By T.J. Buffenbarger
Tulsa, OK – (January 13, 2016) – Rico Abreu started his defense of his Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire title by winning Wednesday night’s River Spirit Casino Qualifying Night feature in dominating fashion. Abreu took the lead from Tyler Thomas during a restart just before halfway and never looked back driving the Keith Kunz Motorsports Safelite Auto Glass sponsored entry.
“I made a few mistakes at the end and kept seeing (Thomas),” said Abreu. “The bottom was good on entry and the top got so slow and had to beat him to the bottom there. Hats off to Keith, Pete, Toyota, and Safelite Auto Glass.”
Thomas and Austin Brown started on the front row for the 25-lap preliminary feature. Thomas led the opening lap while Abreu worked around Thomas Meseraull for third. One lap later Abreu moved past Brown for second with Meseruall in tow for third. Abreu quickly close don Thomas to challenge for the lead on lap four.
Thomas and Abreu continued to run now to tail while Meseraull closed in. That lead trio pulled away from the rest of the field with 10 laps complete. Abreu tired to get a run on Thomas on the low side of turn one, but caught the berm and nearly turned over. Just as the leaders caught the tail end of the field the caution appeared for Jason McDougal’s spin in turn two.
During the restart Abreu went for the slide job going into turn one on Thomas and took the lead coming off turn two. Abreu promptly checked out from the rest of the field while Thomas and Meseraull raced for second.
Abreu began to catch slower traffic when Kyle Clark turned over right in front of him to bring out the caution flag. During that caution Sammy Swindell, who had to run through the C and B Mains to make the feature had to go to the work area for a flat left rear tire. Swindell restarted at the tail of the field.
Abreu motored away from the field after the restart and Thomas the race for the final transfer spot into Saturday’s A-Main heated up between Meseraull, Parker Price-Miller, and Colby Copeland. Price-Miller was able to use the bottom of the track to take away third on lap 21
With three laps to go Jason McDougal brought out the caution when he turned over in turn one. Payton Pierce, Larry Wright, and Sammy Swindell were also involved. Swindell and McDougal were able to restart.
Abreu pulled away after the restart for another lap before another caution for Tyler Courtney turning over in turn two along with McDougal ending up stopped in turn two. Both drivers were unable to make the restart.
This setup a green/white/checkered finish and Abreu under pressure from Thomas until moving to the bottom of turns one and two. On the final lap Copeland, who was running in fourth, jumped the cushion coming off turn four and collected Swindell. Copeland went pit side while Swindell restarted.
Abreu was able to get some distance on Thomas during the final restart and pulled away for the victory over Thomas while Meseraull went to the top of turns three and four and motored around Price-Miller for the final transfer spot into Saturday’s A-Main.
Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire
River Spirit Casino Qualifying Night
Tulsa Expo Raceway
Tulsa, OK
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Budweiser Heat Races: Top 40 in passing points advance to Qualifiers.
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 69-A.J. Fike[2]; 2. 91-Jeff Stasa[3]; 3. 21M-Michele Melton [4]; 4. 5S-Chase Stockon [8]; 5. 32-Casey Shuman [5]; 6. 1-Sammy Swindell [6]; 7. 27K-Billy Lawhead [1]; 8. 43-Logan Arnold [7]; 9. 5R-John Ricketts [9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 55D-Nick Drake [1]; 2. 92-Brenden Bright [6]; 3. 66-Shane Cockrum [2]; 4. 9P-Parker Price-Miller [8]; 5. 11XS-Donovan Peterson [4]; 6. 29-Garrett Saunders [7]; 7. 27B-A.J. Bruns [3]; 8. (DNF) 11R-Ariel Biggs [5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Rico Abreu [1]; 2. 91T-Tyler Thomas [8]; 3. 8-Alex Sewell [7]; 4. 44-Don Droud Jr [4]; 5. 14H-Harley Hollan [3]; 6. 50-Daniel Adler [2]; 7. 7F-Josh Tyre [6]; 8. (DNF) 25J-Alex Schriever [5]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 39C-Payton Pierce [5]; 2. 73-Jason McDougal [4]; 3. 37X-Anton Hernandez [8]; 4. 1ST-J.J. Yeley [2]; 5. 5H-Tyson Hall [7]; 6. 2W-Wyatt Burks [6]; 7. (DNF) 56-Billy Wease [1]; 8. (DNF) 17W-Justin Henderson [3]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 57D-Daniel Robinson [3]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley [4]; 3. 11F-Darin Snyder [2]; 4. 11-Tyler Courtney [7]; 5. 56Y-Jeremy McCune [6]; 6. 35W-Nate Wait [8]; 7. 77J-John Klabunde [5]; 8. 83-Kurt Blackaby [1]
Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 99W-Larry Wight [8]; 2. 8K-Blake Hahn [2]; 3. 7CH-Chris (Critter) Malone [5]; 4. 75-Johnny Herrera [7]; 5. 13-Derek Hagar [3]; 6. 27R-Kyle O’Gara [6]; 7. (DNF) 12-Chris Sheil [1]; 8. (DNF) 7S-Pat Schudy [4]
Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 17D-Alex DeCamp [5]; 2. 91N-Austin Nemire [3]; 3. 21S-Johnny Brown [1]; 4. 21A-Taylor Courtney [8]; 5. 8M-Kade Morton [4]; 6. 69J-Jeromy Hefler [2]; 7. 14B-Riley Adair [7]; 8. 118-Scott Evans [6]
Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 9$-Kyle Clark [2]; 2. 6K-Josh Lakatos [3]; 3. 7J-Shawn Jackson [1]; 4. 41P-Austin Prock [6]; 5. 35B-T.J. Smith [7]; 6. 21H-Harlan Hulsey [5]; 7. 51R-Matt Rossi [4]; 8. 4D-Shane Sellers [8]
Heat 9 (8 Laps): 1. 7B-Austin Brown [3]; 2. 05T-Gary Taylor [4]; 3. 1T-Tony Roney [5]; 4. 11B-Travis Berryhill [8]; 5. 22R-Eric Heydenreich [6]; 6. 3BX-Aaron Pierce [2]; 7. (DNF) 4F-Chad Frewaldt [7]; 8. (DNF) 11H-Chase Hill [1]
Heat 10 (8 Laps): 1. 2X-Thomas Meseraull [2]; 2. 68W-Jake Swanson [4]; 3. 25-Steve Buckwalter [8]; 4. 51X-Colby Copeland [5]; 5. 23A-Hannah Adair [1]; 6. 7-Shannon McQueen [6]; 7. 70K-Kevin Olson [3]; 8. 16C-David Camfield Jr [7]
D-Features: Top 2 advance to corresponding C-Feature.
D Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 11H-Chase Hill [8]; 2. 27K-Billy Lawhead [4]; 3. 70K-Kevin Olson [2]; 4. 51R-Matt Rossi [1]; 5. 17W-Justin Henderson [7]; 6. 12-Chris Sheil [5]; 7. 7S-Pat Schudy [6]; 8. 43-Logan Arnold [3]; 9. (DNF) 25J-Alex Schriever [9]
D Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 56-Billy Wease [4]; 2. 16C-David Camfield Jr [3]; 3. 118-Scott Evans [5]; 4. 5R-John Ricketts [6]; 5. 4D-Shane Sellers [2]; 6. 27B-A.J. Bruns [1]; DNS 83-Kurt Blackaby; DNS 11R-Ariel Biggs
C-Features: Top 4 advance to corresponding B-Feature.
C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 44-Don Droud Jr [1]; 2. 2W-Wyatt Burks [7]; 3. 14H-Harley Hollan [5]; 4. 23A-Hannah Adair [6]; 5. 27K-Billy Lawhead [14]; 6. 22R-Eric Heydenreich [2]; 7. 11H-Chase Hill [13]; 8. 7-Shannon McQueen [8]; 9. (DNF) 14B-Riley Adair [11]; 10. (DNF) 11XS-Donovan Peterson [4]; 11. (DNF) 21H-Harlan Hulsey [9]; 12. (DNF) 69J-Jeromy Hefler [10]; 13. (DNF) 7F-Josh Tyre [12]; 14. (DNF) 35W-Nate Wait [3]
C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 1ST-J.J. Yeley [2]; 2. 1-Sammy Swindell [6]; 3. 13-Derek Hagar [5]; 4. 50-Daniel Adler [9]; 5. 56-Billy Wease [13]; 6. 27R-Kyle O’Gara [7]; 7. 8M-Kade Morton [4]; 8. 32-Casey Shuman [3]; 9. 16C-David Camfield Jr [14]; 10. 77J-John Klabunde [12]; 11. 3BX-Aaron Pierce [10]; 12. (DNF) 4F-Chad Frewaldt [11]; 13. (DNF) 56Y-Jeremy McCune [1]; 14. (DNF) 29-Garrett Saunders [8]
Qualifiers: Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the A-Feature.
Q1 (10 Laps): 1. 7B-Austin Brown [4]; 2. 73-Jason McDougal [3]; 3. 8-Alex Sewell [7]; 4. 11-Tyler Courtney [8]; 5. 11B-Travis Berryhill [1]; 6. 92-Brenden Bright [5]; 7. 99W-Larry Wight [6]; 8. 41P-Austin Prock [9]; 9. 55D-Nick Drake [2]; 10. 21S-Johnny Brown [10]
Q2 (10 Laps): 1. 97-Rico Abreu [2]; 2. 69-A.J. Fike [4]; 3. 39C-Payton Pierce [6]; 4. 91-Jeff Stasa [1]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley [3]; 6. 75-Johnny Herrera [8]; 7. 37X-Anton Hernandez [5]; 8. 66-Shane Cockrum [9]; 9. 7CH-Chris (Critter) Malone [7]; 10. 7J-Shawn Jackson [10]
Q3 (10 Laps): 1. 5S-Chase Stockon [2]; 2. 05T-Gary Taylor [3]; 3. 8K-Blake Hahn [8]; 4. 25-Steve Buckwalter [5]; 5. 17D-Alex DeCamp [6]; 6. 91N-Austin Nemire [1]; 7. 5H-Tyson Hall [10]; 8. 1T-Tony Roney [7]; 9. 11F-Darin Snyder [9]; 10. (DNF) 9$-Kyle Clark [4]
Q4 (10 Laps): 1. 2X-Thomas Meseraull [4]; 2. 91T-Tyler Thomas [6]; 3. 68W-Jake Swanson [3]; 4. 51X-Colby Copeland [9]; 5. 57D-Daniel Robinson [5]; 6. 9P-Parker Price-Miller [7]; 7. 6K-Josh Lakatos [1]; 8. 21M-Michele Melton [8]; 9. 21A-Taylor Courtney [2]; 10. (DNF) 35B-T.J. Smith [10]
B-Features: Top 4 advance to the A-Feature.
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 51X-Colby Copeland [1]; 2. 9P-Parker Price-Miller [5]; 3. 92-Brenden Bright [2]; 4. 9$-Kyle Clark [10]; 5. 1T-Tony Roney [7]; 6. 37X-Anton Hernandez [4]; 7. 5H-Tyson Hall [6]; 8. 44-Don Droud Jr [13]; 9. 3S-Brian Shirley [3]; 10. 21M-Michele Melton [8]; 11. 14H-Harley Hollan [15]; 12. 11F-Darin Snyder [11]; 13. 7CH-Chris (Critter) Malone [9]; 14. 7J-Shawn Jackson [12]; 15. (DNF) 2W-Wyatt Burks [14]; 16. (DNF) 23A-Hannah Adair [16]
B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 6K-Josh Lakatos [6]; 2. 57D-Daniel Robinson [1]; 3. 1-Sammy Swindell [14]; 4. 50-Daniel Adler [16]; 5. 75-Johnny Herrera [3]; 6. 91N-Austin Nemire [5]; 7. 66-Shane Cockrum [8]; 8. 21S-Johnny Brown [11]; 9. 21A-Taylor Courtney [10]; 10. 55D-Nick Drake [9]; 11. (DNF) 11B-Travis Berryhill [4]; 12. (DNF) 41P-Austin Prock [7]; 13. (DNF) 91-Jeff Stasa [2]; 14. (DNF) 13-Derek Hagar [15]; 15. (DNF) 1ST-J.J. Yeley [13]; 16. (DNF) 35B-T.J. Smith [12]
A-Feature: Top 3 advance to Saturday’s A-Feature.
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 97-Rico Abreu[6]; 2. 91T-Tyler Thomas[1]; 3. 2X-Thomas Meseraull[4]; 4. 9P-Parker Price-Miller[19]; 5. 7B-Austin Brown[2]; 6. 5S-Chase Stockon[7]; 7. 8K-Blake Hahn[8]; 8. 68W-Jake Swanson[16]; 9. 92-Brenden Bright[21]; 10. 8-Alex Sewell[9]; 11. 50-Daniel Adler[24]; 12. 25-Steve Buckwalter[13]; 13. 17D-Alex DeCamp[12]; 14. 6K-Josh Lakatos[18]; 15. 57D-Daniel Robinson[20]; 16. 05T-Gary Taylor[11]; 17. 69-A.J. Fike[5]; 18. 1-Sammy Swindell[22]; 19. (DNF) 51X-Colby Copeland[17]; 20. (DNF) 11-Tyler Courtney[14]; 21. (DNF) 73-Jason McDougal[10]; 22. (DNF) 39C-Payton Pierce[3]; 23. (DNF) 99W-Larry Wight[15]; 24. (DNF) 9$-Kyle Clark[23]
Lap Leaders: Tyler Thomas 1-12; Rico Abreu 13-25
Hard Charger: Parker Price-Miller +15