Alex Bright of Collegeville, Pennsylvania claimed the win in the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals A-Main Tuesday night in a narrow finish over Joey Saldana in the 25-lap race.
Bright, who started eighth, automatically locks himself into Saturday’s A-Feature with the win in the event held in the River Spirit Expo Center at Tulsa’s Expo Square.
#ChiliBowl2016: @AlexBright77 barely holds off @JoeySaldana to score the victory on night one. @DaumMotorsports 3rd. pic.twitter.com/gapHDfvs4B
— Racing America (@RacingAmerica) January 13, 2016
Bright, Saldana and Zach Daum, who finished third, all advance to Saturday’s main event. Bright had finished second in both his qualifying race and heat race.
Unofficial results of Tuesday night A-Main
1. 77B-Alex Bright
2. 17-Joey Saldana
3. 5D-Zach Daum
4. 8J-Jonathan Beason
5. 51J-R.J. Johnson
6. 57B-Chad Boespflug
7. 35M-Matt Sherrell
8. 11A-Andrew Felker
9. 71K-Kyle Larson
10. 99P-Dillon Welch
11. 14W-Matt Westfall
12. 18-Tony Bruce Jr
13. 17J-Chase Johnson
14. 39S-Kevin Thomas Jr
15. 39B-Spencer Bayston
16. 78-Nick Wean
17. 0S-Dylan Westbrook
18. 55-Nick Knepper
19. 0T-Tyler Brehm
20. 1PW-Paul White
21. (DNF) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr
22. (DNF) 7H-Darren Hagen
23. (DNF) 22E-Cameron Hagin
24. (DNF) 44X-Wesley Smith
NASCAR Ties: Kyle Larson won his qualifying race, the third of the night and started on the pole for the A-Main, but was involved in an accident with a car leaving the pits on Lap 11 and finished ninth. Larson also finished second in the eighth Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions (VIROC VIII) ... Alex Bowman won the night’s fourth heat race after starting fourth. He then finished seventh in B Feature 1 ... Christopher Bell finished fifth in the VIROC VIII.
Notable: The eighth Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions, a race made up of past Chili Bowl and VIROC champions, was won by Tanner Thorson.
Next: Wednesday’s qualifying races start at 7 ET and include NASCAR driver J.J. Yeley and Rico Abreu.