Opening the 38th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy with a bang, California’s Tanner Carrick held off the many challenges of Shane Golobic to win Monday’s Cummins Qualifying Night.
The second time Carrick has topped the Monday opener, the win by the No. 98 is the 35th atop Expo Raceway clay for car owner Keith Kunz. Carrick started his trek to the front from the fourth position, while Cannon McIntosh bolted to the point at the start.
“It was me just finding the racetrack and getting up where I needed to be,” Carrick said. “The car was there the whole time. I just made a couple of mistakes the first three or four laps, and I fell back to like fifth and were almost racing for sixth at one point, but once I got to the top and the track cleared up, I just got some momentum going.”
Into second on Lap 5, Carrick began closing the gap on the lead before a caution on Lap 10. Using the restart to challenge, caution lights shown again on Lap 12. Shooting to third prior to the caution, Shane Golobic served a penalty for advancing before the cone on the previous restart, moving him back to fifth.
On a mission, as green lights flashed on, Shane went to work as Tanner stalked Cannon’s every move. Building momentum into the 14th lap, Carrick pulled the trigger on the slide job to take over the top spot.
A near non-stop battle for the final transfer, Shane Golobic rebounded to the runner-up spot with a slide on McIntosh on Lap 20. In pursuit of the lead, a restart on Lap 24 saw a shot from Shane, but could not make the slide stick. Regrouping, one last try at the white flag would fall short as Tanner Carrick claimed victory by 0.505-seconds.
Shane Golobic, in second, will start his 11th championship A-Feature on Saturday.
“I don’t want to be sour but I’m tired of running second in this building,” Golobic said. “I put together a bad four laps to end this race. Obviously, I think I had the absolute best car and I wasn’t able to put it on the top step of the podium.
“I feel bad for my Matt Wood Racing guys. Tired of second. Being locked in is good but second sucks.”
Heavy in the mix for the final transfer spot, New Zealand’s Michael Pickens ended up third, with Chase Briscoe rolling 12th to fourth.
Chris Windom clawed his way to fifth from 15th.
Cannon McIntosh would get shuffled to sixth, followed by Trey Marcham. Hard Charging from 20th, Joe B. Miller made it to eighth after going 11th to second in the second Enjoy Illinois 300 NASCAR Cup Series Race at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday, June 2 B-Feature. Nick Hoffman crossed ninth, with Gary Taylor in tenth.
A field of 68 out of 72 entrants took part in Monday’s Cummins Qualifying Night. Another 74 are on the docket for Tuesday’s Warren CAT Qualifying Night. The SageNet Center will open at 9:00 A.M. with cars on track at 4:00 P.M. (CT).
A-Feature: Top 2 advance to Saturday’s A-Feature.
Cummins A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 98-Tanner Carrick[4]; 2. 17W-Shane Golobic[6]; 3. 59-Michael Pickens[5]; 4. 5-Chase Briscoe[12]; 5. 89-Chris Windom[15]; 6. 71P-Cannon McIntosh[1]; 7. 32T-Trey Marcham[8]; 8. 51B-Joe B Miller[20]; 9. 2H-Nick Hoffman[9]; 10. 32W-Gary Taylor[7]; 11. 93-Kyle Bellm[10]; 12. 19B-Cole Bodine[23]; 13. 7P-Kris Carroll[21]; 14. 41X-Howard Moore[13]; 15. 8-Alex Sewell[22]; 16. 27-Keith Rauch[18]; 17. 25-Jacob Denney[2]; 18. 55T-Trevor Cline[16]; 19. 75-Mario Clouser[17]; 20. 9-Emilio Hoover[3]; 21. 25K-Taylor Reimer[14]; 22. 20G-Noah Gass[24]; 23. (DNF) 2W-AJ Hopkins[11]; 24. (DNF) 6A-Ricky Lewis[19]
Lap Leader(s): Cannon McIntosh 1-13; Tanner Carrick 14-30
Hard Charger: Joe B. Miller +12