TULSA, O.K.- While it may only be January, fans may have watched a race of the year candidate at the Expo Center on Thursday night (Jan. 16).
Complete at a blistering pace with a three-wide battle on the final lap, there’s truly only one way to describe what took place at the Chili Bowl on Thursday night: Unbelievable.
Christopher Bell hadn’t lost a Thursday prelim night since 2015 (he was absent from 2023-2024). But that streak came to a dramatic end in his 2025 return. Not only did Tanner Thorson get the better of him, but Ryan Bernal snuck by to steal the second and final lock-in spot in a late two-lap dash.
Thorson picked up his third prelim night win and will chase his second Golden Driller on Saturday. He led heading into the dramatic conclusion, but wasn’t sure what to expect in the final restart.
“Yeah I didn’t know,” Thorson told Frontstretch. “I’m looking at my guys, I’m expecting my guys to be like top, bottom, I’m relying on them so that way if I mess up it’s their fault you know. No, I didn’t know what to do. It’s very rare on certain racetracks that you just don’t know where to go, especially with the board and knowing who you’re racing around.
“I know how he [Bell] races, we both know where that person is gonna go or where not.”
Thorson started on the pole with Karter Sarff alongside, while Bell fired off back in fourth for the 30-lap feature. Sarff jumped out to an early lead, but it was short-lived, as Thorson snatched it back following a multi-car pileup on lap 4.
From there, it was a dogfight. Bell and Thorson wrestled the lead from each other time and time again through a frenetic race. It looked to be over, with Thorson closing in o the checkered flag, but a last second yellow flew for C.J. Leary and Parker Jones, who crashed while battling for third.
Bernal was involved in the incident, pointing the nose of his No. 87w as he throttled out of the accident over the two cars. In that moment, the Californian thought his night may be finished. But he lived to see the final restart.
“Oh absolutely,” Bernal told Frontstretch when asked if he thought he was in trouble. “I mean Leary, I was probably at his nerf bar and then it kind of jumped up and I was like uh, I’ll gas it a little bit and see what happens. Sure enough, I just kind of monster trucked him, but I had to try something.
“I got out of it and kind of wiggled the car a little bit. Nothing felt like it was broken or any thing like that. I’m sure they’re looking at it now but yeah, we survived and that saved our race.”
Thorson lined up the leader with Bell and Bernal behind for a two-lap shootout. He quickly darted to the bottom in turns 1 and 2. Bell ripped the top and had a run down the backstretch, but Thorson ran the slider line into three, slowing the Oklahoman’s momentum.
Bell looked to try another slider into turn 1, but was blocked off by Bernal on the bottom and forced to run the middle. In the same moment, Thorson made a mistake on the top and the three cars were nearly dead even exiting turn 2 on the white flag lap.
Thorson got away as Bernal missed the bottom in turn 3, powering off to the prelim win. Behind him, Bernal barely beat Bell in a drag race to the line for second, snatching away the final locked-in spot for Saturday’s A-Main. Bell will now be forced to race his way into the feature through a Saturday B-main for the first time since 2015.
The three drivers shared plenty of smiles and laughs about the battle post-race, giving a solid breakdown of the final restart in the media center afterwards.
Chili Bowl Thursday Results
- Tanner Thorson
- Ryan Bernal
- Christopher Bell
- Matt Westfall
- Jacob Denney
- Frank Flud
- Kyle Spence
- Shane Cottle
- Brody Fuson
- Brady Bacon
- Chris Windom
- Dalten Gabbard
- Matt Sherrell
- Jeff Stasa
- Spencer Bayston
- Drake Edwards
- Ethan Mitchell
- Parker Jones
- Andrew Deal
- Bradley Fezard
- Bradley Cox
- C.J. Leary (DNF)
- Karter Sarff (DNF)
- Casey Shuman (DNF)
The final night of prelim action before championship Saturday is set to kick off Friday, Jan. 17 at 4:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. ET. Hot laps will start the evening followed by heat races, with all the action found live 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.