By T.J. Buffenbarger
After a thrown down, slide job, exciting 77th edition of the Turkey Night Grand Prix here are three quick takes from the night’s action:
- Christohper Bell’s second Turkey Night Grand Prix victory caps off season where he won the Chili Bowl Nationals and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship to go with his Turkey Night victory. Throw in a handful of other sprint car victories and coming very close to winning the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway and Bell used Turkey night to cap off a career season. With Bell moving to the NASCAR Xfintity series for 2018 it could be more difficult for Bell to squeeze as much open wheel moonlighting, so it was great to see him perform that well while he had the availability to do so.
- Bell and Kyle Larson left nothing on the table following Thursday’s Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura Raceway. Bell and Larson threw countless slide jobs on each end of the race track going back and forth the later part of the 98-lap main that was a real pleasure to watch.
With Larson trying to get a final lunge at Bell, and Bell bobbling on the cushion just a bit on the final lap, Shane Golobic looked as he could possibly sneak by on the bottom for the victory. Golobic has been impressive all summer and I really look forward to what he might have in store for 2018.
- While Turkey Night has bounced around a bit since leaving Irwindale Speedway hopefully Ventura Raceway becomes the home of the event for years to come. The past two years have shown that race teams seem more willing to take on Ventura than some of the larger venues and the sprint car teams also come out in force to setup a great open wheel double header.