TULSA, Okla. — Texas rookie Chase Randall’s path to making the preliminary feature Wednesday during Circle City Raceway Qualifying Night at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals was about as unorthodox as it gets.
Driving for Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports, Randall rolled from fifth to third in his heat race and was in contention for the win in his A Qualifier before a slide job from Gio Scelzi and subsequent contact off the final corner sent Randall flipping across the finish line.
The good news was that Randall was credited with a third-place run in the qualifier, enough to lock him into the 30-lap main in the 11th position.
Randall’s feature effort didn’t go according to plan, stifled by a spin with fellow 16-year-old Emerson Axsom, but he was still happy with the overall speed — and “style points” — he showed in his Tulsa debut.
“We had a good run going in that qualifier, but just got together with Gio (Scelzi) there in turn four and went up and over,” Randall relayed. “But we got it fixed up and locked into the show and I thought we had some pretty good speed if not for the spin we had there with Emerson. I was pretty happy with our car.”
Randall’s plan beyond the Chili Bowl is to run with his family-owned team on the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour. He also hopes to contest selected midget races when his schedule allows.
But perhaps what stuck with fans most Wednesday was Randall’s nickname — The Quickest Chicken — given because of his sponsorship from Texas-based fast food restaurant Bush’s Chicken.
“It’s definitely something unique, that’s for sure,” Randall smiled. “A lot of fans remember me by it.”
• Two-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Brad Sweet didn’t secure a place in the Chili Bowl finale, but he came as close as one can come to doing so on Wednesday night.
Sweet slid eventual feature runner-up Alex Bright for the position on a restart with seven laps to go, looking like he might be able to give RMS Racing its second lock-in of the week and join teammate Thomas Meseraull in the big show.
However, Bright passed Sweet on lap 25 and “The Big Cat” settled for a podium finish, though he wasn’t pleased with the final outcome — lamenting a late-race mistake that cost him in the end.
“I felt like I should have locked it in there,” Sweet said. “I should have just slid myself down in (turns) three and four and just covered. But I ended up having to hold off the spot behind us.”
• Brett Moffitt, the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion, rode a roller-coaster ride to his feature start in Wednesday’s Chili Bowl preliminary feature, eventually finishing 18th in a second entry out of the Bundy Built Motorsports stable.
Moffitt’s night got off to a rough start, after he biked his No. 45m up in turns three and four before going for a wild flip. His car was struck mid-flip by the No. 14c of Zack Morgan in turn four.
Both drivers were uninjured and returned later in the program, with Moffitt racing into the feature out of his B Main and staying out of trouble once the 30-lapper kicked off. He’ll be in a D Main Saturday.
• Tim McCreadie, who won the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in 2006, has already had a busy week. He’ll continue that theme over the next few nights before Saturday’s alphabet soup program.
McCreadie flew out of Tulsa to head to Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park for the first two days of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series-sanctioned DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals. He’ll race his familiar No. 39 dirt late model at the half-mile dirt track before returning to Oklahoma on Saturday.
Once back at the River Spirit Expo Center, McCreadie will attempt to race his way into the grand finale from a B Main. He went from the C Main all the way to the A Main on Monday night.
• Where Tuesday night’s preliminary program went well past the 10:30 p.m. CT curfew that is in effect all week at the River Spirit Expo Center, Wednesday’s show was much tidier and finished up smoothly.
Heats concluded a full hour earlier (6:04 p.m. to 7:03 p.m.) on Wednesday and the feature hit staging at 8:50 p.m., one hour and 45 minutes sooner than its Tuesday counterpart.
That was due in part to the Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions and its associated qualifying sessions, which traditionally takes place on Tuesday night and ate up a good bit of time this year.
• The cleaner Wednesday show was also reflected in the World Wide Technology Raceway Flip Count, which only rose by six from 23 to 29 through three nights of competition.
The last of those was from Robert Dalby, who started third in the main after a thrilling seventh-to-first qualifier run but faded late in the 30-lapper and was caught out by a slider gone wrong from Parker Price-Miller.
Dalby walked away uninjured, as did all of the other drivers involved in flips Wednesday.
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