-Tracy Hines[6]; 9. 15D-Andrew Deal[5]; 10. 7M-Kevin Ramey[19]; 11. 93-Dustin Morgan[11]; 12. 8L-Harli White[10]; 13. 11-Chase Stockon[14]; 14. 17S-Dominic Scelzi[13]; 15. 57B-Chad Boespflug[12]; 16. 19S-Richard VanderWeerd[20]; 17. 35S-Matt Sherrell[18]; 18. 62-Taylor Simas[22]; 19. 81-Heath Duinkerken[23]; 20. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[21]; 21. 37-Brady Short[24]; 22. 3T-Tim Barber[16]; 23. 5E-James Edens[3]; 24. 7L-Layne Himebaugh[15]
Lap Leader(s): Christopher Bell (1-25)
Gardiner ,Bell,Pickens
For all the excitement of Bells first Chili Bowl win view the video @ youtu.be/7uJriH2G9Co?a
The Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire continues with Friday’s Vacuworx Global Qualifying Night. Races begin at 6:00 P.M.
