Chili Bowl: Bryan Clauson Takes Over Vacuworx Qualifying Night

Picking up his fourth career preliminary night feature win, Bryan Clauson led non-stop in Friday's Vacuworx Global Qualifying Night to set the stage for Saturday's finale of the 30th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire.

"My Golden Driller is lonely, I need to get him a friend," commented Clauson in his postrace interview. "I certainly feel like we have a car capable of winning just watching the first few nights. I wasn't quite as confident going into tonight. I felt like earlier in the week, we needed to get better. I told that to Rusty [Kunz]. We went 12th in the Race of Champions and that's a pretty good gauge."

Earning the pole for Friday's A-Feature, Clauson led start-to-finish without challenge. Able to get within a few car lengths as the leaders hit traffic on Lap 20, it wasn't enough to give Tim McCreadie a shot, as the Watertown, New York Late Model ace grabbed the runner-up spot.

Battling several laps during the races mid-point, Kasey Kahne and Daryn Pittman swapped the show position with Kahne winning out on the battle.

Asked about his thoughts on winning the Chili Bowl, Kahne replied, "It would mean so much because it's such a cool event. It's such a great race, the fans are unbelievable here. The competition, everybody here in Midgets, Sprint Cars, and a couple NASCAR guys in Kyle, Ricky, and Allgaier, so there's just such a wide variety of competition."

Pittman crossed fourth with California's Shane Golobic racing to fifth.

Coming from 13th, Damion Gardner was able to run up to seventh with Tanner Thorson following from 10th. Eleventh starting Chad Boat was eighth with Jac Haudenschild and Hunter Schuerenberg rounding out the top-ten.

Following the night's feature event, the inaugural Pizza Express Pole Shuffle took place with all 12 lock in drivers getting a shot to better their position in Saturday's A-Feature. Drawing for their position in the dash order, drivers squared off in 11, head-to-head, two lap dashes. Starting with the 12th and 11th position, the winner went on to face the driver who drew 10th, the process repeated itself all the way up the ladder. The first round saw Zach Daum square off against Shane Cottle with Daum eventually moving from 12th to eighth on the starting grid before being defeated by Joey Saldana. Ultimately, the front row came down to Bryan Clauson and Christopher Bell. Crossing the white flag 0.038 seconds apart, Bell found the wall in the third and fourth turns, ensuring Bryan Clauson the pole position.

With all four qualifying nights in the books, the total number of entries received for the 30th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl National presented by General Tire stands at 250, with 335 of those finding drivers to compete, beating out the record of 326 drivers set in 2015.

The final day of the 30th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire gets underway at 9:30 A.M. (CT) with Hot Laps for the first two N Features. Qualifying features are estimated to run until 5:45 P.M. at which point the Tulsa Expo Raceway will be reworked.

Opening Ceremonies will take place at 6:35 P.M. (CT).

For continued updates on the 30th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire, log onto http://www.chilibowl.com.

Special Note:

Qualifying sixth on the A Feature lineup, the No. 20a of Alex Shanks was found to be a lie. It was revealed by officials that the driver was actually Shane Cockrum, who qualified on Wednesday. For this action, Shane has been disqualified from all remaining competition during the 2016 Chili Bowl. In a statement from Chili Bowl Director of Competition, Matt Ward, it was explained, "In our Driver's Meeting, as soon as I get done welcoming all the drivers, the first thing read is; once you draw in, you cannot race again. That is your night...We don't like disqualifying anyone, but what Shane did was wrong, and is unfair to the drivers and fans who attend the Chili Bowl."

Results:

Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire
Tulsa Expo Raceway - Tulsa, Okla.
Friday, January 15, 2016
Vacuworx Global Qualifying Night

Car Count: 86
Event Count: 336 (New Record)

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

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17G-Shane Golobic[1]; 2. 31B-David Budres[6]; 3. 11E-Cory Elliott[4]; 4. 32D-Danny Jennings[8]; 5. 83S-Shane Weeks[2]; 6. 51JR-Ryan Jamison[7]; 7. 69P-Colby Estes[5]; 8. 71.5-Robert Bell[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71G-Damion Gardner[4]; 2. 9K-Kyle Schuett[3]; 3. 1A-Kevin Ramey[5]; 4. 2ND-Jeb Sessums[7]; 5. 6-Bill Rose[6]; 6. 1P-Terry Nichols[8]; 7. 9M-Cory Mallo[1]; DNS 76-Brad Noffsinger

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 63-Bryan Clauson[6]; 2. 05H-Hunter Schuerenberg[5]; 3. 88D-Rusty Dukes[1]; 4. 14-Trevor Kobylarz[8]; 5. 14S-Steve Schaberg[2]; 6. (DNF) 7E-Cory Eliason[7]; 7. (DNF) 85H-Shane Hollingsworth[4]; 8. (DNF) 04-Marcus Thomas[3]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 73X-Jac Haudenschild[1]; 2. 87F-Brian McClelland[2]; 3. 25M-Derrick Myers[8]; 4. 15B-Danny Burke[4]; 5. 101-Chuck McGillivray[5]; 6. 20X-Noah Harris[7]; 7. 11Y-Travis Young[6]; 8. (DNF) 59E-Dex Eaton[3]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 27T-Tucker Klaasmeyer[2]; 2. 20-Tadd Holliman[1]; 3. 47X-Tim McCreadie[7]; 4. 51W-Danny Sheridan[6]; 5. 9D-Sean Dodenhoff[4]; 6. 0-Johnny Murdock[5]; 7. 6B-Brad Kraus[3]; 8. (DNF) 7T-Jack Hawley[8]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 15-Tim Siner[7]; 2. 67Z-Kasey Kahne[8]; 3. 19P-Alex Hill[1]; 4. 13W-Tommy White[5]; 5. 01J-David Ferguson[4]; 6. 83G-Matt Gilbert[2]; 7. 57M-Landon Simon[3]; 8. (DNF) 24F-Hunter Fischer[6]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 5F-Rik Forbes[2]; 2. 80-Josh Hawkins[1]; 3. 21K-Cory Kruseman[8]; 4. 100-Shane Stewart[5]; 5. 74-Zach Merritt[6]; 6. 48-Taylor Forbes[3]; 7. 10X-Danny Smith[7]; 8. 17S-Ryan Secrest[4]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Daryn Pittman[5]; 2. 57T-Tyler Edwards[3]; 3. 88N-D.J. Netto[8]; 4. (DNF) 5B-Andee Beierle[1]; 5. (DNF) 7M-Anton Julian[7]; 6. (DNF) 5M-Sean Murphy[4]; 7. (DNF) 53-Brett Thomas[6]

Heat 9 (8 Laps): 1. 15X-Chad Boat[1]; 2. 67-Tanner Thorson[7]; 3. 68-Ronnie Gardner[3]; 4. 77D-Dean Drake Jr[2]; 5. 22D-David Stephenson[4]; 6. 11K-Gavin Harlien[8]; 7. D6-Dakota Gaines[5]; 8. 1TS-Tyler Shoemaker[6]

Heat 10 (8 Laps): 1. 19-Jake Bubak[4]; 2. 35S-Danny Faria Jr[3]; 3. 33-Davey Ray[2]; 4. 22H-John Heydenreich[5]; 5. 1B-Chris Windom[7]; 6. (DNF) 75X-Matt Mitchell[6]; DNS 52C-Isaac Chapple

Heat 11 (8 Laps): 1. 37F-Bill Balog[2]; 2. 11AG-Dave Darland[4]; 3. 20A-Alex Shanks[7]; 4. 98D-Clinton Boyles[6]; 5. 20S-Shon Deskins[3]; 6. 15F-Aaron Farney[1]; 7. (DNF) 50LP-Michael Sosebee[5]

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

D Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 57M-Landon Simon[6]; 2. 15F-Aaron Farney[2]; 3. 1TS-Tyler Shoemaker[8]; 4. 59E-Dex Eaton[10]; 5. 50LP-Michael Sosebee[4]; 6. 69P-Colby Estes[3]; 7. 71.5-Robert Bell[9]; 8. 9M-Cory Mallo[7]; 9. 5M-Sean Murphy[1]; 10. (DNF) 53-Brett Thomas[5]; DNS 76-Brad Noffsinger

D Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 04-Marcus Thomas[9]; 2. 24F-Hunter Fischer[7]; 3. 10X-Danny Smith[1]; 4. 17S-Ryan Secrest[8]; 5. 7T-Jack Hawley[6]; 6. 11Y-Travis Young[2]; 7. D6-Dakota Gaines[3]; 8. 6B-Brad Kraus[5]; DNS 85H-Shane Hollingsworth; DNS 52C-Isaac Chapple

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

C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 77D-Dean Drake Jr[3]; 2. 7E-Cory Eliason[8]; 3. 20S-Shon Deskins[9]; 4. 75X-Matt Mitchell[11]; 5. 15F-Aaron Farney; 6. 57M Landon Simon; 7. 7M-Anton Julian[1]; 8. 14S-Steve Schaberg[10]; 9. 5B-Andee Beierle[4]; 10. 48-Taylor Forbes[12]; 11. 9D-Sean Dodenhoff[6]; 12. 1B-Chris Windom[5]; 13. 22D-David Stephenson[7]; 14. 22H-John Heydenreich[2]

C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 6-Bill Rose[5]; 2. 11K-Gavin Harlien[3]; 3. 51JR-Ryan Jamison[7]; 4. 24F-Hunter Fischer; 5. 15B-Danny Burke[1]; 6. 01J-David Ferguson[6]; 7. 0-Johnny Murdock[11]; 8. 1P-Terry Nichols[10]; 9. 74-Zach Merritt[2]; 10. 83S-Shane Weeks[9]; 11. 04-Marcus Thomas; 12. 101-Chuck McGillivray[4]; 13. 83G-Matt Gilbert[12]; 14. (DNF) 20X-Noah Harris[8]

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

Q1 (10 Laps): 1. 15X-Chad Boat[1]; 2. 21K-Cory Kruseman[4]; 3. 71G-Damion Gardner[3]; 4. 67-Tanner Thorson[5]; 5. 51W-Danny Sheridan[9]; 6. 15-Tim Siner[6]; 7. 20-Tadd Holliman[8]; 8. 13W-Tommy White[10]; 9. 57T-Tyler Edwards[7]; 10. 11AG-Dave Darland[2]

Q2 (10 Laps): 1. 63-Bryan Clauson[6]; 2. 05H-Hunter Schuerenberg[4]; 3. 88N-D.J. Netto[2]; 4. 80-Josh Hawkins[8]; 5. 27T-Tucker Klaasmeyer[3]; 6. 19-Jake Bubak[5]; 7. 98D-Clinton Boyles[9]; 8. 32D-Danny Jennings[1]; 9. 1A-Kevin Ramey[7]; 10. (DNF) 100-Shane Stewart[10]

Q3 (10 Laps): 1. 17G-Shane Golobic[2]; 2. 47X-Tim McCreadie[4]; 3. 14-Trevor Kobylarz[1]; 4. 67Z-Kasey Kahne[6]; 5. 35S-Danny Faria Jr[8]; 6. 68-Ronnie Gardner[9]; 7. 5F-Rik Forbes[3]; 8. 2ND-Jeb Sessums[7]; 9. 31B-David Budres[5]; 10. 88D-Rusty Dukes[10]

Q4 (10 Laps): 1. 73X-Jac Haudenschild[2]; 2. 20A-Alex Shanks[4]; 3. 21-Daryn Pittman[6]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett[1]; 5. 37F-Bill Balog[3]; 6. 11E-Cory Elliott[8]; 7. 25M-Derrick Myers[5]; 8. 33-Davey Ray[9]; 9. 87F-Brian McClelland[7]; 10. 19P-Alex Hill[10]

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

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 35S-Danny Faria Jr[2]; 2. 68-Ronnie Gardner[4]; 3. 51W-Danny Sheridan[1]; 4. 11AG-Dave Darland[11]; 5. 57T-Tyler Edwards[9]; 6. 37F-Bill Balog[3]; 7. 20-Tadd Holliman[7]; 8. 20S-Shon Deskins[15]; 9. 7E-Cory Eliason[14]; 10. 33-Davey Ray[8]; 11. 25M-Derrick Myers[5]; 12. 77D-Dean Drake Jr[13]; 13. 88D-Rusty Dukes[12]; 14. 13W-Tommy White[10]; 15. 75X-Matt Mitchell[16]; 16. (DNF) 5F-Rik Forbes[6]

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 27T-Tucker Klaasmeyer[2]; 2. 98D-Clinton Boyles[5]; 3. 9K-Kyle Schuett[3]; 4. 31B-David Budres[6]; 5. 100-Shane Stewart[11]; 6. 51JR-Ryan Jamison[15]; 7. 87F-Brian McClelland[10]; 8. 1A-Kevin Ramey[9]; 9. 32D-Danny Jennings[8]; 10. 24F-Hunter Fischer[16]; 11. 11K-Gavin Harlien[14]; 12. 6-Bill Rose[13]; 13. 19-Jake Bubak[1]; 14. (DNF) 11E-Cory Elliott[4]; 15. (DNF) 19P-Alex Hill[12]; 16. (DNF) 2ND-Jeb Sessums[7]

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

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 63-Bryan Clauson[1]; 2. 47X-Tim McCreadie[5]; 3. 67Z-Kasey Kahne[3]; 4. 21-Daryn Pittman[2]; 5. 17G-Shane Golobic[7]; 6. 71G-Damion Gardner[13]; 7. 67-Tanner Thorson[10]; 8. 15X-Chad Boat[11]; 9. 73X-Jac Haudenschild[8]; 10. 05H-Hunter Schuerenberg[4]; 11. 21K-Cory Kruseman[9]; 12. 68-Ronnie Gardner[19]; 13. 14-Trevor Kobylarz[16]; 14. 11AG-Dave Darland[23]; 15. 27T-Tucker Klaasmeyer[18]; 16. 35S-Danny Faria Jr[17]; 17. 51W-Danny Sheridan[21]; 18. 15-Tim Siner[12]; 19. 9K-Kyle Schuett[22]; 20. 31B-David Budres[24]; 21. 80-Josh Hawkins[14]; 22. 98D-Clinton Boyles[20]; 23. (DNF) 88N-D.J. Netto[15]; DQ 20A-Alex Shanks (aka. Shane Cockrum)...The 20a was found out to be Shane Cockrum, not Alex Shanks. Because of this, Shane has been DQ'd from the 2016 Chili Bowl Nationals.

Lap Leader: Bryan Clauson 1-25
Hard Charger: Dave Darland +9

Pizza Express Pole Shuffle (2 Laps, winner faces next lowest seed)

Zach Daum def. Shane Cottle
Zach Daum def. Thomas Meseraull
Zach Daum def. Kasey Kahne
Zach Daum def. Tyler Thomas
Joey Saldana def. Zach Daum
Jerry Coons, Jr. def. Joe Saldana
Tim McCreadie def. Jerry Coons, Jr.
Rico Abreu def. Tim McCreadie
Alex Bright def. Rico Abreu
Christopher Bell def. Alex Bright
Bryan Clauson def. Christopher Bell