McIntosh Leads Toyota At Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals

Cannon McIntosh earned a third-place finish to lead Toyota in Saturday night’s 37th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. It’s the third top-five finish for McIntosh in the last four years.

McIntosh began the race in the third starting position, but quickly moved up to second and then started to close on race leader Logan Seavey. After getting a run on the high side, he would overtake Seavey for the lead on lap 21 of the 55-lap event.

He would continue to pace the race before a caution waved on lap 31 to bunch the field. On the restart, Seavey would get the advantage and retake the lead. McIntosh would continue to run in the top three throughout the remainder of the race, trading second with Tanner Thorson and made a number of runs at Seavey for the lead, but the changing track conditions made it more difficult to pass as the night went on. Seavey would eventually take the checkered flag with Thorson placing second and McIntosh finishing third.

In addition to McIntosh’s podium finish, three more Toyota-powered drivers captured top-10 showings on the night with Mitchell Moles placing seventh, Trey Marcham was eighth and Justin Grant finished tenth.

In addition, rookie Jade Avedisian captured the inaugural “Fuzzy Hahn Trophy” as the top finishing female with an 18th-place finish in Saturday night’s A Main. Fellow Toyota driver Kaylee Bryson placed 22nd, marking the first time two women advanced to the A Main in the same event.

Overall, 13 Toyota-powered drivers from seven different teams qualified for the 24-car A Main feature on Saturday in an event that featured 365 entries.

Toyota Chili Bowl Notes:

– Cannon McIntosh matched his best A Main finish of third, which he ran in 2020. The 20-year-old Bixby, Oklahoma native, also registered a fourth-place finish in 2021.

– For the week, Toyota drivers Cannon McIntosh and Rico Abreu captured preliminary night features with Spencer Bayston winning the Race of Champions on Monday night. 

– Jade Avedisian registered the best-ever qualifying night performance by a woman in finishing third on Tuesday night. The 16-year-old Clovis, Calif., native captured the first ‘Fuzzy Hahn Trophy’ as the top finishing female driver with an 18th-place finish – matching the previous best-ever A Main finish by a female driver set by Kaylee Bryson in 2022.

Quotes:

Cannon McIntosh, Dave Mac Dalby Motorsports GearWrench Toyota: “It’s frustrating to finish third after leading 10 laps there. Logan made some great adjustments. When I got to traffic, I felt like I was in a good rhythm. Then I started to feel my tires start to fade. I should have dialed the shocks out quicker and pounded the top out earlier. Late in the race I was able to start to get back to them. I tried to maximize everything I could. I think I just made a couple of mistakes in the middle of the race. The track was a bit weird, and we really couldn’t find a consistent place to go. I’m not sure I ever would have had a chance to get by them, though. I was stronger in the long runs and would start to get to them. I ended up tying my best finish of third. It’s frustrating, but it’s cool to come in here with a new team this year that we’ve built up. It’s a little more rewarding to do it in something you’ve helped build.”

Jade Avedisian, CB Industries Toyota: “Overall, it was pretty good. At one point, I was running eighth or ninth and was running really well. Then under a caution I had my right rear go down and it took about five laps to build the pressure back up. At that point, I was already caught in the back. Honestly, I don’t know what happened there. I can’t thank everyone at CBI enough for working their tails off, as well as every at Toyota Racing and all of our great sponsors. This wouldn’t be possible without them. It’s grateful to receive a trophy honoring someone like Fuzzy Hahn and I’m excited to receive it. We’ll try again next year.”

TRD PR