TULSA, Okla. - Justin Grant set a feverish pace for 25 non-stop laps to garner his third career preliminary night win in as many years Friday night at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at Oklahoma’s Tulsa Expo Raceway.
“This one was a lot of work,” Grant said. “You know I’ve been really fortunate to win some decent races and most of them have been showing up and walking in at three o’clock in the afternoon with my helmet bag and jumping in the car and just doing that and going home.
“This one’s been … it started with a truck, trailer, and a credit card. And a lot of 12, 14-hour days leading up to this, a ton of work. It just very validating that we could pull off a win. Those guys believed in me probably more than I did myself. But it’s like a bit of a weight lifted off … I can do that part of it too. Hopefully, we can keep it up.”
The California native jumped to an early advantage, but that gap was short lived as Tanner Thorson began closing just as traffic came into play on lap 12.
Using slower cars as picks while trying to navigate heavy slower traffic, the pair ducked high and low and low at both ends of the Tulsa Expo Raceway. Setting up to challenge on lap 18, Thorson would come up short as Justin worked a lapped car in the equation. With the slower machine cleared, Thorson again set up the attack as Grant slid off the bottom of the track with five to go. Able to slam the door into the first turn, Grant was able to edge out the win by 0.168 seconds.
With his first-second place finish of the week, Thorson locked himself into his fifth Saturday A-Feature start on Saturday night. Chad Boat finished in third, followed by NASCAR Cup regular Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in fourth and Tucker Klaasmeyer in fifth.
Alex Schutte, Daryn Pittman, Dave Darland, Spencer Bayston and Grady Chandler rounded out the top ten.
Through Friday night, the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals saw 350 drivers of the 362 entries received take part in Preliminary Night competition.
The 33rd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals wraps up on Saturday. For more information, visit ChiliBowl.com.
Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals
Tulsa Expo Raceway – Tulsa, OK
Vacuworx Qualifying Nigh – January 18, 2019
1. 4A-Justin Grant*
2. 3C-Tanner Thorson*
3. 84X-Chad Boat
4. 17S-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
5. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer
6. 17R-Alex Schutte
7. 21-Daryn Pittman
8. 36-Dave Darland
9. 97K-Spencer Bayston
10. 5G-Grady Chandler
11. 9D-Sean Dodenhoff
12. 54L-Luke Icke
13. 88N-D.J. Netto
14. 19T-Kevin Thomas, Jr.
15. 95-Chris Andrews
16. 51J-Hunter Schuerenberg
17. 47M-Austin Liggett
18. 19M-Ethan Mitchell
19. 2G-Steve Buckwalter
20. 73X-Shane Cottle
21. 99W-Korey Weyant
22. 1P-Terry Nichols
23. 10B-Kyle Bellm
24. 05-Brad Loyet
*Locked Into Saturday’s A-Feature
