Double time: Logan Seavey goes back-to-back in Chili Bowl victory lane
TULSA, Okla. -- Streaks happen in the Sage Net Expo Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, almost more often than not in the last two decades of Chili Bowl. It’s come to the point that some fans and pundits almost don’t count a first Chili Bowl National win until you match it with another,
Saturday night, Logan Seavey did just that. Seavey went back-to-back and put the Swindell Speedlab Victory Fuel midget in victory lane, helping Kevin Swindell achieve his sixth Chili Bowl victory, four as a driver and two as a team owner and crew chief.
“This is the coolest race that I get to participate in and one of the coolest races in the world, Seavey said, “To win it once is a dream come true. But it seems to happen a lot in this building people get on runs, they find something, they get confident and they win some races here.”
Logan Seavey celebrates with his fans after winning the Chili Bowl Saturday night in Tulsa. Photo courtesy Victoria Beaver.
Seavey had a perfect week, winning the Race of Champions on Monday night, his Friday night Preliminary feature with a last lap pass, and officially leading every lap of Saturday’s A-Main feature.
After a week of extremely raceable and technical tracks where racers and fans rejoiced as there was ample space and multiple race lines to pass on, Saturday’s 55-lap feature took rubber about 10 laps in.
“I hate that both of them came in the rubber,” Seavey said in the podium press conference, “I would really like to win races, racing for them. Racing the race track and not just getting down and running around the berm. In a few years, people will forget about it and they will see my name on the banner and I’ll still have two (Golden) Drillers in the trophy case for a long time.”
Micheal “Buddy” Kofoid, who will be Toyota’s go-to driver on the World of Outlaws tour in 2024, saw his biggest chance of a Driller dissipate on a caution four laps in. Kofoid, who thought that he was around the reigning champion for a lap-plus, was placed back in second place and called to the side of the track for a transponder issue.
Buddy Kofoid finished second in Saturday's final race of the Chili Bowl in Tulsa. Photo courtesy Victoria Beaver.
“I passed him and in my mind, completed a lap then came around a second time and the yellow came out right before the second time.” Kofoid reflected on his memory of the feature. “Then they said that my transponder wasn’t working and I was going back to second and what I thought was almost two laps before.”
In years past, hand scoring was used at the Chili Bowl and an audible might’ve put Kofoid ahead of Seavey, placing him in the right place as the dirt turned to rubber. Kofoid never had the chance to make a second attempt as Seavey skillfully protected his lead on the now one-lane race track.
“I was just trying to stay with him in the rubber and something could still happen, but racing with Logan, that mistake is probably not going to happen,” Kofoid said.
Corey Day held onto a third-place finish while starting to go down with the infamous Chili Bowl Flu.
Daison Purlsey consumed the most “Soup” as he successfully transferred from the D Main to the C Main, to the B Main, and finished fourth in the feature. The dirt Silver Crown Champion was three spots away from doing what no driver has ever done, winning from a transfer spot after transferring through multiple feeders.
Local hero Hank Davis rounded out the top five as fans have finally stopped asking “Who in the world is Hank Davis?" Through his last three Chili Bowl runs, Davis has answered that question: he's a bonafide threat. The Oklahoma native is going to make it hard for drivers to come into his territory and leave with a Driller. Davis moved from ninth to fourth in the pole shuffle after finishing second in his preliminary night.
Sixth and seventh went to Shane Golboic and Tanner Carrick. Spencer Bayston rebounded from a flip in the pole shuffle to finish eighth. His front end had to be straightened and rewelded by Flea Ruzic and car chief Lacey Doyle in the two hours between the Shuffle and the feature. This was Bayston’s second-best Chili Bowl performance.
Micheal Faccinto and Jake Swanson rounded out the top ten.
The racers will now go their separate ways as many embark on the national Midget, Sprints, Late Model, Stock Car, and Trans-Am series but they all will be thinking about what they can do to improve upon their finish and performance for next year’s 39th running of the Chili Bowl Nationals.