TULSA, Oklahoma. – A year ago, Kyle Larson finally achieved greatness by winning his first Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals title. On Saturday night, he converted that greatness into immortality by adding a second Golden Driller trophy to his resume.
Larson led each lap of the 35th race of the Super Bowl of Midget Racing, leaving no doubt on his way to consecutive Chili Bowl wins in his own No. 01 MAVTV / JV1 King-Toyota Group.
The Elk Grove, Calif., Native flew to the point on the second try at the start, and never lost again on the 55-lap headliner. He defended himself early from polesitter Justin Grant and longtime rival Christopher Bell late before taking the checkered flag in front for 1,246 seconds at the end.
It is the third time in the past seven years that a driver has recorded repeated victories in the annual dwarf racing extravaganza. Larson (’20 -’21) joins Bell (’17 -’19) and Rico Abreu (’15 -’16) in that category.
Although Larson did not take the lead until well after half of his first Chili Bowl score, he admitted that playing defense throughout the race this year was a difficult task.
“I had to work a lot harder for that,” said Larson, who will return to the NASCAR Cup Series full-time action next month with Hendrick Motorsports, on the winning track. “I could feel Grant pushing me almost the entire race. In the middle part, the track really curved. I was not bad then. But in the end it formed a huge curb and I was trying to run hard … but when I ran hard I hit (the cushion). If I took it easy, I would stand against it. As soon as I saw that Bell had reached second place, I knew that I needed to try to be smarter and not make any serious mistakes or I would let him pass.
“I made a lot of serious mistakes during that race.”
A prolonged delay in preparing for the track after the night’s B Mains twins meant that the grand final did not carry the green flag until 23:21 CT.
Once in progress, however, the resource met its annual turnover.
Grant got the better of Larson to start the race, but Joe B. Miller pitching No. 49 before all the cars had crossed on the opening lap led to a complete restart and gave Larson a second chance to capitalize.
Nor did Larson waste it, racing to a seven-car lead at the end of the first lap before Brady Bacon turned upside down on turn three for the second yellow of the night.
This time, a lap was placed in the record book, leaving Larson ahead for a single-line restart and giving him an advantage he would not open again. This does not mean that there were no attempts to stop him.
Grant’s first attempt at leading the race came after a diamond on the fourth corner that gave NOS Energy Drink No. 2j a look under Larson, but Kyle Cummins slowed down with a flat tire to force the event’s third caution.
A longer run with the green flag opened from that point, with Larson entering slower traffic and Grant staying with him, but never finding an opening to complete a move to first place.
Thomas Meseraull’s mechanical problems led to yellow with 29 laps scheduled, but it wasn’t until the restart of lap 38 – after an incident with Buddy Kofoid in turns three and four – that things really got heated.
Eleventh, Tanner Thorson, jumped to fourth position with a slide job at Cannon McIntosh, while Larson built a one-second lead over Grant before traffic returned to the game with 10 to finish.
While Larson struggled to overcome cars, Bell was on the hunt and hungry for redemption. He overtook Grant with nine laps left and was looking forward to reaching Larson after being defeated by No. 01 in 2020.
At the same time that Bell overtook Grant, Larson hit the outer curb and suddenly there were three cars under a blanket fighting for the Golden Driller. Grant quickly disappeared, but Bell was hot on Larson’s tail.
Larson scored the cushion again on lap 50 and Bell almost took advantage, but a yellow with four to go for a Blake Hahn lap thwarted Bell’s lead and put Larson on a clean track.
Bell attempted to overthrow Larson on the next restart, but entering corner three with two laps left Bell slipped on the race track and scored the treacherous pad, turning his iRacing / CB Industries No. 84x and ending his race with a fourth Chili Bowl victory.
This left Larson ahead of Grant, who tried a big slider at the penultimate restart of the race, but failed to overtake Larson and piled the field behind him when he hit the outer curb at turn one.
The concertina effect ended up causing Tyler Courtney to be upside down and set up one last reboot.
Larson hit his mark on the two laps that ended the race, taking off for his second Chili Bowl victory over Grant, Thorson, McIntosh and a tough Daryn Pittman, who came in 20th to finish fifth.
Chris Windom, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Sweet, Spencer Bayston and Logan Seavey closed the top 10.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic keeping some strong teams at home, 309 cars still stopped to compete during this year’s Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
The final Flip Count of the World Wide Technology Raceway ended in 69, with all the drivers able to leave.
Tulsa Expo Raceway will host the 36th Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals from 10-15 January 2022.
RESULTS: 35º Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals; Tulsa (Okla.) Expo Raceway; January 16, 2021
Lucas Oil A Feature (55 laps): 1. 01-Kyle Larson [2]; 2. 2J-Justin Grant [1]; 3. 08-Tanner Thorson [11]; 4. 71K-Cannon McIntosh [4]; 5. 21-Daryn Pittman [20]; 6. 89-Chris Windom [14]; 7. 17S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr. [12]; 8. 1R-Brad Sweet [19]; 9. 1S-Spencer Bayston [15]; 10. 39-Logan Seavey [17]; 11. 39B-Cole Bodine [24]; 12. 25X-Alex Bright [7]; 13. 27W-Colby Copeland [23]; 14. 84X-Christopher Bell [3]; 15. 7C-Tyler Courtney [6]; 16. 97-Rico Abreu [5]; 17. 52-Blake Hahn [13]; 18. 3G-Kyle Cummins [10]; 19. 67-Michael Kofoid [8]; 20. 72-Chase Johnson [21]; 21. 7X-Thomas Meseraull [9]; 22. 21H-Brady Bacon [16]; 23. 3N-Jake Neuman [22]; 24. 49J-Joe B. Miller [18].
Leader (s) back: Kyle Larson 1-55
Rigid charger: # 21 – Daryn Pittman (+15)
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