For the seventh time in nine years, Spencer Bayston is going to race for a Golden Driller, but this time has a drastically different look.
Running into a crash and flipping out during practice on Sunday aside, Bayston is locked in and RMS Racing has brought him one of the best cars in the building and they looked like a legitimate threat on Thursday on route to winning their preliminary feature.
Bayston locked in ahead of 2022 winner Tanner Thorson as they ran 1-2 for much of the second half.
This is technically his first win in the building as he doesn’t really count his Race of Champions triumph from last year. And he did it by scoring the most passing points and leading every lap from the pole.
“Going off the front row was a huge help tonight,” said Bayston in victory lane. “I’m not always a fan of starting up front because you can’t see what’s happening behind you … but tonight, it worked out in my favor.
“This feels really, really good. The Race of Champions win was special last year, but it’s not a preliminary night. To put together three good performances isn’t easy. We’ll kick back and relax tomorrow and get ready for race day. … When it comes to the A-main on Saturday, everyone in the field is very competitive, so just getting the boost to start near the front of the pack is really crucial.”
Again, this was a week that could have been derailed before it even truly began as the damage from the flip proved to be mostly cosmetic.
“When I first landed, I was obviously worried that our Sage Fruit car was going to be folded up like a piece of paper,” Bayston said. “But really, it turned out to be just a couple nicks that they were able to buff out with the help of everyone at RMS.
“She was as good as she needed to be tonight, that’s for sure.”
Thorson advances into the main event for the 10th year in a row but he wasn’t pleased with a night in which he went fourth to second.
“I’m pissed off again running second,” Thorson said. “It’s part of it. We learned a lot tonight. We’ll go back and watch some video, talk to my guys, see what they saw. Regroup and try again. I was pissed off the year I won with running second in my prelim night and I’m kind of pissed off now.
“It’s good to be this way because I know how much better we could be.”
The most mainstream story of the night was the exploits of Kyle Larson in his impromptu return to the Tulsa Expo Center. It went poorly immediately, followed by a degree of intrigue, and then ended just as poorly.
He ran into an incident and flipped during his heat race, which forced him to miss a qualifier and start the night from the pole of C2. He won C2 and finished second in B2 to reach the feature. He had made it to just outside of the top-10 when he flipped down the frontstretch again.
“Everything about tonight was self-inflicted,” Larson said. “I could have done a lot different, I’m sure. The heat was a mess for me. I wasn’t quite comfortable yet, and you saw it, I entered too straight and not running hard enough. I hot myself in bad spots and ultimately fell way back and was just trying to get aggressive. I made contact with that guy on exit of 2 and we both went flipping.
“I had to grind from there. Thought I was going to have an okay night. I needed some cautions in the feature. The start, got through 1 and 2 and passed a few cars and was going to pass a few more in 3 and 4, and (Gavan) Boschele biked and I hit his right rear. Hit the wall and lost all the spots I just gained.
“I got stuck behind him the rest of the race and I was done from there. Finally got clear of him and went to run harder, slapped the cushion off 4, hung my right front in the wall and tumbled a little bit.”
And just like that, his Chili Bowl effort is finished, because he only planned to come back if he advanced into the feature from his prelim. He is racing Dirt Late Models this week in New Mexico and would have only had time to fly back if he made the feature.
Meanwhile, that caution for the Larson flip was the only thing that could have derailed Bayston’s perfect night.
“That track was really, really technical there at the end. The bottom was starting to burn up and I could feel myself slowing down,” Bayston explained. “I could see people running up [against the cushion], but on the screen, I couldn’t really find anyone [specific] that was really running the top and I wasn’t sure who was behind me.
“I didn’t really need to see the caution; I didn’t know how close anyone was, but I never saw or felt any pressure and we were just able to get back into a rhythm for the last few laps.”
A-Feature (30 laps):
1. 1s-Spencer Bayston [1], 2. 88-Tanner Thorson [4], 3. 31b-Chase Johnson [2], 4. 55v-C.J. Leary [7], 5. 21h-Brady Bacon [5], 6. 29-Tim Buckwalter [12], 7. 19r-Ricky Thornton Jr. [3], 8. 5cb-Karter Sarff [9], 9. 87w-Ryan Bernal [8], 10. 3j-Parker Jones [11], 11. 02-Ashton Torgerson [13], 12. 54-Matt Westfall [21], 13. 2d-Matt Sherrell [19], 14. 9u-Kyle Spence [17], 15. 5g-Gavan Boschele [15], 16. 14t-Caden Sarale [6], 17. 14f-Jeffrey Newell [14], 18. 10j-Lane Goodman [23], 19. 19m-Ethan Mitchell [10], 20. 7c-Landon Crawley [24], 21. 15d-Andrew Deal [16], 22. 73c-Eddie Tafoya Jr. [18], 23. 46-Kenney Johnson [22], 24. 98k-Kyle Larson [20].
Lap Leader(s): Spencer Bayston 1-30.
Hard Charger: 54-Matt Westfall (+9)
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.