– The Fastenal #FlipCount for the week tapped out at 70; nearly double that of the 2016 Chili Bowl, when only 46 rollovers were recorded across the five days of competition.
The final flip of the week came during the night’s second and final B-Feature, when 16th-starting Ricky Stenhouse Jr. went end over end in turn one and caught a piece of the fence before coming to rest.
The NASCAR star quickly hopped out of his No. 17BC Clauson-Marshall Racing entry and waved to the crowd, but could not continue and finished 20th in the 20-lap last chance race.
“Somebody turned right from the inside and I was out there,” said Stenhouse. “Man, it’s been a little bit since the last time I went over like that. I’d forgotten what it felt like. It’s not fun, I can tell you that much. But it happens.”
Stenhouse’s woes came one year after he made the 55-lap finale, finishing 16th in 2017.
– Both of the Chili Bowl’s ‘super teams’ put 75 percent of their fleets into this year’s championship main, with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports and Clauson-Marshall Racing each qualifying six of their eight cars into the Saturday nightcap.
Holly Shelton and Tucker Klaasmeyer were the two Kunz drivers who missed the dance, while Stenhouse and Donny Schatz fell into that category from the Clauson-Marshall camp.
– Consider that the credentials of some of the notables to miss this year’s Saturday A-Feature read like a career line from the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala.
Three former Chili Bowl champions accounting for four Chili Bowl titles were eliminated through the course of the alphabet soup, with 2006 winner Tim McCreadie and 2008 winner Damion Gardner falling short in the twin B-Features, while two-time winner Cory Kruseman was knocked out in his D-Feature.
Stenhouse and Kasey Kahne, who have 20 NASCAR Cup Series victories between them, and five-time NASCAR XFINITY Series winner Justin Allgaier each fell during their respective B-Features as well.
Schatz is the nine-time and defending World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series champion, but couldn’t get further than Saturday’s D-Features, while 2013 Outlaws titlist Daryn Pittman ran from his D-Feature to a B-Feature but saw a four-year streak of making the Saturday finale come to an end.
Reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year Chase Briscoe (E-Feature), former USCS 360 sprint car champion Derek Hagar (E-Feature) and three-time USAC Silver Crown titlist Kody Swanson (H-Feature) were just some of the other accomplished names knocked out early in the soup.
– 16-year-old California sprint car ace Gio Scelzi, who piloted the No. 57BC for Clauson-Marshall Racing, was the only Chili Bowl rookie to make the Saturday night A-Feature and was named the 2018 Chili Bowl Rookie of the Year.
– Scelzi’s teammate, Chris Windom, confirmed after the final checkered flag that he plans to return to the No. 5 Baldwin Brothers sprint car to defend his AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car championship.
Windom also hinted at the possibility of running additional NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races this season, but has no concrete plans at the moment.
– The 33rd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals will expand to feature five qualifying nights prior to the Saturday finale, running from Jan. 14-19, 2019 inside the Tulsa Expo Center.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 24-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: editor@racechaseronline.com
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
Email Race Chaser Online: news@racechaseronline.com
Follow RCO on Twitter: @RaceChaserNews
