Rico Abreu moved a step closer to repeating as Chili Bowl champion after winning Wednesday night’s preliminary feature.
Abreu took the lead on a restart just past halfway in the 25-lap feature at River Spirit Expo Center at Tulsa’s Expo Square and led the rest of the way.
He earns a spot in Saturday night’s 55-lap feature. Also qualifying for the Chili Bowl Nationals feature was Tyler Thomas, who finished second on Wednesday, and Thomas Meseraull, who placed third. The top three in each of the four preliminary night features advance to Saturday’s main event.
Abreu’s victory came hours after a report that he’ll have a full-time ride in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series this season for ThorSport Racing. An official announcement will be made Friday.
NASCAR TIES: J.J. Yeley had a tough night. He was involved in a crash in the B Main after three laps and did not continue, placing 15th. Troubles in his heat race forced him to have to race his way from one of the two C Main races. He won that to advance to the B Main before he couldn’t avoid a spinning car and was hit from behind as well.
NOTABLE: Austin Prock, a development driver for Tony Stewart Racing, finished 12th in the second B Main to see his night end. … Five-time Chili Bowl champ Sammy Swindell raced his way from the C Main and B Main to make it to the night’s preliminary feature but was involved in a couple of incidents late that kept him from a potential top-10 finish. He placed 18th in the 24-car A Main.
NEXT: Thursday’s qualifying races feature NASCAR drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Allgaier and Christopher Bell in action, along with IndyCar owner Sarah Fisher.
FEATURE RACE RESULTS:
1 - Rico Abreu
2 - Tyler Thomas
3 - Thomas Meseraull
4 - Parker Price-Miller
5 - Austin Brown
6 - Chase Stockton
7 - Blake Hahn
8 - Jake Swanson
9 - Brenden Bright
10 - Alex Sewell
11 - Daniel Adler
12 - Steve Buckwalter
13 - Alex DeCamp
14 - Josh Lakatos
15 - Daniel Robinson
16 - Gary Taylor
17 - A.J. Fike
18 - Sammy Swindell
19 - Colby Copeland
20 - Tyler Courtney
21 - Jason McDougal
22 - Payton Pierce
23 - Larry Wight
24 - Kyle Clark