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Logan Seavey Wins Friday Night, Continues Chili Bowl Title Defense

TULSA, O.K.- Ladies and gentleman, the champ is here.

It didn’t look as pretty as it has the past two years. But for the third year in a row, Logan Seavey took care of business on Friday night (Jan. 17) at the Chili Bowl Nationals.

Rather than the untouchable performance from prior years, it was a chaotic qualifier and a late-race slidejob that led to Seavey’s victory over Gavin Miller. Seavey pulled the trigger on a slider pacing lap 27 of 30, muscling Miller out of the way to take the top spot.

From there, the two-time defending Chili Bowl champ used a defensive line to bring home another key prelim night win.

“It feels good to win again for a third year,” Seavey told Frontstretch. “I don’t know if it feels better to know that we won and we still have work to do or if it feels worse that we won and still have work to do. Either way, like I said, I feel good that our car wasn’t perfect and we were still able to win. That says a lot just about how good our car is.”

The move on Miller at the end of the race was one that drew some attention, as it was similar to a controversial one with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. earlier in the night. Seavey threw a slider on Stenhouse at the end of their qualifier that led to retaliation from Stenhouse, with both cars wrecking after the checkered flag.

There was no such aggression from Miller, and Seavey felt like it was time to go.

“Yeah, I’m really big about not pulling the trigger to early,” Seavey added. “I committed off of [turn] 2. I was like I’m going for this one. He kind of hit the last bit of the cushion wrong and got down the backstretch really bad.

“It was probably real tight coming across his nose if I had to guess. Obviously I haven’t seen the video but if I had to guess it was close.”

On the losing end was Miller, who locked into his first Saturday A-main at the Chili Bowl with a second-place run. Miller led a number of laps after contact with teammate Ryan Timms knocked Timms out of the lead.

Miller and Seavey had been battling for second and quickly ran down Timms in the process. The two Keith Kunz Motorsports drivers simply came together on the entrance to turn 3 with 13 laps to go. Miller explained that the closing rate to Timms caught him by surprise.

“I definitely didn’t mean to get into him,” Miller told Frontstretch. “Just because (sic) he slowed up really fast. I didn’t think he was going to go back to the bottom, I thought he was going to stick at the top because previously he was running the top. And then he went back to the bottom and I just happened to kind of hook him a little bit there just because I was trying to race Seavey so hard.

“Yeah I apologize to him. I talked to him and he was pretty upset about it and I guess we’ve still got to talk about some things.”

Rounding out the podium was Tyler Courtney, who just edged out Daryn Pittman for the spot on the final lap. Courtney hadn’t shown much speed throughout the day after struggling in Monday’s Race of Champions, so the Indiana native was pleased with a third.

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Tyler Courtney Rises to Third in Friday Chili Bowl Prelim

“That was my goal,” Courtney told Frontstretch. “At least my first goal in the first part of that race was to get yourself in a B-main spot and then just keep working your way up, … to start 12th, for how I’ve been feeling in the racecar, to get comfortable finally in the feature there, get ourselves I think on the front row of a B-main for tomorrow is a great feeling.”

Pittman found himself on the losing end of the battle for fourth, and was involved in an incident of his own with Jason McDougal while battling inside the top five. McDougal and Pittman collided on the exit of turn 2, which prompted a hand-gesture from McDougal to Pittman in return.

Pittman made note of his struggles inside the car and where he felt like he needed to be better to hold on to a top-two position late in the race.

“That’s honestly one of my biggest problems,” Pittman told Frontstretch. “These guys that are really good like Gavin [Miller] and Seavey and Timms, like they rip the crap out of these things. I just feel like probably am not as aggressive enough, and I think that’s what it takes to really be successful.”

Courtney and Pittman will both start in a B-main on Saturday, looking to race their way into the big show.

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Alphabet Soup: Where Fan Favorites Are Competing on Chili Bowl Saturday

Chili Bowl Friday Results

  1. Logan Seavey
  2. Gavin Miller
  3. Tyler Courtney
  4. Daryn Pittman
  5. Justin Grant
  6. Tyler Edwards
  7. Michael Faccinto
  8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  9. Sam Johnson
  10. Andrew Felker
  11. TJ Smith
  12. Hayden Reinbold
  13. Daniel Robinson
  14. Dominic Gorden
  15. Ryan Timms
  16. Michael Pickens
  17. Frankie Guerrini
  18. Chase McDermand
  19. Wout Hoffmans
  20. Kaleb Montgomery
  21. Jason McDougal (DNF)
  22. Cameron La Rose (DNF)
  23. Cole Vanderheiden (DNF)
  24. Kyle Jones (DNF)

The final day of Chili Bowl action is set to get underway bright and early at the Tulsa Expo Center on Saturday, Jan. 18. The alphabet soup begins with P-main action starting at 9:00 a.m. CT, 10:00 a.m. ET. FloRacing will have all the action live from start to finish.

Chase_folsom_ROVAL_2022

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.