January (By Tyson Graves)
It is the most coveted win in all of open wheel racing, the Chili Bowl Championship Saturday night win. Kyle Larson, one the biggest names in all of racing had came close to many times in the past but never had the cards fall right to win the big Golden Driller trophy. The weekend started with nearly 350 entries that invaded the Expo Center in Tulsa, OK.
The past two Chili Bowls had been heartbreak for Kyle. Back in 2018 Kyle started on the pole in the Saturday night 55 lap main event. He led early on and was looking to be cruising to his first Chili Bowl title until the motor let go ending his night in heartbreaking fashion. Kyle came back in 2019 with high hopes but lost in a closing laps battle with multi time winner Christopher Bell. So close once again but the big win still eluded the open wheel ace.
Kyle came back in 2020 for his 13th appearance during the 34th Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. This time Larson came in his own equipment, Larson’s previous close runs came behind the wheel of a Keith Kunz entry. Kyle won his prelim night feature event to put him in the pole shuffle on Saturday afternoon to determine his starting spot in the 55 lap A-main. Kyle started third and for the first 38 laps ran behind Christopher Bell. Larson was able to get around Bell and hold him off on the last restarts to capture the win.
Kyle said in victory lane that it was for sure the biggest win of his career. With his wife and son in victory lane it was a very emotional moment for the Larson family. This was just the start of 2020 and Kyle Larson’s name came up a lot in the dirt racing news this year. The picture captured here by our contributor Brendon Bauman must be one of, if not the best photo of 2020. Kyle finally picking up his first Chili Bowl win was the first big moment in racing during 2020.
Photo – Brendon Bauman