TULSA, OK — Whether it was lapped traffic or a sponsor banner, nothing was going to stop two-time Chili Bowl Nationals Champion Kyle Larson from picking up his third Golden Driller at the Tulsa Expo Center on Saturday night.
The Elk Grove, Calif., native led all 40 laps in what on paper looked like a dominating performance. But Larson had to withstand challenges by Landon Brooks and Daison Pursley as the No. 1K machine won by .365 seconds over Pursley.
Larson’s first major obstacle came when the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion approached the tail end of the field. Brenham Crouch and Jacob Denney collided in turn 3 and the right side of Larson’s midget ran over Crouch’s left front corner.
Somehow Larson managed to restart his engine after it briefly stalled while Crouch’s stopped car brought out yellow flag with 17 laps to go, allowing the leader to maintain his place.
Larson held on to the top spot on the ensuing restart, while Pursley and Brooks fought over second place for the next few laps. With only a few laps remaining, Larson had a second moment of good fortune in what had been a banner week at the Chili Bowl, so to speak.
As he exited turn 4 coming to three laps to go, Larson bounced the right rear tire off of the dirt that had built up along the wall lining the main straight. The resulting contact lifted the rear of Larson’s car along the catch fence just above the top of the wall. Momentum carried Larson’s car along the top of the wall briefly before landing it back on the track and facing the infield of the Tulsa Expo Speedway.
“I made a mistake on the frontstretch and was kind of up on top of the wall and then it shot me off of it and thought I was going to flip similar to how I did last year on the prelim night,” Larson admitted.
Shortly after Larson landed, race control threw the caution because the sponsor banner lining the wall had become dislodged. The banner was partially on the track surface when Larson hit the wall and became fully dislodged after Pursley and others ran through it on the outside of the straight.
“I thought that they threw the caution for me,” Larson said. “So before I got back around to the other side I was like ‘Man I don’t know how they’re going to score this’ – if they’re going to have me be the cause of the caution, if I’ll get penalized or anything. But I saw the banner laying there so I was like, ‘Okay well that’s good, hopefully I’ll keep my spot!'”
After the debris removal concluded, Larson led from Pursley and Brooks on the restart. Despite multiple attempts from Pursley to take the lead, Larson managed to hold on to claim his third Golden Driller. Pursley settled for second, with Shane Golobic who snatching third on the penultimate lap to complete the podium.
Pursley was a star earlier in the afternoon. After drawing the ninth seed in the Pole Shuffle, the Oklahoma native outpaced all of his competitors until his No. 86 machine ran out of fuel. Pursley was forced to start third out of 24 cars and maintained his spot near the front despite every effort made to snatch victory from Larson on the last restart.
“I think the restart with two to go when I kind of rode the wall a little too much, kind of felt like I got greedy with it,” Pursley said. “And then I felt like he (Larson) kind of got away too big for me to even try to pounce on anything.
“When we had the last yellow, I felt like I kind of got off of (turn) 2 really good, even though I kind of ran the slider line. I felt like I still got off of 2 where I could try to clear him into 3 and then I did and just gave him a little bit too much room to squeak by me. After that, I’m just trying to catch him and run as hard as I can.”
Golobic finished second to Larson in their Monday night preliminary feature and led home a Matt Wood Racing 3-4-5 with Ryan Bernal and Brooks finishing behind him.
“My car was pretty comfortable there and I was able to actually hustle it pretty well comfortably and kind of run anywhere and kind of just pick my way through,” Golobic said. “Toward the end there I kind of got the bottom going on restarts and was able to get across and get back up and going when I needed to when I felt like the bottom would stall out. My Matt Wood cars were really good all week and it’s really cool to have three of the top five. It’s something we’re definitely proud of.”
Chili Bowl Feature Results
- Kyle Larson
- Daison Pursley
- Shane Golobic
- Ryan Bernal
- Landon Brooks
- Michael Kofoid
- Logan Seavey
- Gavin Miller
- Emerson Axsom
- Christopher Bell
- Corey Day
- Hank Davis
- Tim Buckwalter
- Cannon McIntosh
- Tyler Courtney
- Frank Flud
- Jacob Denney
- Justin Grant
- Brenham Crouch
- Corbin Rueschenberg
- Tyler Edwards
- Kale Drake
- Tanner Thorson
- Jonathan Beason
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.
Yawn . . . .
Sounds like someone who has never been to a dirt race…