Chad Boat climbed from eighth to third to lead three Toyota drivers into the top 10 in Friday night’s Vacuworx Qualifying Night feature event at the 33rd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Raceway. Tucker Klaasmeyer finished fifth, while Spencer Bayston placed ninth.
After winning his opening heat race from the eighth starting position, Boat then climbed from sixth to second in his qualifying race only to make a slight error on the penultimate lap that resulted in him spinning and then having to re-start from the back of the field. He climbed back up to sixth, but that result pushed him back to the eighth starting position in Friday’s A Main.
“We had a good Kristine Auction/KC Drywall Spike Toyota tonight,” said Boat, who will start at the front of a B Main on Saturday. “We made one slight mistake in our qualifier going for the lead and I think that’s what ultimately relegated us to a third-place finish tonight. When you’re racing on a track that fast against racers that are as good as they are, you have to start up front. Tonight, we were probably one or two rows too far back. I definitely think we were the fastest car out there over the last 15 laps. We’ll take what we learned tonight and apply it tomorrow in the B Main and make sure that we finish our job and put it in the show. Then we’ll go after it in the A Main and have a good 55 laps.”
Klaasmeyer’s fifth-place finish will give him a spot in tomorrow’s B Mains. Bayston may have registered the drive of the night after starting from the 24th starting position and climbing all the way to ninth. After an incident ended his heat race prematurely, Bayston was forced to start the night in the back of the C Main. He then raced into the B and then followed with another impressive run into the feature. Between the A, B and C Mains, Bayston passed 34 cars on the night.
Toyota Chili Bowl Notes:
– Toyota drivers won four of this year’s five preliminary night feature events at the Chili Bowl.
– Seven of the 10 drivers who advanced directly to Saturday’s feature were Toyota-powered. In addition, five Toyota drivers will begin from the B Mains.
– The Toyota driver line-up for Saturday’s Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals includes three Chili Bowl champions and nine drivers that have previously won open-wheel national championships. The list includes two-time defending champion Christopher Bell, Rico Abreu (2015 and 2016 Chili Bowl champ), reigning national midget car champs Logan Seavey (USAC) and Tucker Klaasmeyer (POWRi), three-time POWRi champion Zach Daum, 2017 USAC midget champion Spencer Bayston, USAC Triple Crown champions J.J. Yeley (the 2005 Chili Bowl winner) and Jerry Coons, as well two-time USAC Sprint Car champion Brady Bacon.
– Twelve of the 38 Toyota drivers won at least one national midget feature event in 2018.
TRD PR
