Justin Grant drove from fifth to second in Friday’s Hard Rock Casino Qualifying Night feature event to advance directly to Saturday’s A Main feature at the 37th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
It marked the sixth time Grant has transferred directly to the A Main in the last seven years. Overall, Toyota-powered drivers captured five of the ten positions locked into Saturday’s A Main.
Grant started the night off by dominating both his heat and qualifying races, but due to a poor draw earlier in the day, the RMS Racing driver was forced to start back in the fifth position. He jumped up to third on the opening lap, then climbed into second after a restart on lap seven. He would then make a number of runs on eventual winner Logan Seavey but fell just short of the victory.
Grant wasn’t the only Toyota-powered driver to have a strong night as drivers from four different Toyota-powered teams placed in the top 10 on Friday night. Zeb Wise (Rudeen Racing) finished fourth, with Jace Park (CB Industries) placing seventh and Bryant Wiedeman (Keith Kunz Motorsports) finishing tenth.
This year’s Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals features 365 entries – each fighting for one of the 24 openings in Saturday night’s “A Main” feature event. A total of 60 Toyota-powered drivers are expected to compete on Saturday.
Quotes:
Justin Grant, RMS Racing Toyota: “It was pretty much a pavement race at the end (with the track conditions). It just happens now and then. Nothing to be mad about, we’re locked into the Chili Bowl. We’ve got a really good race car and we’re hoping to win on Saturday night. We had a good car in the heat race and then a really good car in the qualifier, but we might have tweaked it a little too much for the final.”
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