Keith Kunz Motorsports based in Columbus will be aiming for yet another Golden Driller trophy tonight as the 34th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals will air live on MAVTV at 8:30 p.m. KKM cars won the preliminary night action with Cannon McIntosh and Rico Abreu behind the wheel.
A key ingredient to the Chili Bowl’s excitement comes from the clay that makes up the racetrack. Without the sun or wind damaging the ground, the roughly quarter-mile-long track stays heavily saturated and provides pristine conditions for the world’s best dirt track racers to truly shine.
Racer earns win at Tulsa
Chasing early, then having to hold off numerous charges over the course of late-race restarts, California’s Rico Abreu captured his fifth consecutive Tulsa preliminary night victory during the Jan. 15 portion of the 34th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
“It’s pretty impressive. I’ve always come here really prepared and my team has brought really prepared race cars, but it all starts with our Heat Race; getting through that and then getting through your qualifier,” said the driver of the Keith Kunz Motorsports entry.
Getting a run on a restart, Colby Copeland pulled alongside Rico, but could not advance to the point. To the final lap, Abreu kept the right rear humming on the cushion with the checkered flag dropping on a 1.104-second advantage.
Racer gets victory at prelim
Picking up his sixth career preliminary night victory, and third straight since 2018, Kyle Larson battled through a myriad of cautions to win the Jan. 14 Warren CAT Qualifying Night during the 34th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
Locking into his ninth championship A-Feature since 2010, the race to that ticket became a question of fuel.
“I think me and Jonathan (Beason) both were running out of fuel there at the end,” explained Larson. “Mine was stumbling a lot the last five laps, so I was thankful we didn’t have another caution because I don’t know if I could have made it.”
To the lead on the cushion over the Jonathan Beason, the start was short-lived as Derek Hagar came to a stop in turn three. Following Larson’s lead to the top of the Tulsa Expo Raceway, Kyle got away by three-tenths of a second before the Whelen Caution lights switched on again.
Taking the final six laps without delay, Larson crossed 2.822 seconds ahead of Beason, who secured his sixth trip to tonight’s big dance with Michael Faccinto holding off the torrid advance of Dillon Welch, who advanced 12 positions to finish fourth. Larry Wight ended up completing the top five.
McIntosh wins in debut for Kunz
Local favorite Cannon McIntosh came into the Jan. 13 qualifying night program just hoping to settle in and run near the front of the field.
By the end of the night, he was submerged in a whirlwind of emotions and celebrating the biggest victory of his young career, a win that left an early mark on the KKM team and inked McIntosh’s name firmly on the midget landscape.
McIntosh pulled off a clean sweep of the Monday program to win in his KKM debut, topping his heat race, qualifying race and the 30-lap preliminary main event to earn a spot in Saturday’s pole shuffle and lock in to a top-10 grid spot for the championship finale.
While it looked like winged sprint car star Aaron Reutzel might have the hot hand early, leading laps five through 10, McIntosh stayed true to his race and capitalized when Reutzel was collected in a turn-two accident to reclaim the point for good.
Fending off furious charges from Tyler Courtney and Michael Pickens in the latter stages, McIntosh took control following an open red with eight laps left and slowly gapped Courtney to the finish.
It was a performance that McIntosh characterized as “picture perfect,” one that sets him up as an unlikely favorite to end Christopher Bell’s three-year Chili Bowl winning streak on Saturday night.
“This is absolutely huge,” the 17-year-old noted. “Every time I hit the race track tonight, the Toyota-powered Tulsa Sod and Mulch midget was just on rails. Keith Kunz and his crew had the thing hooked up, right from the first hot lap session. Even then, I was already somewhat comfortable and ready to go, and this thing was just super fast all night.”
The end of the race led to a wave of emotions for the Bixby, Oklahoma teenager, as he celebrated with a series of victory donuts in turns three and four before climbing atop his car and fist pumping in front of a raucous crowd.
Upon climbing down from his car, McIntosh was engulfed in a hug by team co-owner Keith Kunz, who had no shortage of praise for his young driver at the end of the night.
“He’s just so good and he was so smooth,” Kunz said of McIntosh. “We knew he could do it and we worked hard to put the car underneath him all night that he could go out there and perform with. He did a great job and we’re proud of the effort he’s put in. He’s certainly proven he’s earned his place at the front of the field and we’re looking forward to Saturday night with him in the feature.”
As he worked to begin soaking in the moment Monday night, McIntosh was nearly at a loss for words in realizing that he’d won his first Chili Bowl preliminary feature just 30 minutes north of his hometown.
“I’m still going through processing it, to be honest,” McIntosh admitted. “I didn’t think I would be here, in this spot, at least any time soon.
“This is, for sure, a moment I won’t forget.”