TULSA, Okla. (January 16, 2015) Picking up where he left off in 2014, Bryan Clauson led flag-to-flag in Friday’s Vacuworx Global Qualifying Night A-Feature event. The only driver to lead start to finish in a preliminary A-Feature in the 29th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals presented by General Tire, the win is his third career preliminary night victory.
Asked what it would mean to win back-to-back Drillers, Clauson replied, “It would be huge; this place has been under an evil reign for a long time. I got to sit here next to Kevin [Swindell] last year and talk about how easy it is to win off the front row, and this and that. We are on the front row this year, and hopefully it’s as easy as he says. Hopefully we can make 55 good ones, and be sitting here again tomorrow.”
Working low on the start, Clauson soon jumped to the cushion to begin building his momentum. Racing from eighth, Chad Boat began working Daryn Pittman for third. Making the pass on Lap 7, the pair gave chase as Dave Darland occupied the runner-up spot.
Finding the tail of the field on Lap 12, Clauson began picking his way through slower cars; building a buffer between himself and Darland, who was losing his advantage over Boat and Pittman through traffic.
Swapping the third spot on the 18th lap, Boat returned the favor, and then made work of Darland for second on Lap 20 with Pittman in tow. Challenged by Damion Gardner for fourth, Darland and “The Demon” tangled entering the first turn, forcing the race’s lone caution on Lap 22.
With seven lapped cars in the lineup, Clauson took the green with no worries of being caught. Racing amongst slower cars, Daryn Pittman managed to work back around Chad Boat for the silver position in the final two laps.
“I hadn’t run the bottom in 20 laps so I didn’t know what to expect when I went down there,” said Pittman of his pass for second. “I was just committed that I was going down there and try to make something happen.”
Chad Boat held on to punch the week’s final ticket into Saturday’s A-Feature.
“You’ve got to pass everyone you can and our goal was to get up where Bryan was. It probably wasn’t realistic, but I think we are all pretty pleased here.”
Racing from the night’s second B-Feature, Tanner Thorson tore a path from 18th to fourth. California’s Darren Hagen rounded out the top-five.
Starting 17th, Tim McCreadie came up to sixth with Shane Cottle seventh. Ronnie Gardner eight, Cory Kruseman ninth, and Damion Gardner 10th after the tangle with Darland.
Friday’s Vacuworx Global Qualifying Night saw 78 drivers drawing in, bringing the weekend’s official count to 326, making the 29th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals presented by General Tire the highest attended event in the history of the Chili Bowl.
Of the final 78 that made the call for Friday’s event, eight ended up adding their name to the Flip Count, which stands at 41. Thankfully all drivers have walked away.
The 29th Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals presented by General Tire concludes on Saturday, January 15, 2015 with the River Spirit Expo Center opening at 7:30 A.M. Hot Laps will begin at 9:45 A.M. with Racing at 10:45 A.M. (CT). Features will start with the “N”, going to double features from the “M” through the “B” Features.
Lineups for the Saturday Alphabet will be posted tohttp://www.chilibowl.com.
Results:
Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire
Tulsa Expo Raceway – Tulsa, Okla.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Vacuworx Global Qualifying Night
Car Count: 78
Official Event Count: 326 (New Record)
Budweiser Heat Races: Top 40 in passing points advance to Qualifiers.
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 63-Bryan Clauson[5]; 2. 35X-Frank Flud[1]; 3. 17RW-Dave Darland[8]; 4. 2D-Steve Davis[6]; 5. 74-Jamie Speers[4]; 6. 12J-Jay Mounce[2]; 7. 31R-David Wheeler[7]; 8. 25-Marvin Mitchell[3]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 15X-Chad Boat[1]; 2. 19B-Jake Bubak[2]; 3. 4J-Tim Crawley[5]; 4. 8L-Austin Liggett[4]; 5. 83-Shane Weeks[3]; 6. 22AZ-Rick Shuman[6]; 7. (DNF) 35D-Dahne Lynn McKay[7]; 8. (DNF) 1OU-A.J. Burns[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 68-Ronnie Gardner[5]; 2. 15B-Danny Burke[3]; 3. 82H-Mike Hess[7]; 4. 1JR-Stevie Sussex III[8]; 5. 27H-Curt Michael[6]; 6. 27T-Tucker Klaasmeyer[4]; 7. 11F-Floyd Alvis[1]; 8. (DNF) 53-Aaron Schuck[2]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 47X-Tim McCreadie[4]; 2. 17K-Alex Schutte[5]; 3. 3C-Raven Culp[6]; 4. 24X-Landon Simon[7]; 5. 10X-Ronnie Burns[2]; 6. 69X-Jeromy Hefler[1]; 7. 5H-Tyson Hall[8]; 8. (DNF) 32D-Danny Jennings[3]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Darren Hagen[4]; 2. 98-Jarid Blondel[2]; 3. 22-John Heydenreich[1]; 4. 41-Jason Johnson[7]; 5. 20S-Shon Deskins[5]; 6. 6C-Cory Butler[3]; 7. 57M-Matt Mitchell[6]; 8. 00-Cole Custer[8]
Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 21K-Cory Kruseman[2]; 2. 17J-Chase Johnson[3]; 3. 21-Daryn Pittman[8]; 4. 6M-Pat McVicker[5]; 5. 313-Mitchell Frewaldt[4]; 6. 05H-Justin Hendricks[1]; 7. 59E-Dex Eaton[6]; 8. 6R-Lucas Schott[7]
Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 99P-Dillon Welch[4]; 2. 37F-Hunter Schuerenberg[7]; 3. 41P-Austin Prock[2]; 4. 85H-Shane Hollingsworth[8]; 5. 89-Nick Bailey[5]; 6. 56L-Jack Hawley[6]; 8. 77B-Renaldo Snipes[1]; 7. (DNF) 24F-Hunter Fischer[3]
Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 71L-Damion Gardner[4]; 2. 3T-Tim Barber[2]; 3. 51F-Mike Spencer[7]; 4. 95-Jim Radney[3]; 5. 3M-Mike Fulper[8]; 6. (DNF) 7W-Kory Schudy[1]; 7. (DNF) 0-Johnny Murdock[6]; 8. (DNF) 17N-Duke Nalon III[5]
Heat 9 (8 Laps): 1. 57D-Daniel Robinson[1]; 2. 3-Shane Cottle[4]; 3. 11K-Gavin Harlien[2]; 4. 67K-Kevin Thomas Jr[7]; 5. 62D-Rusty Dukes[5]; 6. 10J-John Hunt[6]; 7. 17KT-Ryan Ellis[3]
Heat 10 (8 Laps): 1. 67-Tanner Thorson[1]; 2. 20-Tadd Holliman[2]; 3. 9D-Sean Dodenhoff[4]; 4. 24T-George White[3]; 5. 31B-David Budres[7]; 6. 2$-Stuart (Stu) Snyder[6]; 7. 5F-Rik Forbes[5]
D-Features: Top 2 advance to corresponding C-Feature.
D Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 25-Marvin Mitchell[6]; 2. 6R-Lucas Schott[4]; 3. 59E-Dex Eaton[1]; 4. 1OU-A.J. Burns[3]; 5. 5F-Rik Forbes[2]; 6. 53-Aaron Schuck[7]; 7. (DNF) 24F-Hunter Fischer[5]
D Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 00-Cole Custer[3]; 2. 17KT-Ryan Ellis[2]; 3. 32D-Danny Jennings[6]; 4. 11F-Floyd Alvis[4]; 5. 77B-Renaldo Snipes[7]; 6. 17N-Duke Nalon III[5]; DNS 0-Johnny Murdock
C-Features: Top 4 advance to corresponding B-Feature.
C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 20S-Shon Deskins[2]; 2. 74-Jamie Speers[3]; 3. 10J-John Hunt[7]; 4. 5H-Tyson Hall[8]; 5. 69X-Jeromy Hefler[11]; 6. 31R-David Wheeler[10]; 7. 83-Shane Weeks[4]; 8. 7W-Kory Schudy[12]; 9. 6C-Cory Butler[9]; 10. 6R-Lucas Schott[14]; 11. 10X-Ronnie Burns[5]; 12. 22AZ-Rick Shuman[6]; 13. 25-Marvin Mitchell[13]; 14. (DNF) 24T-George White[1]
C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 27H-Curt Michael[1]; 2. 57M-Matt Mitchell[12]; 3. 27T-Tucker Klaasmeyer[8]; 4. 62D-Rusty Dukes[2]; 5. 35D-Dahne Lynn McKay[10]; 6. 2$-Stuart (Stu) Snyder[7]; 7. 89-Nick Bailey[4]; 8. 56L-Jack Hawley[6]; 9. 313-Mitchell Frewaldt[3]; 10. 00-Cole Custer[13]; 11. 17KT-Ryan Ellis[14]; 12. 12J-Jay Mounce[9]; 13. 05H-Justin Hendricks[11]; 14. (DNF) 3M-Mike Fulper[5]
Qualifiers: Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the A-Feature.
Qualifier 1 (10 Laps): 1. 63-Bryan Clauson[6]; 2. 21K-Cory Kruseman[3]; 3. 17J-Chase Johnson[1]; 4. 57D-Daniel Robinson[2]; 5. 17K-Alex Schutte[4]; 6. 99P-Dillon Welch[5]; 7. 22-John Heydenreich[10]; 8. 41P-Austin Prock[9]; 9. (DNF) 67K-Kevin Thomas Jr[7]; 10. (DNF) 20-Tadd Holliman[8]
Qualifier 2 (10 Laps): 1. 4J-Tim Crawley[1]; 2. 3-Shane Cottle[3]; 3. 71L-Damion Gardner[5]; 4. 37F-Hunter Schuerenberg[4]; 5. 68-Ronnie Gardner[6]; 6. 35X-Frank Flud[8]; 7. 67-Tanner Thorson[2]; 8. 19B-Jake Bubak[7]; 9. 31B-David Budres[10]; 10. 11K-Gavin Harlien[9]
Qualifier 3 (10 Laps): 1. 17RW-Dave Darland[5]; 2. 1JR-Stevie Sussex III[2]; 3. 9D-Sean Dodenhoff[8]; 4. 24X-Landon Simon[1]; 5. 41-Jason Johnson[9]; 6. 8L-Austin Liggett[10]; 7. 47X-Tim McCreadie[6]; 8. 3C-Raven Culp[3]; 9. (DNF) 82H-Mike Hess[4]; 10. (DNF) 98-Jarid Blondel[7]
Qualifier 4 (10 Laps): 1. 21-Daryn Pittman[5]; 2. 15X-Chad Boat[3]; 3. 85H-Shane Hollingsworth[1]; 4. 51F-Mike Spencer[4]; 5. 7A-Darren Hagen[6]; 6. 95-Jim Radney[10]; 7. 3T-Tim Barber[7]; 8. 15B-Danny Burke[2]; 9. 6M-Pat McVicker[9]; 10. 2D-Steve Davis[8]
B-Features: Top 4 advance to the A-Feature.
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 47X-Tim McCreadie[3]; 2. 35X-Frank Flud[4]; 3. 82H-Mike Hess[8]; 4. 57D-Daniel Robinson[2]; 5. 99P-Dillon Welch[1]; 6. 20S-Shon Deskins[13]; 7. 31B-David Budres[10]; 8. 3C-Raven Culp[7]; 9. 5H-Tyson Hall[16]; 10. 20-Tadd Holliman[11]; 11. 3T-Tim Barber[6]; 12. 74-Jamie Speers[14]; 13. 10J-John Hunt[15]; 14. (DNF) 15B-Danny Burke[9]; 15. (DNF) 95-Jim Radney[5]; 16. (DNF) 2D-Steve Davis[12]
B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 67-Tanner Thorson[6]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson[2]; 3. 85H-Shane Hollingsworth[1]; 4. 24X-Landon Simon[3]; 5. 67K-Kevin Thomas Jr[9]; 6. 27H-Curt Michael[13]; 7. 62D-Rusty Dukes[16]; 8. 27T-Tucker Klaasmeyer[15]; 9. 11K-Gavin Harlien[12]; 10. 19B-Jake Bubak[7]; 11. 8L-Austin Liggett[4]; 12. (DNF) 57M-Matt Mitchell[14]; 13. (DNF) 22-John Heydenreich[5]; 14. (DNF) 41P-Austin Prock[8]; 15. (DNF) 6M-Pat McVicker[10]; 16. (DNF) 98-Jarid Blondel[11]
A-Feature: Top 3 advance to Saturday’s A-Feature.
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 63-Bryan Clauson[1]; 2. 21-Daryn Pittman[3]; 3. 15X-Chad Boat[8]; 4. 67-Tanner Thorson[18]; 5. 7A-Darren Hagen[12]; 6. 47X-Tim McCreadie[17]; 7. 3-Shane Cottle[7]; 8. 68-Ronnie Gardner[9]; 9. 21K-Cory Kruseman[5]; 10. 71L-Damion Gardner[4]; 11. 1JR-Stevie Sussex III[11]; 12. 17RW-Dave Darland[2]; 13. 4J-Tim Crawley[10]; 14. 17K-Alex Schutte[16]; 15. 37F-Hunter Schuerenberg[13]; 16. 57D-Daniel Robinson[23]; 17. 9D-Sean Dodenhoff[6]; 18. 51F-Mike Spencer[14]; 19. 85H-Shane Hollingsworth[22]; 20. 41-Jason Johnson[20]; 21. 82H-Mike Hess[21]; 22. 17J-Chase Johnson[15]; 23. 24X-Landon Simon[24]; 24. 35X-Frank Flud[19]
Lap Leader: Bryan Clauson 1-25;