Rico Abreu, Kyle Larson's teammate, wins Wednesday A-Main in Chili Bowl - MotorSportsTalk

Keith Kunz Motorsports continues to set a torrid pace in the 29th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Center.

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kyle Larson won all three of his heat races during Tuesday’s qualifying, including advancing to Saturday night’s main event final round.

Larson’s teammate and fellow Californian, Rico Abreu, was the star in Wednesday’s qualifying races, outlasting a field of 83 drivers to take home the checkered flag in the evening’s main race.

It was Abreu’s first Preliminary Night victory ever in Chili Bowl competition. His mindset was simple, according to a Chili Bowl media release:

“Don’t crash,” said Abreu, who started sixth before methodically working his way through the field to win. “You get those lapped cars running side-by-side in front of you then all you worry about is the guy behind you running you down.”

Driving the No. 97 Toyota, Abreu shot to the front of the field on Lap 15 and held on for the final 10 laps to take the checkered flag by nearly three seconds ahead of runnerup Chris Windom.

In a classy gesture, Abreu dedicated the win to late racer Donnie Ray Crawford, who was shot and killed by his grandfather in a domestic altercation three years ago to the day (Jan. 14, 2012).

Abreu performed a so-called Polish Victory Lap, covering the track backward, to honor Crawford’s memory.

“There’s a young man that was really close to (Crawford) and he said if I won tonight, I should do (the backward victory lap),” Abreu said. “I didn’t really think about it until after the checkered. It’s pretty special just to bring back those memories.”

NASCAR driver J.J. Yeley finished third in the A-Main and became the final driver to transfer into Saturday’s championship round.

Blake Hahn and Sammy Swindell finished fourth and fifth respectively.

“You have to run hard no matter what when you’re here,” Yeley said. “The racetrack got really treacherous and you had to be smooth. I think (Hahn) was trying to regain maybe the spot he had given up there, and obviously when you are coming down to the last couple of laps, you are going to do everything you can to get in that top-three.”

The Chili Bowl continues with John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night on Thursday. Hot Laps are slated to begin at 4:45 P.M. with racing at 5:45 P.M. (CT).

For more information on the Chili Bowl Nationals, log onto http://www.chilibowl.com

Results:

Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire
Tulsa Expo Raceway – Tulsa, Okla.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
River Spirit Casino Qualifying Night
Car Count: 83

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

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 91T-Tyler Thomas[1]; 2. 55D-Nick Drake[2]; 3. 19J-Jonathan Cornell[7]; 4. 7JR-Robert Black[3]; 5. 88J-Jace VanderWeerd[8]; 6. 3FF-Jake Blackhurst[6]; 7. 62-Jacob Davis[4]; 8. (DNF) 7M-Kevin Ramey[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 4F-Chad Frewaldt[1]; 2. 38-Justin Grant[3]; 3. 35T-Tyler Robbins[6]; 4. 56J-Isaac Schreurs[2]; 5. 44-Don Droud Jr[5]; 6. 05T-Gary Taylor[8]; 7. 7J-Shawn Jackson[7]; 8. (DNF) 85-Matt Johnson[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2K-Kyle Jones[1]; 2. 82-Eric Johnson[2]; 3. 62T-Taylor Simas[8]; 4. 7CG-Logan Jarrett[4]; 5. 88W-Chad Wheeler[7]; 6. (DNF) 35Z-Zach Hampton[6]; 7. (DNF) 68S-Matt Land[5]; 8. 1-Sammy Swindell[3]….(Swindell DQ’d for losing a Muffler during competition)

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 92-Brenden Bright[4]; 2. 23A-Hannah Adair[1]; 3. 8-Alex Sewell[6]; 4. 4K-Josh Lakatos[7]; 5. 19L-Landon Hurst[8]; 6. 14W-Matt Westfall[5]; 7. 45K-Chase Allen[2]; 8. (DNF) 5A-Ashley Hazelton[3]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 37X-Tim Kent[1]; 2. 91-Jeff Stasa[3]; 3. 70K-Kevin Olson[2]; 4. 1T-Tony Roney[8]; 5. 11D-Dustin Hapka[4]; 6. 43-Logan Arnold[6]; 7. 7S-Pat Schudy[7]; 8. 51M-Michael Curtis[5]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 10C-Dalton Camfield[1]; 2. 17C-Casey Shuman[4]; 3. 18P-Payton Pierce[3]; 4. 75X-Travis Berryhill[6]; 5. 77-John Klabunde[5]; 6. 35W-Nate Wait[2]; 7. 55S-Jerry McGehee[8]; 8. D6-Dakota Gains[7]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 5E-James Edens[1]; 2. 8K-Blake Hahn[4]; 3. 9E-Brody Roa[6]; 4. 7T-Tanner Berryhill[5]; 5. 51X-Colby Copeland[7]; 6. 20X-Jimmy Harris[2]; 7. 7F-Claud Estes III[3]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 63K-Chris Windom[6]; 2. 12-Chris Sheil[1]; 3. 17D-Alex DeCamp[4]; 4. 4M-Ty Hulsey[3]; 5. (DNF) 16C-David Camfield Jr[5]; 6. (DNF) 55-Nick Knepper[7]; 7. (DNF) 2X-Charlie McDonald[2]

Heat 9 (8 Laps): 1. 66-Shane Cockrum[1]; 2. 9P-Parker Price-Miller[5]; 3. 13SR-John Ricketts[4]; 4. 14D-David McIntosh[7]; 5. 27RW-Kyle O’Gara[3]; 6. 5T-Tom Everhart[6]; 7. (DNF) 32-Cale Thomas[2]

Heat 10 (8 Laps): 1. 1ST-J.J. Yeley[1]; 2. 11W-Brady Bacon[3]; 3. 7B-Austin Brown[6]; 4. 7AB-Amber Balcaen[2]; 5. 33H-Cameron Hagin[4]; 6. 8M-Kade Morton[7]; 7. 15-Tim Siner[5]

Heat 11 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Rico Abreu[1]; 2. 73T-Trey Marcham[2]; 3. 68W-Jake Swanson[7]; 4. 15W-Brandon Waelti[5]; 5. 4C-Chadd Howell[6]; 6. 25D-Dylan Petersen[4]; 7. (DNF) 14R-Jody Rosenboom[3]

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

D Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 7M-Kevin Ramey[8]; 2. 15-Tim Siner[4]; 3. 85-Matt Johnson[9]; 4. 7S-Pat Schudy[3]; 5. 25D-Dylan Petersen[1]; 6. 7F-Claud Estes III[5]; 7. 20X-Jimmy Harris[2]; 8. (DNF) 5A-Ashley Hazelton[10]; 9. (DNF) 45K-Chase Allen[6]; DNS 32-Cale Thomas

D Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 1-Sammy Swindell[9]; 2. 35W-Nate Wait[1]; 3. 68S-Matt Land[3]; 4. D6-Dakota Gains[7]; 5. 14R-Jody Rosenboom[5]; 6. 51M-Michael Curtis[8]; 7. (DNF) 7J-Shawn Jackson[2]; 8. (DNF) 62-Jacob Davis[4]; 9. (DNF) 2X-Charlie McDonald[6]

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

C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 51X-Colby Copeland[2]; 2. 15W-Brandon Waelti[1]; 3. 7M-Kevin Ramey[13]; 4. 7JR-Robert Black[3]; 5. 14W-Matt Westfall[12]; 6. 3FF-Jake Blackhurst[10]; 7. 15-Tim Siner[14]; 8. 8M-Kade Morton[9]; 9. 4C-Chadd Howell[4]; 10. 7AB-Amber Balcaen[5]; 11. 43-Logan Arnold[11]; 12. (DNF) 44-Don Droud Jr[6]; 13. (DNF) 33H-Cameron Hagin[8]; 14. (DNF) 16C-David Camfield Jr[7]

C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 05T-Gary Taylor[5]; 2. 1-Sammy Swindell[13]; 3. 88W-Chad Wheeler[1]; 4. 4M-Ty Hulsey[3]; 5. 27RW-Kyle O’Gara[9]; 6. 11D-Dustin Hapka[7]; 7. 77-John Klabunde[6]; 8. 35W-Nate Wait[14]; 9. 7CG-Logan Jarrett[2]; 10. 55-Nick Knepper[8]; 11. 56J-Isaac Schreurs[4]; 12. 55S-Jerry McGehee[12]; 13. 5T-Tom Everhart[11]; 14. (DNF) 35Z-Zach Hampton[10]

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

Qualifier 1 (10 Laps): 1. 97-Rico Abreu[1]; 2. 91T-Tyler Thomas[3]; 3. 63K-Chris Windom[6]; 4. 11W-Brady Bacon[7]; 5. 10C-Dalton Camfield[2]; 6. 19J-Jonathan Cornell[5]; 7. 19L-Landon Hurst[10]; 8. 17D-Alex DeCamp[9]; 9. 82-Eric Johnson[8]; 10. (DNF) 35T-Tyler Robbins[4]

Qualifier 2 (10 Laps): 1. 1T-Tony Roney[1]; 2. 73T-Trey Marcham[8]; 3. 68W-Jake Swanson[5]; 4. 5E-James Edens[2]; 5. 8-Alex Sewell[4]; 6. 92-Brenden Bright[6]; 7. 4K-Josh Lakatos[7]; 8. 18P-Payton Pierce[10]; 9. 13SR-John Ricketts[9]; 10. (DNF) 4F-Chad Frewaldt[3]

Qualifier 3 (10 Laps): 1. 38-Justin Grant[1]; 2. 66-Shane Cockrum[2]; 3. 17C-Casey Shuman[5]; 4. 75X-Travis Berryhill[9]; 5. 62T-Taylor Simas[6]; 6. 9E-Brody Roa[4]; 7. 2K-Kyle Jones[3]; 8. 14D-David McIntosh[7]; 9. 70K-Kevin Olson[10]; 10. 23A-Hannah Adair[8]

Qualifier 4 (10 Laps): 1. 1ST-J.J. Yeley[2]; 2. 8K-Blake Hahn[5]; 3. 7B-Austin Brown[4]; 4. 37X-Tim Kent[3]; 5. 88J-Jace VanderWeerd[9]; 6. 12-Chris Sheil[8]; 7. 55D-Nick Drake[7]; 8. 91-Jeff Stasa[1]; 9. (DNF) 9P-Parker Price-Miller[6]; 10. (DNF) 7T-Tanner Berryhill[10]

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

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 88J-Jace VanderWeerd[1]; 2. 5E-James Edens[2]; 3. 19L-Landon Hurst[5]; 4. 51X-Colby Copeland[13]; 5. 12-Chris Sheil[4]; 6. 91-Jeff Stasa[9]; 7. 15W-Brandon Waelti[14]; 8. 7M-Kevin Ramey[15]; 9. 9P-Parker Price-Miller[7]; 10. 19J-Jonathan Cornell[3]; 11. 2K-Kyle Jones[6]; 12. 23A-Hannah Adair[12]; 13. 13SR-John Ricketts[10]; 14. 7JR-Robert Black[16]; 15. (DNF) 18P-Payton Pierce[8]; 16. (DNF) 35T-Tyler Robbins[11]

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 1-Sammy Swindell[14]; 2. 55D-Nick Drake[6]; 3. 37X-Tim Kent[1]; 4. 9E-Brody Roa[4]; 5. 05T-Gary Taylor[13]; 6. 7T-Tanner Berryhill[12]; 7. 10C-Dalton Camfield[3]; 8. 17D-Alex DeCamp[7]; 9. 88W-Chad Wheeler[15]; 10. 4M-Ty Hulsey[16]; 11. 14D-David McIntosh[8]; 12. 4K-Josh Lakatos[5]; 13. 4F-Chad Frewaldt[11]; 14. 82-Eric Johnson[9]; 15. 70K-Kevin Olson[10]; 16. (DNF) 8-Alex Sewell[2]

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

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 97-Rico Abreu[6]; 2. 63K-Chris Windom[1]; 3. 1ST-J.J. Yeley[4]; 4. 8K-Blake Hahn[3]; 5. 1-Sammy Swindell[18]; 6. 73T-Trey Marcham[2]; 7. 17C-Casey Shuman[8]; 8. 51X-Colby Copeland[23]; 9. 91T-Tyler Thomas[9]; 10. 11W-Brady Bacon[13]; 11. 92-Brenden Bright[16]; 12. 68W-Jake Swanson[5]; 13. 5E-James Edens[19]; 14. 1T-Tony Roney[7]; 15. 88J-Jace VanderWeerd[17]; 16. 9E-Brody Roa[24]; 17. 38-Justin Grant[10]; 18. 19L-Landon Hurst[21]; 19. 37X-Tim Kent[22]; 20. 66-Shane Cockrum[11]; 21. 55D-Nick Drake[20]; 22. 7B-Austin Brown[14]; 23. (DNF) 75X-Travis Berryhill[12]; 24. (DNF) 62T-Taylor Simas[15]

Lap Leader(s): Chris Windom 1-14; Rico Abreu 15-25.

Follow me @JerryBonkowski

INDIANAPOLIS — With his first victory in the Indy 500, Josef Newgarden became the first repeat winner through six race results of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season and made a move in the points.

Newgarden, who celebrated with fans in the grandstands, moved from sixth to fourth in the championship standings with his 27th career victory and second this season (he also won at Texas Motor Speedway).

The Team Penske star won his 12th attempt at the Brickyard oval, tying the record for most starts before an Indy 500 victory with Tony Kanaan (2013) and Sam Hanks (1957). Newgarden, whose previous best Indy 500 finish was third with Ed Carpenter Racing in 2016, became the first Tennessee native to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and the first American since Alexander Rossi in 2016.

A man of the people!

Josef Newgarden goes INTO THE CROWD to celebrate his Indy 500 victory! #INDY500 pic.twitter.com/1mBUzoMSfH

— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 28, 2023

He also delivered the record 19th Indy 500 triumph to Roger Penske, whose team ended a four-year drought on the 2.5-mile oval and won for the first time since he became the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar in 2020.

Newgarden, 32, led five laps, the third-lowest total for an Indy 500 winner behind Joe Dawson (two in 1912) and Dan Wheldon (one in 2011).

The race featured 52 lead changes, the third most behind 68 in 2013 and 54 in ’16, among 14 drivers (tied with ’13 for the second highest behind 15 leaders in ’17 and ’18). Newgarden’s 0.0974-second victory over Marcus Ericsson was the fourth-closest in Indy 500 history behind 1992 (0.043 of a second for Al Unser Jr. over Scott Goodyear), 2014 (0.0600 of a second for Ryan Hunter-Reay over Helio Castroneves) and 2006 (0.0635 of a second Sam Hornish Jr. over Marco Andretti.).

It also marked only the third last-lap pass in Indy 500 history — all within the past 17 years (Hornish over Andretti in 2006; Wheldon over J.R. Hildebrand in 2011).

Ericsson’s runner-up finish was the ninth time the defending Indy 500 finished second the next year (most recently four-time winner Helio Castroneves in 2003).

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the 107th Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 200-lap race on a 2.5-mile oval in Indianapolis.

Here is the finishing order in the Indy 500 with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (17) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 200, Running
2. (10) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 200, Running
3. (4) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 200, Running
4. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 200, Running
5. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 200, Running
6. (6) Scott Dixon, Honda, 200, Running
7. (8) Takuma Sato, Honda, 200, Running
8. (16) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 200, Running
9. (21) Colton Herta, Honda, 200, Running
10. (2) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 200, Running
11. (18) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 200, Running
12. (27) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 200, Running
13. (25) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 200, Running
14. (14) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 200, Running
15. (20) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 200, Running
16. (9) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 200, Running
17. (24) Marco Andretti, Honda, 200, Running
18. (32) Jack Harvey, Honda, 199, Running
19. (30) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 198, Running
20. (13) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 197, Contact
21. (11) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 196, Contact
22. (33) Graham Rahal, Chevrolet, 195, Running
23. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 195, Running
24. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 192, Contact
25. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 192, Contact
26. (26) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 192, Contact
27. (3) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 183, Contact
28. (15) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 183, Contact
29. (23) David Malukas, Honda, 160, Contact
30. (19) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 149, Contact
31. (31) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 90, Contact
32. (28) RC Enerson, Chevrolet, 75, Mechanical
33. (29) Katherine Legge, Honda, 41, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 168.193 mph; Time of Race: 2:58:21.9611; Margin of victory: 0.0974 of a second; Cautions: 5 for 27 laps; Lead changes: 52 among 14 drivers. Lap leaders: Palou 1-2; VeeKay 3; Palou 4-9; VeeKay 10-14; Palou 15-22; VeeKay 23-27; Palou 28-29; VeeKay 30-31; Rosenqvist 32; Rossi 33-34; Palou 35-39; VeeKay 40-47; Palou 48-60; VeeKay 61-63; Rosenqvist 64-65; O’Ward 66; Power 67; Herta 68; Rosenqvist 69; O’Ward 70-78; Rosenqvist 79-81; O’Ward 82-89; Rosenqvist 90-94; Ilott 95-99; Rosenqvist 100-101; O’Ward 102; Rosenqvist 103-107; O’Ward 108-109; Rosenqvist 110-113; O’Ward 114-115; Rosenqvist 116-119; O’Ward 120-122; Rosenqvist 123-124; O’Ward 125-128; Rosenqvist 129-131; Ferrucci 132; Ericsson 133-134; Castroneves 135; Rosenqvist 136; Ericsson 137-156; Newgarden 157; Ericsson 158; Ferrucci 159-168; Ericsson 169-170; Rossi 171-172; Sato 173-174; O’Ward 175-179; Hunter-Reay 180-187;
O’Ward 188-191; Ericsson 192; Newgarden 193-195; Ericsson 196-199; Newgarden 200.

POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the GMR Grand Prix:

Top 10 in points: Palou 219, Ericsson 199, O’Ward 185, Newgarden 182, Dixon 162, McLaughlin 149, Rossi 145, Grosjean 139, Power 131, Herta 130.

Rest of the standings: Lundgaard 122, Kirkwood 113, Rosenqvist 113, Ilott 111, Ferrucci 96, VeeKay 96, Rahal 94, Malukas 84, Armstrong 77, Daly 73, Castroneves 69, Harvey 65, DeFrancesco 63, Canapino 61, Pagenaud 55, Pedersen 51, Robb 47, Sato 37, Carpenter 27, Hunter-Reay 20, Kanaan 18, Andretti 13, Enerson 5, Legge 5.

Next race: The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, which has moved from Belle Isle to the streets of downtown, will take place June 4 with coverage starting on Peacock at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

Rico Abreu, Kyle Larson’s teammate, wins Wednesday A-Main in Chili Bowl

IndyCar results, points after 107th Indy 500