TULSA, Okla. - Rolling into Chili Bowl Victory Lane for the first time in his career, California’s Logan Seavey was perfect in the first ever Monday Qualifying Night to open up the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at Oklahoma’s Tulsa Expo Raceway.
Taking advantage of his Heat and Qualifier wins to position the Keith Kunz Motorsports No. 67 on the pole, Seavey led start to finish in Monday’s 25 lap feature event to become the 44th different Preliminary Night winner.
“To have the night we had, everything just fell into place and that’s kind of what it takes for this race is for stuff just to go your way,” Seavey said.
Rolling the bottom of the Tulsa Expo Raceway, Seavey quickly put distance over Brad Sweet, who was under pressure from Brady Bacon. With traffic coming into play, Sweet – with Bacon in tow – closed rapidly on Seavey only to have the caution lights blink on for Hayden Williams with eight laps complete.
Seavey rolled away from the field again as Bacon dropped the hub to challenge for the runner-up spot. Not able to clear Sweet, the pair traded lines numerous times with Chase Briscoe working into the mix. Approaching traffic again, the red lights would bring things to a halt as several cars crashed entering the first turn. Thankfully, all driver involved were unharmed.
Asked if the caution and red flag helped him figure on the track, Seavey replied, “I was kind of watching the screen and watching these two (Bacon and Sweet) battle side by side and I felt like the bottom was a little bit better there in the first half. That first caution came right when I got to lapped traffic, which you can’t ask for anything better than that, then the second one was right when I got to lapped traffic. By then, I was starting to feel the bottom slow down and I could see Brad (Sweet) closing in on me and as soon as we went yellow or red and I had about half the crowd telling me to move to the top.”
Making the move to the cushion on the restart, Seavey would quickly put distance over the fight for second as Bacon continued his pursuit of the final lock-in spot for Saturday’s feature event. Trading top to bottom again, Sweet bested Bacon until lap 22, when Bacon finally gained the upper hand off the second turn.
Meanwhile, Seavey crossed the finish line 0.887 seconds ahead of Bacon, with both being locked into Saturday’s A-Feature. Sweet finished in third, with Jake Neuman in fourth and Briscoe in fifth.
Oklahoma’s Trey Marcham was sixth with Travis Rilat, Zeb Wise, Paul Nienhiser and Sean McClelland rounding out the top ten.
The 33rd Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals continues Tuesday with Warren CAT Qualifying Night and the Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions (VIROC XI). For more information, visit ChiliBowl.com.
Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals
Tulsa Expo Raceway – Tulsa, OK
Cummins Qualifying Night – January 14, 2019
1. 67-Logan Seavey*
2. 76M-Brady Bacon*
3. 1R-Brad Sweet
4. 3N-Jake Neuman
5. 21B-Chase Briscoe
6. 32T-Trey Marcham
7. 1B-Travis Rilat
8. 39B-Zeb Wise
9. 9X-Paul Nienhiser
10. 15S-Sean McClelland
11. 55D-Nick Drake
12. P1-Paul White
13. 17W-Dustin Golobic
14. 8-Alex Sewell
15. 5X-Tyson Hall
16. 81-Colten Cottle
17. 2WG-Weston Gorham
18. 20S-Shon Deskins
19. 2-Ryan Hall
20. (DNF) 71K-Tanner Carrick
21. (DNF) 17Z-Zac Moody
22. (DNF) 86C-David Camfield
23. (DNF) 91W-Hayden Williams
24. (DNF) 5P-Kyle Craker
Locked Into Saturday’s A-Feature
