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Tanner Thorson won the A-Main at the 2022 Chili Bowl Nationals to lift the prestigious Golden Driller Trophy. By doing so, he broke a 5-year-long winning streak of NASCAR drivers emerging victorious at the midget racing event. Christopher Bell was the Chili Bowl champion for three years running (2017-2019) before Kyle Larson made it two in a row in 2020 and 2021.
Tanner Thorson grabbed his first-ever Golden Driller and became the 22nd driver to win the Chili Bowl Nationals. He and Christopher Bell made a dramatic charge to the finish line in the last few laps, evading a series of collisions. Bell started from pole, leading the initial 36 laps of the race before Thorson made a pass through Turn 1 and Turn 2 on lap 37. Bell tried his best to regain the lead but fell short by 0.688 seconds.
Sharing his thoughts going into the day, Thorson said:
“I knew I had to step it up from Thursday night. Bell was obviously better than me, and I knew they were going to bring the same car if not better. It helped having Kasey [Kahne] there running another car that was set up nearly identical. It brought a lot to my attention and the car ended up feeling pretty good.”
Christopher Bell also shared his thoughts about the race, saying:
“I could tell I was really starting to slow down in my mid-corner speed in Turns 3-4. The thought came across my mind to start trying to pick up the middle off of Turn 4. And Tanner beat me to it.”
The two drivers had a funny exchange of words while talking to the press. When Thorson joked with his opponent, asking if Bell wanted to see his trophy, the latter responded by saying he knew what it looked like.
Last year's champion Kyle Larson finished 6th in the final race of the event, unable to make it a three-peat of Golden Drillers.
Chili Bowl proves challenging for NASCAR drivers
The Chili Bowls have been won by NASCAR drivers the last five times, with Christopher Bell winning thrice consecutively and Kyle Larson winning twice in a row. Tanner Thorson's win, however, brought about a stop to NASCAR drivers' domination on the dirt oval.
More than a dozen drivers with ties to NASCAR entered the prestigious event, but only three of them featured in the A-Main — Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. While Chase Elliott even flipped his car in an F-Main race, Larson struggled to find race-winning pace throughout the event.
Stating that he doesn't see these drivers through a NASCAR lens with regards to the Chili Bowl, winner Thorson later said:
“These guys, even though they’re NASCAR guys, they’re still dirt guys. When people say ‘NASCAR guys,’ I don’t think of them as NASCAR guys. Because I grew up racing with them. They’re dirt guys to me.”
Now that the 2022 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl has concluded, all NASCAR drivers will be completely focused on the season starting in February.
