It was the final night of preliminary action for the 2022 Chili Bowl Nationals and it certainly came with a boost of NOS Energy Turbo.
Justin Grant and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – teammates dawning the colors of the popular energy drink – completed an epic battle in the A-Main to finish 1-2 and punch both of their tickets to Saturday’s main event.
Stenhouse Jr. actually got by Grant, but a yellow came out just in the nick of time, resetting the lineup and revealing Stenhouse’s playbook.
“Absolutely, if that yellow doesn’t come out, I think Ricky wins that race,” Grant said on FloRacing. “I kept trying to circle the top in one and two and I finally had to move down and get the door closed. We had to be better, but we keep finding our way into victory lane this week.”
And right Grant is.
The man who won the race of champions on Monday went back to victory lane on Friday… then he was left with the final pill draw for Saturday’s pole shuffle where he was left with the No. 1 seed.
“I thought we had it, obviously but I showed him the line down here (before the yellow),” Stenhouse Jr. said on the broadcast. “I made a run there that last lap and I gave it one last-ditch effort there on the top. All in all a great night for us and I’m glad to be locked in with our NOS Energy Drink teammate.”
The pair are part of 10 drivers who have clinched their spots in Saturday’s 36th running of the Chili Bowl Nationals.
The other 350 and change will battle it out throughout the day on Saturday to try and qualify for the night’s 55-lap main event.
FloRacing will have coverage of all of the races leading up to the pair of C-Mains that run in the evening where MAVTV will take over for the live coverage of the race. For more updates, visit ARD’s twitter account (@AlwaysRaceDay) and consider retweeting our pinned tweet for a chance to win a free, year-long subscription to FloRacing.
Chili Bowl Nationals Friday Night Prelim Results
1. Justin Grant
2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3. Zeb Wise
4. Bryant Wiedeman
5. Sam Johnson
6. Michael Faccinto
7. Clinton Boyles
8. Kasey Kahne
9. Chase McDermand
10. Ethan Mitchell
11. Ronnie Gardner
12. Andrew Felker
13. Ryan Newman
14. Wayne Johnson
15. Ace McCarthy
16. Daryn Pittman
17. Cory Eliason
18. Frank Flud
19. Brenham Crouch
20. Donovan Peteron
21. Casey Shuman
22. Tom Harris
23. Wesley Smith
24. AJ Hopkins
