Logan Seavey paces field, transfers to A with Justin Grant

TULSA, Okla. – Rubber took over the racing surface with eight laps remaining in the Friday preliminary main event at the 2023 Chili Bowl Nationals, but it gave no worries for Logan Seavey.

Seavey established himself in first place early in the race and even when Justin Grant found his way to second, Seavey was putting bigger gaps in between their cars with each cycle.

“Early I really wasn’t worried about my tires at all,” Seavey said. “I was thinking ‘it’s not a very long race, we won’t have much rubber.’ But yeah overall I wasn’t worried but I backed it down when I saw the rubber.”

Justin Grant meanwhile was working on running clean laps behind Seavey before the rubber came in.

“We just kinda rode around,” Grant said. “I didn’t think tires were going to be an issue, but there’s no reason to blaze your tires in the rubber. It’s really hard to pass people.”

Chase McDermand didn’t make the transfer, but he put a lot of notice on himself. He went from P15-to-P3 on his way to the front and had rubber not appeared on the surface, McDermand might have been fighting for a lock-in spot.

“We started off deep in the pack and I knew to keep my nose clean,” McDermand said. “I think I really felt the rubber first – I ran about 18 laps on it. Since I was the first one to find it, I knew my right rear was going to be the worst.”

McDermand used some persistence to keep that from happening, and it’s earned him a trip to a B-Main on Saturday.

The week concludes Saturday with the 37th Chili Bowl Nationals finale race day. It kicks off with P-Main hot laps at 9:00 a.m. CT on FloRacing. Lineups will be posted to ARD shortly.

2023 Chili Bowl Nationals results
Friday Night prelim
SageNet Center
1. Logan Seavey
2. Justin Grant
3. Chase McDermand

4. Zeb Wise

5. Jason McDougal

6. Ace McCarthy

7. Jace Park

8. Brian Carber

9. Clinton Boyles

10. Bryant Wiedeman

11. Daryn Pittman

12. Michael Faccinto

13. Andrew Felker

14. Braden Chiaramonte