January 14, 2019

Seavey wires Chili Bowl opener

TULSA, Okla. -- In a real sense, the Chili Bowl is a bigger event this year, having expanded from five days to six with an additional qualifying night. But the number of automatic qualifiers for Saturday night’s A-main is smaller, with only two drivers advancing from each night’s qualifying A-feature, instead of the traditional three. The stakes are higher, and so is the pressure. Logan Seavey was the wire-to-wire winner of Monday night’s A-feature at the Tulsa Expo Center, but Brady Bacon won a battle that was just as significant, when he shot past Brad Sweet on Lap 23 of 25 to secure second place and assure himself a starting spot in Saturday’s A-main. Both Seavey and Bacon will start within the top 10 for the title race, and it was with a sense of relief that they took questions from the media after Monday’s preliminary. “I would say for this race that it was a little more relief, because it’s so hard, and you definitely don’t want to be in that B-main come Saturday, because it’s just as tough as the feature,” said Seavey, who finished 14th in last year’s main event after advancing from the first B-main. “To have the night we had, everything just fell into place, and that’s kind of what it takes with this race is for stuff to go your way. Everything went our way tonight. We didn’t run into any trouble, and obviously I had a great race car.” Not that Seavey didn’t have an anxious moment on the final lap in his No. 67 Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota. “That last lap was pretty scary for me,” Seavey said. “I took the white and dove to the bottom, because I thought that was the more clean lane—everybody was lined up on the top—and as soon as I went to the bottom, there was a car that had just broken. “I had to swerve back to the top, and I didn’t know how far the guys were behind me. Then I had to follow another lapper into the last corner, and like I said, I didn’t know where the guys were behind me, so I didn’t know if they were ready to throw a slider and maybe hit the bottom real good on that last lap. Fortunately, we had a good enough lead that that little last-lap mishap didn’t hurt us too bad.” With Seavey out front, Bacon found traction on the low side and finally worked his way past Sweet with just over two laps left to earn the coveted runner-up position. “We just got a good enough run off (Turn) 2 off the bottom that I was able to slide up in front of him going into 3 and hold on from there,” said Bacon, who will start the A-main for the first time since 2013, when he finished 22nd. “This race has always been kind of a curse for me. Obviously, I grew up 25 minutes from here, and it’s one of the most important races of the year for me. I’ve always had really good luck at the Shootout—ran really good there—but I could never catch a break here. It’s just a relief to get through this night without any misfortune.” Jake Neuman ran fourth and Chase Briscoe fifth in the opening-night A-feature. With Saturday’s title race run at 55 laps, Sweet thinks he’ll have an opportunity to challenge the cars that start ahead of him—assuming he transfers as one of the top seven finishers in his B-main. “Obviously, with adding a night, it stings a bit more than it would’ve,” Sweet said of his third-place run. “I think you can come back and start in the front row of a B (main)… you can still start 11th or so in a 55-lap race. I just felt like we’ve got to get our car a little better to be a little more in contention to win… A few different cautions, and the race might have played out a little bit different. But that’s racing. Logan did a great job. I felt like Brady’s car was a little better, and he was able to snooker by me there at the end and got me moving around off my line.” The race wasn’t without its casualties. A pileup in Turn 1 on Lap 13 eliminated the cars of Tanner Carrick, Zac Moody, David Camfield, Hayden Williams and Kyle Craker, rending their path to Saturday’s A-main a formidable challenge indeed.