TULSA, Okla. — Making the move for the lead through the final two turns, Rico Abreu, threw the Hoosiers on the cushion and shot past Mitchel Moles for his eighth Chili Bowl preliminary victory.
Grabbing the win for Keith Kunz Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian, the triumph is the 34th in Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire competition for Kunz as a car owner and is the 12th consecutive event that his team has won a Chili Bowl A-Feature.
Battling with Blake Hahn and Brent Crews through much of the last half of the feature, a caution with six to go reset the deck with Abreu moving to the cushion while Moles and Crews worked the bottom.
Grabbing second with two to go, the James Hodge Auto Group No. 24 closed the gap to car lengths at the white flag. Pinning the cushion off the final turn, Rico pulled ahead by .223 seconds.
On the race-winning run, Rico said, “Towards the last half of the race, I could make up some time. After that last restart with six to go, I saw Chad (Boat) tell him to go down, so I just went up. I wasn’t going to follow him. It was just a pretty easy decision for me.”
Moles in second is his best career preliminary performance and locks him into his first career Saturday night feature event, while Brent Crews held on for third. Fourth went to Blake Hahn, with Kevin Thomas Jr. completing the top five.
A serious incident involving driver Ashton Torgerson marred the night’s proceedings. The 16-year-old Oregon driver was ejected from his race car during a series of wild flips. Preliminary reports issued by Torgerson Racing said the young driver was “awake and alert” and undergoing various tests at a local hospital.
Wednesday’s field included 79 drivers, bringing the event count to 217 for the week.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 24-Rico Abreu[6]; 2. 89X-Mitchel Moles[1]; 3. 71M-Brent Crews[5]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn[4]; 5. 5T-Kevin Thomas Jr[7]; 6. 51R-Ricky Thornton Jr[22]; 7. 25K-Taylor Reimer[8]; 8. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[10]; 9. 55A-Jake Swanson[13]; 10. 08G-Trey Gropp[16]; 11. 54-Matt Westfall[14]; 12. 57-Daniel Whitley[24]; 13. 4P-Kody Swanson[11]; 14. 80S-Kaden Honeycutt[20]; 15. 67K-Cade Lewis[18]; 16. 45X-Roger Crockett[12]; 17. 19Z-Hayden Reinbold[15]; 18. 2X-Landon Brooks[23]; 19. 4B-Chelby Hinton[9]; 20. 68-Ronnie Gardner[21]; 21. 25M-Jake Andreotti[3]; 22. (DNF) 07W-Corey Day[17]; 23. (DNF) 1I-Ashton Torgerson[2]; 24. (DNF) 17-Travis Berryhill[19]