Kyle Larson had to fight to hold his lead over Thomas Meseraull during the final green-white-checkered attempt at the Chili Bowl’s Tuesday night Preliminary Feature.
That’s not something that Larson is used to after his stellar summer in 2020, but there was more action happening behind his No. 01 car throughout the night.
At the start, Larson had to rip away the lead from Meseraull. Twice, he was threatening to pass his competitor until the caution lights flashed back on.
A multitude of yellow’s dragged out the front half of the race – and took out a couple of big competitors near the front.
Jonathan Beason was running the top and had a tire hop the cushion, forcing his car to turn upside down.
On the ensuing restart, Tanner Carrick clipped the orange cone on the front stretch, bringing out the caution flag once again and sending him to the back of the field, as well.
Both drivers were running third before taking the trip back.
Fast-Forward to Larson taking the white flag for the first time on Tuesday, being trailed by Shane Golobic in second.
Golobic ran deep into the corner, colliding with the lapped car of the aforementioned Carrick.
It brought out the caution and took the No. 17W of Golobic from a guaranteed spot in the A-Main to all the way back in the E-Main on Saturday.
The Knoxville semi-regular was humbled after the race, tweeting, “We have nothing to show for it, but I’m pretty damn proud of this Matt Wood Racing NOS Energy Drink Elk Grove Ford team. We will keep going.”
The move left Meseraull confused following the race.
The entire field of cars was stuck to the bottom of the track during the closing laps on Tuesday.
“We picked up a lucky break there at the end,” Meseraull said on the FloRacing broadcast. “We were running third. I was going to run third on the white flag lap. I don’t know what Golobic was thinking. It wouldn’t have mattered if he got in line, I couldn’t pass him anyways, so. Tough luck for those guys. Their bad luck is our good luck.”
Nonetheless, Meseraull will be heading to Saturday’s Chili Bowl Nationals Main Event.
Even though, the drivers had to stick it to the bottom, he survived the brunt of it.
“I don’t know what I can do if we have to go to the bottom,” Meseraull said on the broadcast. “I’ve said it a thousand times – live or die by the top. That’s T-Mez. That’s how I roll. I just don’t have much fun rolling around the bottom, but you have to race the race track. I stayed up there as long as I thought I could and just kind of got into the train.”
Larson had his own critiques about the track, although the expectation from drivers is that it will be back to normal for the rest of the week.
Tonight’s off-night was an outlier.
Instead, Larson took up the rest of his interview time in victory lane wishing luck to Matt Wood Racing and Golobic after what ensued on Tuesday.
“I just had to be patient and not get off the bottom and do anything irresponsible to give the race away, essentially,” Larson said. “I hated to see (Golobic) get into Carrick there. He had an A-Main event lock-in spot. I hate that for Shane and Matt Wood and everybody who works on there equipment over there. They’ve had some bad luck these last two nights. Hopefully, their team can finish it out strong the rest of the week.”
The Chili Bowl Nationals will resume with another new roster of drivers for the third of five qualifying nights on Wednesday evening on FloRacing. Hot laps are slated, once again, for 4:00 p.m.
Chili Bowl Tuesday Night Preliminary Feature Results
1. Kyle Larson
2. Thomas Meseraull
3. Zach Daum
4. Cole Bodine
5. Danny Stratton
6. Derek Hagar
7. Chase Johnson
8. Hank Davis
9. Daison Pursley
10. Frank Flud
11. Kyle Jones
12. Nick Drake
13. Michael Faccinto
14. Jonathan Beason
15. Noah Harris
16. Anton Hernandez
17. Mitchell Davis
18. Tanner Carrick
19. Aiden Purdue
20. Shane Cottle
21. Carson Kvapil
22. Shane Golobic
23. Brody Fuson
24. Curtis Jones
Locked In
Below we will continue to update the drivers who are locked in to each of the final five feature races on Saturday night in Tulsa – determined by their respective finishing positions in their preliminary nights.
Saturday’s Chili Bowl A-Main (Prelim Top 2 Finishers)
– Cannon McIntosh
– Tyler Courtney
– Kyle Larson
– Thomas Meseraull
B-Mains (Prelim P3-P8 Finishers)
– Blake Hahn
– Chris Windom
– David Gravel
– Jacob Denny
– Chase Briscoe
– Tim McCreadie
– Zach Daum
– Cole Bodine
– Danny Stratton
– Derek Hagar
– Chase Johnson
– Hank Davis
C-Main (Prelim P9-P14 Finishers)
– Trey Marcham
– Carson Macedo
– Alex Sewell
– Gary Taylor
– Stephen Schnapf
– Kory Schudy
– Daison Pursley
– Frank Flud
– Kyle Jones
– Nick Drake
– Michael Faccinto
– Jonathan Beason
D-Main (Prelim P15-P20 Finishers)
– Roger Crockett
– CJ Leary
– Steven Russell
– Kade Morton
– Riley Kreisel
– Mitchel Moles
– Noah Harris
– Anton Hernandez
– Mitchell Davis
– Tanner Carrick
– Aiden Purdue
– Shane Cottle
E-Main (Prelim P21-P24 Finishers)
– Clinton Boyles
– Jerry Coons Jr
– Ryan Bernal
– Kevin Bayer
– Carson Kvapil
– Shane Golobic
– Brody Fuson
– Curtis Jones
