TULSA, Okla. – Sunshine brightened the River Spirit Expo Center and brought a frenzied crowd to a fever pitch Tuesday night, after Tyler Courtney fended off all comers to win Tuesday’s Warren CAT Qualifying Night A-Feature from the pole and lock himself into the 31st annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
Courtney led 21 of the 25 laps, fending off an early challenge from third-starting Matt Sherrell before pulling away down the stretch in his No. 7BC Clauson-Marshall Racing entry and guaranteeing himself a top-12 starting spot for Saturday’s 55-lap championship main event.
The win marks the first-ever preliminary night feature victory for both Courtney and the CMR team, co-owned by the late Bryan Clauson’s father Tim, as well as Priority Aviation’s Richard and Jennifer Marshall.
“We parked it!” Courtney said of winning the race in honor of his late friend. “Honestly, I think I’m still in shock. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. This is really cool with a new team, on the so called dream team that Bryan wanted to put together. Bryan [Clauson] was the guy that gave me my first opportunity (at the Chili Bowl) seven years ago. He’s a big part of my career and plus, I got to win my first USAC National sprint Car race over him this summer during Sprint Week. That’s something that I’ll always have with me.”
“I knew if I could get out (front) early and get into a rhythm, we’d be alright, but we were still pretty snug there with 10 to go as Kyle (Larson) was coming onto us. After that last restart, I didn’t know where Larry (Wight) was, but you can’t play defense here … you have to play offense. That’s the name of the game here and we won it that way tonight.”
Courtney shot off the green flag from the bottom like a cannon, but was quickly passed for the lead by Sherrell on the second time around the quarter-mile bullring. By lap five, VIROC winner and fourth-starting Larson had moved inside the transfer line and was knocking on the door of the lead as well.
‘Sunshine’ retook the lead for good on the sixth round, but had to deal with Larson’s pressure for much of the middle stint of the race. The three-time preliminary night winner laid in wait on the back of Courtney’s machine like a hawk, until the night’s first caution flew one lap prior to halfway, a stalled Tony Bruce Jr. slowing the pace in turn four.
The restart saw Courtney get a huge jump on the bottom of the track, but less than a lap later, Larson was back challenging again. The duo continued in lock-step formation until 10 to go, when a caution for debris came out as Larson was trying to work Courtney over on the inside.
That set up a pair of short-lived restarts, aborted for drivers hitting the cone, before the race fully resumed under green flag conditions.
Two laps later, disaster struck for Larson, who was again running down Courtney from second when he got sideways in the middle of turns three and four, jumping the cushion and wheeling into an end-over-end flip down the track before coming to a stop and being hit by Matt Westfall, who had nowhere to go.
The contact ended the night for Westfall and sent Larson to the work area. While the NASCAR star was able to return to the race track, he was never able to move back forward and finished a disappointing 21st.
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