For the second night in the row, the Tulsa, Ok. fans were treated to an absolute banger of a feature at the Chili Bowl Nationals.
But there was a difference on Tuesday night (Jan. 14). This time around, it was an underdog that stole a victory away from the top teams. With a seventh-to-first performance in the A-main, Landon Brooks secured his first Midget win at Tulsa Expo Raceway.
With the win, Brooks officially guaranteed his first start in Saturday’s A-main. The result was his first prelim night top-five, surprising the rest of the field. But the run did come with some help: Monday night runner-up Shane Golobic is the crew chief on Brooks’ race winning No. 57w and helped guide the young star to the win.
“After the heat race, I was kind of just going 50%” Brooks told Frontstretch afterward. “Sometimes I feel like I overdrive them and I don’t put consistent laps together. So after the heat race he [Golobic] said just hammer this thing, go do what you do and have fun. That’s pretty much what I did, and he gave me the racecar to be able to do it.
“It’s insane. When I passed the checkered flag I couldn’t believe it. We’ll go party tonight, celebrate and we’ll move on to tomorrow and hopefully lock another one in.”
Much like Monday’s battle between Golobic and Kyle Larson, the fight for the win came down to a series of late slide jobs. Brooks and Brenham Crouch traded the lead, with Brooks ultimately taking a thrilling victory in the end.
After spending much of the race mired in traffic, Brooks finally tracked down Crouch with four to go, completing the slider in turns 1 and 2 with three laps remaining in the 30-lapper.
A mistake on the cushion moments later nearly cost Brooks, but the 21-year old quickly recovered to fend off the return slider from Crouch. He then held off Crouch to the checkered flag to secure the victory.
Like Brooks, Crouch also locked in to his first career Saturday A-main, converting his first-ever prelim night top-15 into a podium lock-in spot.
“(I) led a lot of laps there and wasn’t really contested (early on),” Crouch told Frontstretch post-race. “Just kept doing what I was doing and Landon just picked my pocket. He raced me very smart.”
“It’s a really cool feeling,” he later added. “I can’t tell you the first time I came here, I don’t even think I remember it if I’m being honest. I was so young. Just a cool feeling, it’s really hard to be upset with second with that in the back of my head. Just very, not stress relieving, but very soothing just knowing that the hard part is done.”
Rounding out the night’s podium was Buddy Kofoid, who started the day as one of the favorites to lock up a spot in the feature. Kofoid had a strong showing in his heat race but was caught up in multiple incidents in the qualifier, finding himself trapped in a B-main.
Kofoid went on to win the B-main and put in a solid 18th-to-third run in the A, but ultimately ran out of laps to catch the top two. He’ll find himself near the front of a B-main come championship Saturday, left with work to do but looking good to make the feature after clawing his way out of the hornet’s nest.
“I feel like that’s the most aware I’ve had to make myself,” Kofoid told Frontstretch. “So you’ve got to be really aware and not put yourself in a position to get crashed ’cause everyone else is racing just as hard to get up to the front, too. So I feel like I was able to learn a lot as far as how aware you’ve got to be and, and [it] teaches you to be cautious, but not too cautious enough to where you’ve still got to carry that next level aggression to be better than the next guy ahead of you.”
The defending Chili Bowl runner-up will have his work cut out for him if he wants to go one spot better on Saturday.
Chili Bowl Tuesday Results
- Landon Brooks
- Brenham Crouch
- Buddy Kofoid
- Corbin Rueschenberg
- Gunnar Setser
- Kameron Key
- Hank Davis
- Kaylee Bryson
- Jake Bubak
- Derek Hagar
- Jonathan Beason
- Ricky Thornton Jr.
- Kevin Thomas Jr.
- Billy Vanlnwegen Jr.
- Garet Williamson
- Stevie Sussex III
- Nick Drake
- Hunter Schuerenberg
- R.J. Johnson
- Thomas Meseraull (DNF)
- Chance Morton (DNF)
- Clinton Boyles (DNF)
- Justin Zimmerman (DNF)
- Brad Sweet (DNF)
Chili Bowl action will be right back again on Wednesday, with hot laps once again at 4:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FloRacing.
Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com's CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023. Aside from racing, some of Chase's other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.