TULSA, Okla. — It’s been a long, wild journey for Tanner Thorson, but on Saturday evening inside the Tulsa Expo Center, he made it all worth it.
Thorson traded haymakers with Christopher Bell and emerged as the winner during the 55-lap finale of the 36th Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals, the culmination of six days of racing on the quarter-mile Tulsa Expo Raceway temporary dirt oval.
It was a reversal from Thursday, when Bell outlasted Thorson to win during John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night.
“I knew I kind of had to step it up from Thursday night. Bell was obviously better than me and I knew they were going to bring the same car, if not a little bit better,” Thorson said.
Thorson’s charge to the Chili Bowl victory and the Golden Driller trophy started in the Pole Shuffle earlier Saturday afternoon. Thorson started in the first race of four, but managed to advance all the way to the final race, where he finished second to Bell to earn a spot on the front row of the feature.
The track position proved pivotal in Thorson’s Chili Bowl masterclass.
Bell took the lead at the start of the feature with Thorson chasing him in second. It only took six laps for Bell to catch the back of the field, with everyone sticking to the bottom in the early laps.
The first caution flag waved on lap 16 when Colby Copeland came to a stop on track. When the race resumed drivers began testing the waters on top, with Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu among the first to try pounding the cushion.
Soon Bell and Thorson joined them on top and they quickly caught the tail of the field again. Bell appeared to have the upper hand in traffic as he was able to slice between slower cars while Thorson kept getting caught behind lappers, which allowed third-place Buddy Kofoid to close the gap.
The next caution soon followed as Kyle Larson and Justin Grant came together while fighting for fifth, sending Grant flipping to stop the action. When the race resumed Kofoid tossed a slider on Thorson in an effort to take second, but Thorson turned back under him and retained the position.
On lap 37 Thorson took his shot at Bell. Getting a big run out of turn four, Thorson dove low as they entered turn one and slid back up in front of the Norman, Okla., driver to steal the lead.
“I knew it was getting late in the race. They came over the radio and said how many laps were down,” Thorson said. “Just like Turkey Night, I knew I had to break Bell’s momentum a little bit. Same thing here, I knew I was going to have to break his momentum and if not I knew it was going to be hard to beat him.”
With clear track ahead Thorson began to pull away, but his clear track soon disappeared when he caught the tail of the field again.
That quickly allowed Bell to close back in on Thorson and the battle once was again on for the lead. With six laps left Thorson was stuck in a huge pack of traffic and Bell saw his moment, sliding under him in turns one and two to take the lead away.
As they emerged out of turn two, the slower cars of Brady Bacon and Colby Copeland made contact directly in front of the leaders. Bacon flipped wildly down the backstretch, with Thorson and Bell both narrowly avoiding contact with Bacon’s car.
“I was gut-wrenched by it,” Bell said of the caution caused by Bacon’s flip. “There were cars on the bottom, cars on the top, cars in the middle and he (Thorson) almost spun out Brady the lap before.
“The race was far from over if would have stayed green there anyway, we don’t know what would have happened. I did feel like that was my best opportunity to win.”
Because the lap wasn’t completed, the field reverted back to the last completed lap and that gave the point back to Thorson. When the race resumed Bell took another shot at Thorson entering turn one with a slider, but Thorson turned back under Bell and retained the race lead.
Going through turns three and four Bell tried to stick with Thorson, but Bell jumped the cushion in turn four and bounced off the wall. That gave Thorson the gap he needed to put the finishing touches on his first Chili Bowl victory.
Bell felt like leading the race worked against him because it gave Thorson an opportunity to try different lines on the track, whereas Bell was forced to be conservative to try and defend his position.
“Tonight I feel like I probably lost the race because Tanner was in second and searched around probably a little bit better than I did,” Bell said. “It got really slick right beneath the cushion and I could tell I was really starting to slow down my mid-corner speed in (turns) three and four so that I didn’t get tight against the cushion.
“The thought came across my mind to start trying to pick up the middle off of four, but Tanner beat me to it.”
Rico Abreu started and finished third, with Buddy Kofoid and Tanner Carrick completing the top five. Keith Kunz Motorsports took second through fifth, but it was Thorson giving car owners Andy Reinbold and Todd Underwood their first Chili Bowl victory.
The Chili Bowl victory was the crowning moment for Thorson after several up-and-down years that included multiple team changes and a major traffic accident in 2019 that sidelined him for several months.
“This the race that I want to win the most,” Thorson said. “It’s the biggest race in midget racing. I haven’t won at Eldora and I haven’t won at Belleville and I hadn’t won here until tonight. Those were the three tracks that I haven’t had success at and want to. This definitely puts a check on my list of tracks that I want to win at.
“It’s definitely a surreal feeling. I still haven’t kind of grasped it yet I guess.”
Kyle Larson, who won the last two Chili Bowls, was never in contention and finished sixth.
The finish:
1. 19T-Tanner Thorson[2]; 2. 71W-Christopher Bell[1]; 3. 97-Rico Abreu[3]; 4. 67-Michael Kofoid[5]; 5. 98-Tanner Carrick[6]; 6. 01-Kyle Larson[7]; 7. 55V-CJ Leary[16]; 8. 5T-Kevin Thomas Jr[8]; 9. 47S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[10]; 10. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[13]; 11. 7C-Tyler Courtney[9]; 12. 52-Blake Hahn[14]; 13. 17W-Shane Golobic[18]; 14. 89-Chris Windom[17]; 15. 97W-Zeb Wise[11]; 16. 2J-Justin Grant[4]; 17. 47Z-Corey Day[20]; 18. 71K-Kaylee Bryson[12]; 19. 29-Tim Buckwalter[21]; 20. 8J-Jonathan Beason[24]; 21. 27W-Colby Copeland[15]; 22. 81X-Dillon Welch[22]; 23. (DNF) 87-Chase Johnson[19]; 24. (DNF) 21H-Brady Bacon[23]