“I’ve got four words. Thank you Joe Gibbs.”
And with that, Christopher Bell is back in dirt racing, having outdueled Kyle Larson in a photo finish to close out the Non-Wing Outlaw Main Event of the Tulsa Shootout on Saturday night. The Shootout is the preliminary event to the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, also held in the Tulsa Expo, but featuring Outlaw Karts and Micro Sprints.
The finish above will rightfully get the headlines but it was the conclusion to an overall race of the year contender a week into the calendar to close out the arguable best week of racing in the history of this event.
There was a lengthy battle between pole sitter Blake Hahn and Christopher Bell, with the latter taking the lead on Lap 35. Steven Snyder drove from the rear of the field by Lap 45. Snyder cut a tire and got into the wall and Bell retook the lead before a caution when the former leader stalled. That then allowed Larson to close up to Bell and deliver the finish that had the Expo buzzing.
Bell hasn’t been allowed to race dirt cars for two years until Joe Gibbs Racing reversed that decision in November. Larson, for his part, hasn’t raced in Tulsa Shootout in 15 years, only coming back this year so he could race alongside his son Owen, who made his debut in a junior division earlier in the night, a race won by Brexton Busch, the son of Kyle Busch. Larson also won twice on Saturday.
Bell was absolutely giddy in Victory Lane.
“Oh my gosh, man I live for moments like that,” Bell said. “Man, driving these race cars, especially here at Tulsa, there is nothing else like it. And maybe maybe after today, Kyle will actually like Micros and want to come back.”
What was the key to holding Larson off?
“Yeah, I mean, I wasn’t running the most pretty line but all week long, I was just really struggling to get in the corner the way that I needed to,” Bell said. “Fortunately I was able to find something that was really comfortable for me. I feel bad for Steven. He was driving really, really well and had such a super-fast car there. But I don’t know. That was a hell of a race.”
Read More: Brexton Busch wins a driller | Larson gets one too
Larson beat Bell to win the Chili Bowl in 2021 because he ran the top on entry and flipped.
“So I felt like if I just kept running the slider line and there was a lot of a good of good dirt getting off on corners 2 and 4, so I felt like if I could keep sliding across and get off really hard, it was going to be hard for him to get me,” Bell said. “He made a hell of a corner down there on the bottom, that last corner to make it make it scary coming to the checkered.”
It adds to the enthusiasm that Bell won in his return, driving a car that he co-owns with his family-in-law, crewed by his family and best friends.
It was a storybook return.
Larson echoed the enthusiasm.
“I hate running second to Bell but when it’s a finish like that, I’ll take it,” Larson said. “I’m happy hes allowed to run dirt cars again because the sport needs it.”
What more did he need at the end?
“Snyder smoked by all of us and got to the lead so fast,” Larson said. “I was like, I wasn’t feeling like I was doing much different than him once I got to the top.
“But I was like, ‘man, he is, he’s going so fast.’ He’s gotta be doing something different. So I had started try to ride the wall and it started working out for me. I was catching those two before the caution came out and just got racing, got to second and thought I might have a shot at Bell, but he was doing a good job of closing off the slider and I just ran outta laps really.”
Maybe they’ll do it again in a week for the Chili Bowl.
