Christopher Bell Dominates John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night

(Image Credit: Joe Orth)

TULSA, Okla. (January 14, 2016) Let the victory bells toll, as Norman, Oklahoma’s Christopher Bell went uncontested for his second career preliminary night score; topping Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying night at the 30th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire.
“If you give me one race a year, it’s this race. It’s something I want to win so badly and I promise, I want to win it more than anyone else in here,” commented Bell on his night. “I’m glad to be in this position and hopefully can carry this momentum into Saturday.”

Earning the pole through Heat and Qualifier points, Bell made quick work of fellow front row starter, Sheldon Haudenschild, following two attempts at the start. Left to contend with Danny Stratton, the Bondio entry shot to the runner-up spot on the opening lap.

Caution on the seventh circuit, the green lights were short lived as Sheldon struck the cone on the restart, sending the Ohio driver to the tail.
Working to over a half-straight advantage before the caution flew again on Lap 10, the pause this time was for second running Stratton who found the wall that lines the top of turn three. Danny was okay, and with the help of the Hay lined wall was able to continue.

At speed once again, the Keith Kunz Motorsports No. 71 rode the high-line to perfection, pulling to a nearly two second advantage before the 15th lap. While Bell pulled away, the race within the top-five began picking up as Jerry Coons, Jr. arrived at the party from the 10th starting spot.

Having found fourth on Lap 14, the Wilke-Pak No. 5 was able to maneuver all line on the Tulsa Expo Raceway. Dicing it up with Tracy Hines for the third spot, the leaders began to hit slower traffic on the 18th lap.

Going to a three car battle for second as traffic brought C.J. Leary to Hines and Coons, the pair worked to hold off the No. 5 machine. Working Lap 20, traffic finally bit as Leary went cross through the first and second turns, leaving the hub clear for Coons to snag two spots before the caution flew on Lap 21 for a tangle exiting turn two.

With a clear racetrack, Christopher Bell rode the wall to a 2.360 second advantage at the checkered flag.

Jerry Coons, Jr, crossing in second marks the 13th time in as many years that the Arizona veteran has locked into Saturday’s A-Feature.

Asked about the magic that he seems to have at the Tulsa Expo Raceway, Coons replied, “It’s just being with car owners and good cars. Things have changed over the years, set up and so forth, it’s just staying up with what’s changing. We had a couple of years where we struggled a bit and kind of caught up on some better setups.”

Shane Cottle put on a show on the closing lap, putting his No. 71x in the show with the pass for the final transfer spot on C.J. Leary.

“In the Heat Race, we had too much left rear drive. In the feature, we were a lot better and able to rotate the corners a lot better and keep it down low. Those guys wash out and I could get underneath them.”

Tracy Hines completed the top-five. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. came from 13th to sixth with Justin Peck from the B-Feature to seventh. Justin Grant crossed eighth with Joe B. Miller crawling from 22nd to ninth with Harli White rounding out the top-ten.

Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night saw 84 drivers drawn in to bring the week’s total to 250 competitors. Going into Friday’s Vacuworx Qualifying night, 88 drivers are scheduled to begin. If all 88 check in, the 30th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire will see a record setting 338 drivers in attendance.

Friday night’s Hot Laps have been moved up to 4:30 P.M. (CT) with races scheduled to begin at 5:30 P.M. The full revised schedule is as follows:

Friday, January 15 Vacuworx International Night Revised Schedule

9 a.m. Building Opens (Note – Must have ticket or pit pass to enter grandstands or pits)
11 a.m.-7 p.m. Trade Show
3 p.m. Drivers draw for heat starting positions at chalkboard
4 p.m. Driver’s Meeting
4:30 p.m. Hot Laps (by heat race group)
5:30 p.m. Heat Races start (est. 10 races-8 laps each)
7 p.m. D Main Races (2 races, Top 2 to back of corresponding C Main)
7:30 p.m. C Mains (2 races, Top 4 to back of corresponding B Main)
8:15 p.m. “A” Qualifier Races (4 races, top 16 in combined passing points to A, Balance to Twin Bs)
8:45 p.m. Track Maintenance
9 p.m. B Features (Top 4 to A-15 laps each)
10 p.m. A Feature Start (24 cars-25 laps)
10:30 p.m. Pizza Express Chili Bowl Pole Dash
11 p.m. Curfew
Midnight Building closes

**Schedule is tentative and subject to change

For continued updates on the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire, log ontohttp://www.chilibowl.com.

Results:

Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire
Tulsa Expo Raceway – Tulsa, Okla.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night

Car Count: 84
Event Count: 250

Budweiser Heat Races: Top 40 in passing points advance to Qualifiers.

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7JA-Justin Allgaier[1]; 2. 76M-Brady Bacon[6]; 3. 7XX-Gage Walker[8]; 4. 10J-John Hunt[5]; 5. 22B-Troy Betts[7]; 6. 313-Mitchell Frewaldt[4]; 7. 0M-Mitchell Gladman[2]; 8. (DNF) 76Z-Zane Lawrence[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7R-Robert Ballou[2]; 2. 38-Justin Grant[6]; 3. 5X-Justin Peck[7]; 4. 93K-Riley Kreisel[1]; 5. 82M-Steven Shebester[8]; 6. 349-Eric Saunders[3]; 7. 25P-Dylan Peterson[5]; 8. 7X-Brian Peterson[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 17R-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[2]; 2. 5-Jerry Coons Jr[8]; 3. 77U-Chris Urish[4]; 4. 19S-Matt Streeter[5]; 5. 54-Evan Pardo[3]; 6. 11J-Justin Melton[7]; 7. GO-Kip Hughes[6]; DNS 7JR-J.D. Black

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 27H-Tanner Berryhill[1]; 2. 91K-Kevin Bayer[4]; 3. 17K-Michael Koontz[6]; 4. 71X-Shane Cottle[7]; 5. 7CM-Chance Morton[3]; 6. 51F-Keith Rauch[8]; 7. (DNF) 35T-Tyler Robbins[2]; 8. (DNF) 57-Tyler Seavey[5]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 37-Seth Bergman[3]; 2. 7A-Scott Weir[7]; 3. 7D-Michelle Decker[5]; 4. 31E-Evan Sewell[2]; 5. 41-Brad Thompson[4]; 6. (DNF) 35L-Cody Ledger[8]; 7. (DNF) 84-Shaun Shapel[6]; 8. (DNF) 44C-Chris Stockham[1]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 37B-Jake Blackhurst[8]; 2. 87H-Coby Hughes[4]; 3. 17H-Harli White[2]; 4. 29J-Logan Jarrett[5]; 5. 85-Matt Johnson[6]; 6. 67SF-Sarah Fisher[7]; 7. 31-James Burke[3]; 8. 14E-David McIntosh[1]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 17M-Paul McMahan[1]; 2. 24-Tracy Hines[4]; 3. 47-Danny Stratton[7]; 4. 3B-Joe B. Miller[6]; 5. 88-Chad Wheeler[8]; 6. 86C-Dave Camfield Jr.[3]; 7. 62-Taylor Simas[5]; 8. 56X-Mark Chisholm[2]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 2A-C.J. Leary[2]; 2. 05S-Dominic Scelzi[7]; 3. 11S-Sean Watts[4]; 4. 6A-David Gough[6]; 5. 8R-Randi Pankratz[3]; 6. 2J-Zach Blurton[5]; 7. (DNF) 3F-Frankie Guerrini[1]

Heat 9 (8 Laps): 1. 29S-Anthony Nocella[2]; 2. 4RD-Robert Dalby[1]; 3. 4C-Robert Sellers[3]; 4. 2K-Kyle Jones[5]; 5. 35MF-Mitchell Faccinto[4]; 6. 7K-Mason Keefer[6]; 7. (DNF) 22-Chase Jones[7]

Heat 10 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Christopher Bell[5]; 2. 4J-Tim Crawley[2]; 3. 51S-Logan Scherb[1]; 4. 21D-Justin Dickerson[6]; 5. 16K-Chris Dyson[4]; 6. 92S-Isaac Schreurs[7]; 7. 44D-Philip Dietz[3]

Heat 11 (8 Laps): 1. 56J-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 2. 15D-Andrew Deal[6]; 3. 10C-Dalton Camfield[2]; 4. 86-Mark Lowrey[7]; 5. 15A-Ashley Hazelton[1]; 6. 9E-Rick Shuman[4]; 7. (DNF) 2RS-Aaron Reutzel[3]

D-Features: Top 2 advance to corresponding C-Feature.

D Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 62-Taylor Simas[4]; 2. 57-Tyler Seavey[7]; 3. 22-Chase Jones[2]; 4. 349-Eric Saunders[1]; 5. (DNF) 44C-Chris Stockham[9]; 6. (DNF) 84-Shaun Shapel[3]; 7. (DNF) 35T-Tyler Robbins[6]; 8. (DNF) 7JR-J.D. Black[10]; 9. (DNF) 44D-Philip Dietz[5]; DNS 76Z-Zane Lawrence

D Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 86C-Dave Camfield Jr.[1]; 2. 25P-Dylan Peterson[3]; 3. 14E-David McIntosh[9]; 4. 7X-Brian Peterson[7]; 5. 31-James Burke[4]; 6. (DNF) GO-Kip Hughes[2]; 7. (DNF) 3F-Frankie Guerrini[6]; 8. (DNF) 56X-Mark Chisholm[8]; 9. (DNF) 0M-Mitchell Gladman[5]; DNS 2RS-Aaron Reutzel

C-Features: Top 4 advance to corresponding B-Feature.

C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 19S-Matt Streeter[3]; 2. 51S-Logan Scherb[2]; 3. 2K-Kyle Jones[1]; 4. 35L-Cody Ledger[5]; 5. 31E-Evan Sewell[4]; 6. 16K-Chris Dyson[7]; 7. 11J-Justin Melton[11]; 8. 8R-Randi Pankratz[9]; 9. 57-Tyler Seavey[13]; 10. 62-Taylor Simas[14]; 11. 15A-Ashley Hazelton[10]; 12. 41-Brad Thompson[6]; 13. 313-Mitchell Frewaldt[12]; 14. (DNF) 92S-Isaac Schreurs[8]

C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 51F-Keith Rauch[4]; 2. 86-Mark Lowrey[1]; 3. 7CM-Chance Morton[8]; 4. 25P-Dylan Peterson[13]; 5. 93K-Riley Kreisel[5]; 6. 67SF-Sarah Fisher[7]; 7. 2J-Zach Blurton[11]; 8. 54-Evan Pardo[9]; 9. 7K-Mason Keefer[10]; 10. 9E-Rick Shuman[12]; 11. 86C-Dave Camfield Jr.[14]; 12. 85-Matt Johnson[3]; 13. 22B-Troy Betts[2]; 14. (DNF) 35MF-Mitchell Faccinto[6]

Qualifiers: Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the A-Feature.

Q1 (10 Laps): 1. 47-Danny Stratton[3]; 2. 7XX-Gage Walker[4]; 3. 29S-Anthony Nocella[2]; 4. 17H-Harli White[10]; 5. 05S-Dominic Scelzi[5]; 6. 17K-Michael Koontz[1]; 7. 7D-Michelle Decker[7]; 8. 21D-Justin Dickerson[9]; 9. 77U-Chris Urish[8]; 10. (DNF) 37B-Jake Blackhurst[6]

Q2 (10 Laps): 1. 7JA-Justin Allgaier[1]; 2. 71-Christopher Bell[6]; 3. 91K-Kevin Bayer[2]; 4. 71X-Shane Cottle[7]; 5. 76M-Brady Bacon[5]; 6. 37-Seth Bergman[4]; 7. 10C-Dalton Camfield[10]; 8. 7R-Robert Ballou[3]; 9. 11S-Sean Watts[8]; 10. (DNF) 82M-Steven Shebester[9]

Q3 (10 Laps): 1. 56J-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]; 2. 27H-Tanner Berryhill[1]; 3. 17R-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[3]; 4. 38-Justin Grant[5]; 5. 5-Jerry Coons Jr[6]; 6. 3B-Joe B. Miller[8]; 7. 4J-Tim Crawley[7]; 8. 88-Chad Wheeler[9]; 9. 87H-Coby Hughes[2]; 10. 10J-John Hunt[10]

Q4 (10 Laps): 1. 24-Tracy Hines[2]; 2. 2A-C.J. Leary[3]; 3. 15D-Andrew Deal[5]; 4. 17M-Paul McMahan[1]; 5. 5X-Justin Peck[4]; 6. 7A-Scott Weir[6]; 7. 4C-Robert Sellers[9]; 8. 29J-Logan Jarrett[10]; 9. 6A-David Gough[8]; 10. 4RD-Robert Dalby[7]

B-Features: Top 4 advance to the A-Feature.

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 91K-Kevin Bayer[1]; 2. 7A-Scott Weir[2]; 3. 17M-Paul McMahan[3]; 4. 37B-Jake Blackhurst[4]; 5. 19S-Matt Streeter[13]; 6. 4J-Tim Crawley[7]; 7. 82M-Steven Shebester[12]; 8. 88-Chad Wheeler[9]; 9. 35L-Cody Ledger[16]; 10. 51S-Logan Scherb[14]; 11. 77U-Chris Urish[10]; 12. (DNF) 17K-Michael Koontz[5]; 13. (DNF) 6A-David Gough[11]; 14. (DNF) 7D-Michelle Decker[6]; 15. (DNF) 2K-Kyle Jones[15]; 16. (DNF) 21D-Justin Dickerson[8]

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 5X-Justin Peck[2]; 2. 76M-Brady Bacon[1]; 3. 3B-Joe B. Miller[4]; 4. 37-Seth Bergman[3]; 5. 7R-Robert Ballou[7]; 6. 4C-Robert Sellers[6]; 7. 10C-Dalton Camfield[5]; 8. 29J-Logan Jarrett[8]; 9. 11S-Sean Watts[10]; 10. 25P-Dylan Peterson[16]; 11. 4RD-Robert Dalby[11]; 12. 7CM-Chance Morton[15]; 13. 51F-Keith Rauch[13]; 14. 10J-John Hunt[12]; 15. 86-Mark Lowrey[14]; 16. (DNF) 87H-Coby Hughes[9]

A-Feature: Top 3 advance to Saturday’s A-Feature.

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 71-Christopher Bell[1]; 2. 5-Jerry Coons Jr[10]; 3. 71X-Shane Cottle[16]; 4. 2A-C.J. Leary[7]; 5. 24-Tracy Hines[6]; 6. 17R-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[13]; 7. 5X-Justin Peck[18]; 8. 38-Justin Grant[9]; 9. 3B-Joe B. Miller[22]; 10. 17H-Harli White[11]; 11. 15D-Andrew Deal[5]; 12. 76M-Brady Bacon[20]; 13. 29S-Anthony Nocella[15]; 14. 05S-Dominic Scelzi[14]; 15. 17M-Paul McMahan[21]; 16. 27H-Tanner Berryhill[12]; 17. 47-Danny Stratton[3]; 18. 7JA-Justin Allgaier[8]; 19. 37B-Jake Blackhurst[23]; 20. 37-Seth Bergman[24]; 21. 7A-Scott Weir[19]; 22. 56J-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 23. 7XX-Gage Walker[4]; 24. (DNF) 91K-Kevin Bayer[17]