TULSA, Okla. — Making a late-race pass for the lead and fending off the ferocious pursuit of Gavin Miller through the closing laps, Logan Seavey delivered his fourth career Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink preliminary night victory during Friday’s Hard Rock Hotel Casino Tulsa Qualifying Night at the SageNet Center.
“I could still keep up with guys; I just lost a little balance really to be able to maneuver as good as I needed to in traffic, but when I could get against the cushion by myself, I could make a ton of speed, but in the feature, I could finally crawl the bottom, so we’re going in the right direction. I still feel like I made a lot of ugly laps there, but fortunately, I happen to make them at the right times and made good laps when I needed them,” explained Seavey.
Starting seventh, Seavey was on the podium in eight laps.
Chasing Ryan Timms and Gavin Miller, the fight for the lead got hot on Lap 18 as Gavin Miller tried to shoot under Timms into the third turn. Across the nose of the No. 97, Miller made contact with Timms, who spun to a stop.
Miller said, “Trying to cross back on Logan, Ryan went to the bottom, and I didn’t think he was going slow up that much. I locked up the brakes, but was already too far, and hooked his bumper, and I apologized to him.”
Seavey leaned into the cushion and began closing on Miller. On Lap 26, a misstep on the cushion by Miller put Seavey in the hunt, with a move for the lead coming the next time around. Glued to the back bumper of the No. 39 through the final four laps, Seavey slid himself through both ends of the Tulsa Expo Raceway to edge Miller by .221 seconds.
Seavey into his seventh Chili Bowl A-Feature, Miller’s runner-up finish locks him into his first. Tyler Courtney ran 12th to third, with Daryn Pittman and Justin Grant completing the top five.
Five preliminary nights yielded 392 entries officially received after cancelations, with 377 drawing in for competition. Each night saw a different car owner in victory lane.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 39-Logan Seavey[7]; 2. 97-Gavin Miller[3]; 3. 23C-Tyler Courtney[12]; 4. 21-Daryn Pittman[5]; 5. 87-Justin Grant[8]; 6. 56E-Tyler Edwards[4]; 7. 5U-Michael Faccinto[11]; 8. 86X-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[15]; 9. 72J-Sam Johnson[13]; 10. 11A-Andrew Felker[9]; 11. 14J-TJ Smith[24]; 12. 19A-Hayden Reinbold[17]; 13. 57A-Daniel Robinson[14]; 14. 31B-Dominic Gorden[22]; 15. 67-Ryan Timms[1]; 16. 54Z-Michael Pickens[2]; 17. 63F-Frankie Guerrini[16]; 18. 40M-Chase McDermand[18]; 19. 48H-Wout Hoffmans[23]; 20. 8W-Kaleb Montgomery[19]; 21. (DNF) 7P-Jason McDougal[6]; 22. (DNF) 2P-Cameron La Rose[21]; 23. (DNF) 45V-Cole Vanderheiden[10]; 24. (DNF) 16R-Kyle Jones[20]
