After earning AARWBA All-American honors in 2011, 19-year-old Kyle Larson picked up right where he left off as he earned a podium finish as the highest placing Toyota at the 26th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Raceway Saturday night.
After winning Tuesday’s A Main feature event, Larson started Saturday night’s Chili Bowl Main event on the outside of the front row. Chili Bowl legend Sammy Swindell took the second spot from Larson on the opening lap, but the young Californian stayed in the fight throughout the 55-lap event – briefly falling back to fourth, but reclaiming the third position on Lap 16. He never fell outside of the top three through the remaining 40 laps in his Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota.
“Early in the race, I felt like I could have a shot because they were on the bottom in one and two and I felt like I was quicker up top,” Larson explained. “But as the race went on I just got tighter and tighter and couldn’t stay out of trouble on the cushion like I wanted to and they got too far ahead and got too many lappers between me and Sammy.”
Larson was joined in Saturday’s main event by three other Toyota-powered drivers. Veteran Tracy Hines finished just outside of the top-10 with an 11th-place showing. A pair of 19-year-olds, Caleb Armstrong and Rico Abreu qualified for their first Chili Bowl Main event. Armstrong, who recently drove to victory in the 71st annual Turkey Night Grand Prix with Toyota power, placed 18th, while Abreu, placed 21st after winning one of the two B Main events. It was just the second Midget Car Series race for Abreu.
In total, 17 drivers campaigned with Toyota power in Tulsa with nine advancing to the B Mains or further (top 64 of 259). The list of competitors was the highest ever for Toyota in a Midget Car Series event.
In addition to the four Toyota drivers in the feature event, Dave Darland, Bobby East, Jac Haudenschild, Brady Bacon and Hunter Schuerenberg all advanced to the B Mains. Darland and East narrowly missed qualifying for Saturday’s feature as they placed seventh and eighth in the first B Main – the first two spots outside of the transfer positions.
Both Haudenschild and Bacon were eliminated from contention in Saturday’s second B Main when they were caught up in crashes. Haudenschild, one of the most popular World of Outlaws drivers with 56 career victories, was making his first Chili Bowl appearance in 14 years. He was the oldest driver in the Toyota contingent at age 43. Schuerenberg won his C Main event to advance.
Jason Leffler, J.J. Yeley, Brett Anderson and Dalton Armstrong advanced to the C Mains; Chris Windom progressed to the D Mains; Austin Brown to the E Mains; and Davy Ray and Darren Kingston saw their day end in the F Mains.
This year’s Chili Bowl featured 259 competitors from 32 different states as well as Australia, Canada, Finland and New Zealand all fighting for one of the 24 openings in Saturday’s “A Main”.
Source: Toyota Racing
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