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Christopher Bell Dominates 2017 Chili Bowl J.C.T. Qualifying Night

(Image Credit: Serena Dalhamer)

TULSA, Okla. (January 12, 2017) For the second year running, Oklahoma’s Christopher Bell raced his DC Solar/Keith Kunz Motorsports No. 71W to Victory Lane in Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night at the 31st annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire.

A show of dominance by the native of Norman, Bell’s third Preliminary Night victory locks him into his fourth championship A-Feature in as many years.

“I’ve been coming to the Chili Bowl for a long time. Growing up here in Oklahoma, this is the Daytona 500 for us,” said Bell of the win.

I remember coming here as a little kid and sitting in the front stretch grandstands, and every year I’d go buy the Chili Bowl t-shirt. I loved being able to see all the cars on the back of the t-shirts and that’s something that stood out to me as a little kid. Seeing my name on the back of the 2018 Chili Bowl t-shirt would mean just as much as holding a Golden Driller. To be able to be in this position again, I feel like I’ve matured a lot as a driver since the previous times I’ve been in this position. I want nothing more than to win the Chili Bowl and I’ve got a good shot at it this week.”

Through a caution just after the start of the second lap, second starting Bell gave chase to Sam Hafertepe, Jr. Taking the top of turns one and two on the restart, Bell ran full out into a slide job off the fourth turn to take over the top spot.

Slowed again on the fourth round, Hafertepe saw his night turn sour as the No. 15h snagged the cone on the restart, sending the Texas shoe to the tail of the field.

Moving the Bondio No. 47 of Danny Stratton to place, the drop of the green saw Bell take off like a shot. Railing a deep Tulsa Expo Raceway cushion, Bell quickly amassed a three second lead before catching traffic at the race’s mid-point.

Slowed once more at Lap 16, a trio of lapped cars sat between Bell and Stratton with C.J. Leary chasing in third. Advancing his advantage of 3.149 seconds before one final caution, Bell was simply unstoppable with a 1.422 seconds advantage at the drop of the checkered flag.

Asked if he felt like he had anything for Bell in the closing laps, Stratton replied, “Nah. I feel like he got too much of an advantage there in the beginning and in the middle part of the race and put some lapped cars behind him. I wasn’t just quick enough to get up to speed like that. I think in the end I was holding my own but it was just too late.”

Giving chase nearly the entire A-Feature, C.J. Leary will make his second A-Feature in as many years. Having to hold off the repeated advances for the third spot, while attempting to work around the No. 47, Leary was still pleased with locking into Saturday’s finale.

“The last five to 10 laps we were trying to figure out a way to get around Stratton, plus trying to hold off Allgaier was difficult because he was pretty good there at the end and we were pretty good.”

Rounding the final turn, Justin Allgaier was set to finish fourth, but contact between he and Thomas Meseraull sent the No. 7A flipping, causing the finish to split following the third place car. Justin was credited 17th with Meseraull 18th.

With the crash coming to the finish, Shane Golobic advanced to a fourth place finish with Andrew Deal completing the top-five. Tracy Hines from ninth crossed sixth with Jason Johnson seventh. Having to wheel from a C-Feature, Arizona’s Jerry Coons, Jr. ran circles to an eighth place finish from the 11th row. Justin Peck from 12th grabbed ninth with Gage Walker from 17th to finish 10th

Presented by John Christner Trucking, Thursday’s list of drivers topped 96 to bring the event total to 274, just 61 shy of the record of 335 drivers that drew in for the 2016 event. The Fastenal Flip Count has reached 23 over three nights of the Chili Bowl with all drivers able to walk away.

The 31st annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire continues on Friday, January 13, 2017 and is presented by Vacuworx.

For continued updates on the 31st annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire, fans can follow along with the Chili Bowl on social media, as well as the online PPV broadcast on http://www.racinboys.com. All official results and news can be found at http://www.chilibowl.com.

Results:

Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire
Tulsa Expo Raceway - Tulsa, Okla.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
J.C.T. Qualifying Night

Car Count: 96
Event Count: 274

Budweiser Heat Races: Top 40 in passing points advance to Qualifiers.

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 76M-Brady Bacon[2]; 2. 68F-Tyler Seavey[1]; 3. 15T-Tony Rossi[3]; 4. 7B-Brian Peterson[4]; 5. 122Q-David Prickett[5]; 6. 53-Brett Wilson[7]; 7. 86-Mark Lowrey[8]; 8. 3D-Dustin Gilbert[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 47-Danny Stratton[3]; 2. 57K-Kevin Studley[5]; 3. 8K-Frank Flud[7]; 4. 10W-Kyle Simon[1]; 5. 24F-Hunter Fischer[8]; 6. 42-Dean Franklin[2]; 7. 7D-Michelle Decker[6]; 8. 5T-Matt Stewart[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 17W-Shane Golobic[1]; 2. 87-Ryan Bernal[6]; 3. 9-Matt Moore[3]; 4. 05X-Stevie Sussex III[8]; 5. 57-Maria Cofer[5]; 6. 45A-Jesse Colwell[2]; 7. 31E-Evan Sewell[4]; 8. 19-Randy Woodside[7]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Justin Allgaier[4]; 2. 51F-Hunter Schuerenberg[3]; 3. 29A-Anthony Nocella[1]; 4. 7JR-JD Black[2]; 5. 7MF-Chance Morton[7]; 6. 84-Shaun Shapel[8]; 7. 93K-Riley Kreisel[6]; 8. 88S-Scottie McDonald[5]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 02-Robby Josett[2]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[8]; 3. 321-Chad Winfrey[1]; 4. 15D-Andrew Deal[7]; 5. 23-Jimmy Light[3]; 6. 3T-Tim Barber[6]; 7. 19W-Matt Streeter[5]; 8. 48M-Rick Murcko[4]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 20A-Shon Deskins[1]; 2. 25C-C.J. Leary[5]; 3. 45X-Bricen James[2]; 4. 3J-Josh Baughman[4]; 5. 96-Cody Brewer[3]; 6. 2L-Joshua Shaw[7]; 7. 87H-Colby Hughes[8]; 8. 35L-Cody Ledger[6]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 24-Tracy Hines[5]; 2. 1R-Thomas Meseraull[2]; 3. 87C-David Camfield Jr[1]; 4. 2T-Davey Ray[6]; 5. 6-Bill Rose[7]; 6. 49JR-Austen Figueroa[4]; 7. 2R-Matt Rossi[3]; 8. (DNF) 74J-Jamie Speers[8]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 5X-Justin Peck[1]; 2. 71W-Christopher Bell[7]; 3. 00C-Grady Chandler[8]; 4. 10GW-George White[4]; 5. 22M-Taylor Courtney[2]; 6. 49-Jonathan Davenport[3]; 7. 0K-Don O'Keefe Jr[6]; 8. (DNF) 10-Lance Bennett[5]

Heat 9 (8 Laps): 1. 01-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson[6]; 3. 76Z-Zane Lawrence[1]; 4. 11E-Cory Elliott[7]; 5. 11Y-Travis Young[4]; 6. 38-Kody Swanson[8]; 7. 41T-Brad Thompson[5]; 8. 17O-Mike Wheeler[3]

Heat 10 (8 Laps): 1. 7Z-David Gough[1]; 2. 75D-Lee Dakus[3]; 3. 37X-Jake Blackhurst[2]; 4. 7T-Tristan Oakes[5]; 5. 91M-Chase Majdic[8]; 6. 2W-Wyatt Burks[7]; 7. 22B-Troy Betts[4]; 8. 92P-Jacob Park[6]

Heat 11 (8 Laps): 1. 14C-Coleman Gulick[2]; 2. 44-Don Droud Jr[4]; 3. 92M-Josh Most[6]; 4. 17B-Tanner Berryhill[8]; 5. 5-Jerry Coons Jr[7]; 6. 29J-Logan Jarrett[5]; 7. 05J-Curtis Jones[1]; 8. 44H-Colton Hardy[3]

Heat 12 (8 Laps): 1. 55X-Ryan Smith[2]; 2. 7XX-Gage Walker[4]; 3. 6K-Josh Lakatos[3]; 4. 71X-Shane Cottle[8]; 5. 56X-Mark Chisholm[6]; 6. 19P-Levi Curry[5]; 7. 10C-Dalton Camfield[7]; 8. 75X-Ken Hanson[1]

D-Features: Top 2 advance to corresponding C-Feature.

D Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 93K-Riley Kreisel[5]; 2. 49JR-Austen Figueroa[2]; 3. 19W-Matt Streeter[6]; 4. 31E-Evan Sewell[7]; 5. 10C-Dalton Camfield[4]; 6. 86-Mark Lowrey[1]; 7. 44H-Colton Hardy[14]; 8. 42-Dean Franklin[3]; 9. 19-Randy Woodside[9]; 10. 3D-Dustin Gilbert[10]; 11. 92P-Jacob Park[11]; 12. (DNF) 48M-Rick Murcko[13]; 13. (DNF) 2R-Matt Rossi[8]; 14. (DNF) 10-Lance Bennett[12]

D Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 22B-Troy Betts[7]; 2. 7D-Michelle Decker[4]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 4. 0K-Don O'Keefe Jr[5]; 5. 05J-Curtis Jones[9]; 6. 41T-Brad Thompson[6]; 7. 74J-Jamie Speers[8]; 8. 88S-Scottie McDonald[11]; 9. 75X-Ken Hanson[14]; 10. 17O-Mike Wheeler[13]; 11. (DNF) 5T-Matt Stewart[12]; 12. (DNF) 87H-Colby Hughes[1]; 13. (DNF) 45A-Jesse Colwell[3]; 14. (DNF) 35L-Cody Ledger[10]

C-Features: Top 4 advance to corresponding B-Feature.

C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 321-Chad Winfrey[2]; 2. 6-Bill Rose[4]; 3. 76Z-Zane Lawrence[3]; 4. 38-Kody Swanson[8]; 5. 7JR-JD Black[7]; 6. 93K-Riley Kreisel[15]; 7. 122Q-David Prickett[9]; 8. 10GW-George White[6]; 9. 11Y-Travis Young[10]; 10. 22M-Taylor Courtney[13]; 11. 29J-Logan Jarrett[14]; 12. 7T-Tristan Oakes[1]; 13. 23-Jimmy Light[12]; 14. 49JR-Austen Figueroa[16]; 15. 2L-Joshua Shaw[11]; 16. 7B-Brian Peterson[5]

C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 5-Jerry Coons Jr[4]; 2. 3J-Josh Baughman[5]; 3. 7MF-Chance Morton[3]; 4. 29A-Anthony Nocella[1]; 5. 87C-David Camfield Jr[2]; 6. 2W-Wyatt Burks[11]; 7. 53-Brett Wilson[10]; 8. 57-Maria Cofer[9]; 9. 7D-Michelle Decker[16]; 10. 10W-Kyle Simon[8]; 11. 19P-Levi Curry[14]; 12. 22B-Troy Betts[15]; 13. 56X-Mark Chisholm[6]; 14. 84-Shaun Shapel[7]; 15. 96-Cody Brewer[12]; 16. 3T-Tim Barber[13]

Qualifiers: Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the A-Feature.

Qualifying Race 1 (10 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[6]; 2. 15D-Andrew Deal[8]; 3. 02-Robby Josett[3]; 4. 44-Don Droud Jr[2]; 5. 17B-Tanner Berryhill[7]; 6. 20A-Shon Deskins[1]; 7. 2T-Davey Ray[9]; 8. 9-Matt Moore[10]; 9. 57K-Kevin Studley[4]; 10. (DNF) 87-Ryan Bernal[5]

Qualifying Race 2 (10 Laps): 1. 5X-Justin Peck[1]; 2. 25C-C.J. Leary[4]; 3. 41-Jason Johnson[5]; 4. 24-Tracy Hines[6]; 5. 7XX-Gage Walker[2]; 6. 11E-Cory Elliott[8]; 7. 6K-Josh Lakatos[10]; 8. 71X-Shane Cottle[7]; 9. 24F-Hunter Fischer[9]; 10. 01-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]

Qualifying Race 3 (10 Laps): 1. 14C-Coleman Gulick[3]; 2. 71W-Christopher Bell[6]; 3. 1R-Thomas Meseraull[8]; 4. 00C-Grady Chandler[5]; 5. 92M-Josh Most[2]; 6. 45X-Bricen James[10]; 7. 51F-Hunter Schuerenberg[7]; 8. 8K-Frank Flud[4]; 9. 7Z-David Gough[1]; 10. (DNF) 91M-Chase Majdic[9]

Qualifying Race 4 (10 Laps): 1. 17W-Shane Golobic[2]; 2. 47-Danny Stratton[5]; 3. 7A-Justin Allgaier[6]; 4. 55X-Ryan Smith[3]; 5. 76M-Brady Bacon[4]; 6. 05X-Stevie Sussex III[1]; 7. 68F-Tyler Seavey[8]; 8. 37X-Jake Blackhurst[10]; 9. 75D-Lee Dakus[7]; 10. (DNF) 15T-Tony Rossi[9]

B-Features: Top 4 advance to the A-Feature.

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 7XX-Gage Walker[2]; 2. 11E-Cory Elliott[3]; 3. 51F-Hunter Schuerenberg[6]; 4. 2T-Davey Ray[5]; 5. 6K-Josh Lakatos[4]; 6. 8K-Frank Flud[7]; 7. 44-Don Droud Jr[1]; 8. 24F-Hunter Fischer[11]; 9. 9-Matt Moore[8]; 10. 38-Kody Swanson[16]; 11. 57K-Kevin Studley[9]; 12. 76Z-Zane Lawrence[15]; 13. 7Z-David Gough[12]; 14. 6-Bill Rose[14]; 15. 321-Chad Winfrey[13]; 16. 75D-Lee Dakus[10]

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 76M-Brady Bacon[1]; 2. 45X-Bricen James[2]; 3. 5-Jerry Coons Jr[13]; 4. 92M-Josh Most[3]; 5. 71X-Shane Cottle[7]; 6. 29A-Anthony Nocella[14]; 7. 05X-Stevie Sussex III[5]; 8. 7MF-Chance Morton[15]; 9. 20A-Shon Deskins[4]; 10. 91M-Chase Majdic[11]; 11. 37X-Jake Blackhurst[8]; 12. 01-Sheldon Haudenschild[10]; 13. 68F-Tyler Seavey[6]; 14. 3J-Josh Baughman[12]; 15. (DNF) 87-Ryan Bernal[9]; (DNS) 15T-Tony Rossi

A-Feature: Top 3 advance to Saturday's A-Feature.

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 71W-Christopher Bell[2]; 2. 47-Danny Stratton[3]; 3. 25C-C.J. Leary[7]; 4. 17W-Shane Golobic[10]; 5. 15D-Andrew Deal[4]; 6. 24-Tracy Hines[9]; 7. 41-Jason Johnson[8]; 8. 5-Jerry Coons Jr[22]; 9. 5X-Justin Peck[12]; 10. 7XX-Gage Walker[17]; 11. 55X-Ryan Smith[15]; 12. 11E-Cory Elliott[19]; 13. 02-Robby Josett[14]; 14. 45X-Bricen James[20]; 15. 17B-Tanner Berryhill[16]; 16. 14C-Coleman Gulick[6]; 17. 7A-Justin Allgaier[5]; 18. 1R-Thomas Meseraull[11]; 19. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 20. 51F-Hunter Schuerenberg[21]; 21. 92M-Josh Most[24]; 22. 2T-Davey Ray[23]; 23. (DNF) 76M-Brady Bacon[18]; 24. (DNF) 00C-Grady Chandler[13]

Lap Leader(s): Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 1-2; Christopher Bell 3-25;
Hard Charger: Jerry Coons, Jr. +14

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