There is now a legitimate challenger for the title of Mr Friday evening at the Tulsa Expo.
There were equal parts competitive race And chaos along the way, but the final preliminary portion of the 40th annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals ended with the two most prolific racers in recent history Friday advancing to the championship Saturday.
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Logan Seavey
Justin Grant
Seavey has now won four consecutive preliminary events dating back to 2023, when his streak of success began in the modern Swindell Speedlab car that produced Golden Drillers in ’23 and ’24. Is this getting old?
“It doesn’t get old, no,” Seavey said. “I love this race. I love everything about it. I love the vibe of Friday night. I think that’s what makes the race so special, so much more special on Friday. Like, man, this place is… I don’t know. Right now, the race has been over for about an hour and the building is still banging.”
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Before that, Grant won Friday Night in 2017, 2018, 2019, ’21, and ’22. So, has Seavey now snatched the Mr. Friday Night title from Grant?
“No, no, it’s still Justin,” Seavey said, and the mutual respect between them at the post-race press conference was palpable.
“A ton of respect for Logan; he’s a heck of a race car driver and we’ve had some incredible battles, not just here, but on the road in all three (USAC) divisions,” Grant said. “You know, when you show up, Logan is a guy you have to beat because he always puts his car in the right place.
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“You can never rule him out. You can knock him down and pass by him, but he’s going to go to work and find a way to come after you. There are some guys, you’ve put them aside, and you don’t think about it. Logan, you’ve put him aside and you still have to worry about him.
“He’s hard to piss off. It’s irritating. I feel like that’s one of my best traits. I’ll plug it into his front bumper to piss him off and then go back to work but it’s hard to piss him off. You plug it into his bumper and he takes a deep breath and goes back to work.”
Grant says he knows he can go against Seavey hard, and vice versa, and that lines are never crossed.
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And make no mistake, there were plenty of hair-raising takes place during the Friday night feature, with Grant and Seavey trading leads in perilous traffic and the byproduct creating vicious crashes.
For example, Gavin Miller went into a violent crash under Grant for second place and picked up Steven Snyder Jr. in the process. Miller is expected to be transported to a nearby medical facility for further evaluation after the race. The crash below eliminated Snyder from contention as Chase McDermand was unable to reassemble the car afterward but was otherwise healthy.
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Before that, it was preliminary racing at its best at the Tulsa Expo Center. Seavey, Grant, Miller, Snyder and Daryn Pittman are all fighting for the pair of lock-ins.
“It’s funny because it doesn’t look as chaotic in the car as it does from the pits or on video,” Grant said. “You know, things get a little slow, don’t they? When it’s this tense and there’s so much going on, things actually slow down when you’re so cooped up.
“It just doesn’t seem that chaotic when you’re in it. You know what’s going to happen before anyone in the seats realizes it because you know when you’re making a mistake.
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“So it’s not so much about reacting when you see it, because you’re prepared to react as it comes up. You have to realize, ‘Okay, I’m in this scrum, and you have one eye over your left shoulder and ‘I got caught here’ and ‘there’s going to be someone coming,’ so you start to change your angle in response to that. It’s about immediately staying halfway through what’s going to happen then.”
Seavey says the joy of running like that only comes afterward.
“I think that’s a close second,” Seavey said. “It’s like when you’re in the moment and you’re running hard, everything is so intense. Every once in a while you take a good turn or make a cool move and you can come out on the other end and say ‘that was cool,’ when you split someone into thirds or hit the right tread, but then you have to get back to work.
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“And that’s it, because at the end of the day we’re working and it’s hard to appreciate it until it’s over and you get the three of us together on the podium for a press conference and we can talk about it and joke about it.”
Reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Jesse Love is also expected to be evaluated post-race due to a crash after crossing the finish line in a sixth-place finish.
Now all that’s left is for Seavey and Grant to join the other preliminary lock-ins to battle it out for pole, then wait to see who joins them in the main event.
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Kyle Larson
Emerson Axsom
Logan Seavey
Blake Hahn
Christopher Bell
Daison Pursley
Hank Davis
Briggs Danner
Justin Grant
CJ Leary
Speedlab’s excellent week
With the exception of a motor illness for Kyle Cummins, who still finished fifth Thursday night, it was a great week for the newly expanded Swindell Speedlab, owned by four-time Golden Driller winner Kevin Swindell.
Tuesday: Third place with 14-year-old rookie Jett Barnes
Wednesday: Emerson Axsom wins
Thursday: Cummins fights for victory and finishes fifth
Friday: Seavey surpasses Grant
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“I love it, obviously, but I also feel a little frustrated after what happened to Kyle last night and the engine not running,” Swindell said. “I feel like we had a chance to block another car. The Jett thing is cool as hell because we could have won this race with him.
“So it’s funny because I feel like our cars have been really good, but Jett’s car is arguably the best, and I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. If he can get through B, he could start pretty close, and with the mix and having two cars in the top five, maybe knock Kyle out of pole, maybe we can have two 39s in front tomorrow.”
Swindell has won four as a driver and now two with Seavey as team owner-chief. Is it four times more exciting for him?
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“It’s nice and different,” Swindell said. “It’s like trying to find a favorite child in a way. I’ve never had two cars in a race until Monday’s Race of Champions and this was different.
“Having two cars on board and having two that are close is really cool. So I’m just going to let them do it. There’s a version of tomorrow where Logan and Emerson work together in a way, against Kyle, and I don’t expect them to do that but I would love to have two of them on the podium. That would be really special.”
Feature results
Logan Seavey Justin Grant Daryn Pittman Wout Hoffmans Giovanni Scelzi Jesse Love Ace McCarthy Hayden Reinbold Ronnie Gardner Hayden Wise Austin Wood Matt Westfall Mario Clouser Broedy Graham Mason Hannagan Jack Berger Joe Wirth Chris Andrews Jett Nunley Frankie Guerrini Ryan Padgett Gavin Miller Steven Snyder Jr. Michael Faccinto
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