Kyle Larson’s return to the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Thursday night did not go as planned.
The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series hoped to punch his ticket to Saturday’s championship feature. Instead, he flipped twice in the No. 98 midget car fielded by Keith Kunz Motorsports, with his second flip — during Thursday’s preliminary feature — ending his hopes of qualifying for Saturday’s Chili Bowl finale.
Larson opened the night with a difficult performance in his heat race, where he started fifth. He first narrowly avoided a flipping car down the backstretch early in the race. Unfortunately, that was where Larson’s luck ended.
When the race resumed, Larson went to work trying to pass Chili Bowl rookie Christopher Townsend, but the two made contact in Turns 1-2, and they both flipped.
Larson was able to continue and finish the race fifth, but that result wasn’t good enough to secure Larson a spot in a qualifier.
Instead, Larson was relegated to the front row of a C Main, which he promptly won to advance to a B Main. He then drove from 13th to second in the B Main, which earned him the 20th starting position in the 30-lap preliminary feature.
“It’s hard. When you’re in traffic you can’t really like air it out, and your car doesn’t operate right,” Larson told FloRacing after his runner-up finish in the B Main. “We’ll do what we can and try to make the most of the night.”
Progress was slow for Larson during the 30-lap feature. He was only able to move up five positions by the halfway point to 15th, and he was 13th with 10 laps left.
With six laps left, Larson had moved up to 11th and was challenging for 10th when everything fell apart. Coming out of Turn 4 Larson clipped the outside wall with his right-rear tire, which sent his car into a spin and subsequent flip down the frontstretch.
The flip that ended @KyleLarsonRacin‘s run at the 2024 @cbnationals pic.twitter.com/5dUAD1wCSG
– NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) January 12, 2024
Larson was uninjured in his second incident of the evening, but that crash and subsequent last-place finish ended any hope he had of qualifying for the 55-lap championship feature Saturday night.
With his Chili Bowl adventure now over, Larson will return to Vado, New Mexico to continue competing in the Wild West Shootout dirt super late model event Friday through Sunday at Vado Speedway Park. In three starts so far during the Wild West Shootout, Larson has finished fifth, fourth and 24th.