Buddy Kofoid led wire-to-wire to win the Tuesday night preliminary feature at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.
As a result, Kofoid automatically advances into the Championship Saturday main event alongside Tuesday runner-up Hank Davis, the winner of this prelim night a year ago. It was redemption for Kofoid, who crashed out of this feature last year five laps into the race when two cars at the tail of the field tangled ahead of him.
Kofoid was not able to soup his way to the feature that night. Now, he automatically advances to his fourth career Saturday feature in five attempts.
He almost had a moment again this year when CJ Sarna bicycled in front of him.
“It was super close,” Kofoid said. “He biked, and when it set him down, he got sideways and I thought ‘oh, shit’ but I was able to drive around him.”
Even though he kept driving away, he still says it wasn’t easy.
“The track was treacherous for not having a huge cushion like yesterday. It had a wave into (Turn) 1 that got you upset if you didn’t pace yourself through it. Same into (Turn) 3.”
It was the easier way to move on from last year.
“Glad to be standing here after last year,” Kofoid said. “I wanted to forget that one. I feel like we capitalized every time we got on the track.”
Davis also advances for a second year in a row.
“He was just so good in open traffic,” Davis said. “He knows how to operate in open traffic. It didn’t work out and that’s all that matters.”
Also for the second year in a row, McDermand finished third and is just outside of an automatic transfer.
“Our night couldn’t have gone much better before the feature,” McDermand said. “Started third in the heat and we had to win and we did. I thought we were good in the qualifier. We just lacked a little bit in the first 16-18 laps. We kept pace. As the track transformed, my car got more evil on the cushion and I tried to maintain third and had to hang on for dear life.
“Just like last year, third place in a prelim and that’s nothing to hang our head over.”
Buddy Kofoid led wire-to-wire to win the Tuesday night preliminary feature at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.
As a result, Kofoid automatically advances into the Championship Saturday main event alongside Tuesday runner-up Hank Davis, the winner of this prelim night a year ago. It was redemption for Kofoid, who crashed out of this feature last year five laps into the race when two cars at the tail of the field tangled ahead of him.
Kofoid was not able to soup his way to the feature that night. Now, he automatically advances to his fourth career Saturday feature in five attempts.
He almost had a moment again this year when CJ Sarna bicycled in front of him.
“It was super close,” Kofoid said. “He biked, and when it set him down, he got sideways and I thought ‘oh, shit’ but I was able to drive around him.”
Even though he kept driving away, he still says it wasn’t easy.
“The track was treacherous for not having a huge cushion like yesterday. It had a wave into (Turn) 1 that got you upset if you didn’t pace yourself through it. Same into (Turn) 3.”
It was the easier way to move on from last year.
“Glad to be standing here after last year,” Kofoid said. “I wanted to forget that one. I feel like we capitalized every time we got on the track.”
Davis also advances for a second year in a row.
“He was just so good in open traffic,” Davis said. “He knows how to operate in open traffic. It didn’t work out and that’s all that matters.”
Also for the second year in a row, McDermand finished third and is just outside of an automatic transfer.
“Our night couldn’t have gone much better before the feature,” McDermand said. “Started third in the heat and we had to win and we did. I thought we were good in the qualifier. We just lacked a little bit in the first 16-18 laps. We kept pace. As the track transformed, my car got more evil on the cushion and I tried to maintain third and had to hang on for dear life.
“Just like last year, third place in a prelim and that’s nothing to hang our head over.”
As for Kofoid, it also completes a really fulfilling day in which he also announced his first full-time campaign on the World of Outlaws.
“It’s super special,” Kofoid said. “I thought it would come out a month ago and then this past weekend and then they were like, ‘well, let’s do it on Tuesday’ and it turned into a really special day.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.