In a night that featured NASCAR drivers, USAC champion and a Indianapolis 500 starter, it was a driver from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma that took night one of Chili Bowl qualifying and it might not be the Oklahoman you are thinking of.
Jonathan Beason won Tuesday's A-Main and has qualified for the championship feature Saturday night. Beason started fifth in both his heat and A-Main qualifier and came home with a victory and a second place in them respectively and started on pole for Tuesday's A-Main. He never looked back taking victory.
Zach Daum won his heat and finish third in his A-Main qualifier and started third for Tuesday's A-Main. He would end up finishing second with Alex Bright, who won his heat and finished second ahead of Daum in their A-Main qualifier taking the final transfer spot to Saturday's main event.
Kyle Larson had a good night winning the sixth Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions but will have work to do Saturday night if he would like to take home the Golden Driller Saturday night. After winning his heat from pole, he finish where he started in his A-Main qualifier in fourth position and had to start sixteenth in Tuesday's A-Main. He worked his way through the field but fell two positions short in fifth position behind Gary Taylor.
Another Broken Arrow-native, Brady Bacon had to transfer from the B-Main Tuesday night to even have a shot at qualifying for Saturday. After winning his B-Main, Bacon started eighteenth but could only manage a tenth place finish and will have to try and qualify on Saturday.
Other drivers who will need to qualify on Saturday night include Joey Saldana who finished thirteen in Tuesday's A-Main and PJ Jones who retired from Tuesday's A-Main and finished twenty-third. Two drivers who didn't even make it to Tuesday's A-Main were defending back-to-back USAC Silver Crown champion Bobby East and Hunter Schuerenberg.
Wednesday night qualifying will feature five-time Chili Bowl winner Sammy Swindell, USAC Silver Crown winner J. J. Yeley, five-time USAC champion Jerry Coons, Jr., Chris Windom, Caleb Armstrong, Brad Kuhn and Rico Abreu.
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