From there it was all Courtney over the final eight laps, but the driver on the move was Zach Daum, who restarted fifth after Larson’s flip and stormed through the field on the outside lane.
Daum passed Chase Briscoe for fourth with five laps to go and dispatched Bright for third with three circuits remaining, holding the final transfer spot the rest of the way behind runner-up Larry Wight.
For Wight, just like Courtney, Saturday will mark his first-career championship A-Main start at the Chili Bowl, coming in just his second time out in a midget for Gypsum Racing.
“It’s pretty amazing for us to come down here and do this,” said Wight. “We’re in our own little world with the Northeast big block (modifieds) … no one puts those on a dirt track, hardly. Sean Michael and Mike Heffner are awesome to come down here with. We brought a brand new Chili Bowl car and it definitely paid off for us.”
“I told Sean by the end of the week we’d get it to drive like a modified! I can’t ask anything more … this was a blast tonight.”
Daum’s third-place finish guarantees that he will start his sixth-career Chili Bowl finale and fourth-consecutive, dating back to 2014. His career-best of third came in last year’s championship feature.
“It’s third, just like where we were last year, so hopefully we can make work in the Pole Shuffle,” Daum said. “The goal on prelim night is always to lock in … of course we all want to win, but once you lock in it really sets the tempo for the week. We’ve done that now, so we can go from there and take a shot at it on Saturday night.”
Defending Warren CAT Night winner Alex Bright and Jonathan Beason rounded out the top five, followed by ARCA champion Chase Briscoe, who was battling for a transfer position at the halfway point of the race before fading to sixth in the closing laps.
Lucas Oil ASCS sprint car regular Brad Loyet was the master of Tuesday’s alphabet soup, driving from eighth in his C-Main all the way into a transfer spot to the A-Main by the end of the night. He finished 13th.
Joey Saldana and Aaron Reutzel won their respective 15-lap B-Features, while Steven Shebester, Daum, Briscoe and Mike Hess each topped one of four 10-lap qualifiers held on the night.
Loyet and Jake Bubak took down the victories in Tuesday’s 12-lap twin C-Features, with Weston Gorham and Lee Redmond winning their respective 10-lap D-Features.
Seth Bergman, Bright, Bruce, Beason, Hess, Daum, Courtney, Nick Wean, Sherrell, Shebester and Kyle O’Gara all won Budweiser Heat Races to kick off the night’s action.
Full results from night one can be viewed on the next page.
