In an incredible late-race battle with Brenham Crouch, Landon Brooks emerged victorious in Tuesday night’s Chili Bowl Nationals Prelim A-Main. The 21-year-old California native, who drives for Matt Wood Racing, knew he had a good No. 57W race car under him on Tuesday night, but felt he was perhaps a little too patient over the opening laps of the wild 30-lap feature.
“Yeah, you know my guys told me before the feature started just be patient. Make some solid laps on the bottom in the first five laps, and then it’s going to come to you,” Brooks explained. “I think I stayed down there just a little too long getting shuffled back that far, but you know, I just felt like I was kind of giving it away. I felt like I had a great race car.”
He did indeed have a great race car as he was able to start reeling the field back in, and after several top contenders, including Brad Sweet and Clinton Boyles found big trouble, Brooks steered clear of the mayhem and found himself near the front in the closing laps.
“Then I rolled to the bottom and picked a couple of them off. And then, they all kind of sorted to the bottom and I was able to pound the top and get to second.
Brooks had clawed to the second position, just behind Crouch, who had dominated the A-Main. As Brooks applied the pressure, Crouch made just enough errors to allow Brooks to blast past for the A-Main win.
“Luckily, the leader made a couple of mistakes and I was able to capitalize.”
Here is a video of the incredible late-race battle between Brooks and Crouch from FloRacing:
WHAT A SHOW! ?
Landon Brooks (@lcbrooks60) wins an A-Main thriller over Brenham Crouch to cap off Tuesday night at the #ChiliBowl powered by @NosEnergyDrink. pic.twitter.com/HsdoN5a4M6
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 15, 2025
While it was a heartbreaking defeat for Crouch, a Texas native, the teenage driver was able to secure his place in Saturday’s Chili Bowl Nationals Championship A-Main with the runner-up finish in Tuesday’s A-Main.
“Led 28 laps, but just came up just short of the one that mattered,” a composed Crouch stated. “So, just glad we’re locked in. We have another shot in 40 laps to get one spot better.”
Buddy Kofoid, who suffered a big flip and damage in the B-Main earlier in the evening, was able to rally his way through the field from the 17th starting spot to finish third. Kofoid will advance to Saturday’s B-Main, which will put him in a solid spot to advance to the Championship A-Main.
“Yeah, good rebound for the day we had,” Kofoid said after the event. “It’s crazy to think there’s a chance I wasn’t going to be in this feature, let alone have a chance to make the Chili Bowl to running third from the back. That’s just the no-quit attitude from the KKM guys.”
Corbin Rueschenberg, and Gunnar Setser rounded out the top-five finishers in Tuesday night’s Chili Bowl Prelim A-Main.
Tuesday Chili Bowl Nationals Prelim A-Main Results
| Fin | No. | Driver | Laps | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 57W | Landon Brooks | 30 | -- |
| 2 | 1C | Brenham Crouch | 30 | 0.504 |
| 3 | 71 | Buddy Kofoid | 30 | 1.524 |
| 4 | 26 | Corbin Rueschenberg | 30 | 2.730 |
| 5 | 43 | Gunnar Setser | 30 | 3.952 |
| 6 | 21J | Kameron Key | 30 | 4.952 |
| 7 | 29S | Hank Davis | 30 | 5.275 |
| 8 | 57 | Kaylee Bryson | 30 | 6.054 |
| 9 | 27B | Jake Bubak | 30 | 6.302 |
| 10 | 41D | Derek Hagar | 30 | 7.422 |
| 11 | 8J | Jonathan Beason | 30 | 7.605 |
| 12 | 19R | Ricky Thornton Jr. | 30 | 8.224 |
| 13 | 55X | Kevin Thomas Jr. | 30 | 8.485 |
| 14 | 25V | Billy Vanlnwegen Jr. | 30 | 9.016 |
| 15 | 6G | Garet Williamson | 30 | 9.609 |
| 16 | 20Z | Steve Sussex III | 30 | 9.674 |
| 17 | 55D | Nick Drake | 30 | 10.269 |
| 18 | 73 | Hunter Schruerenberg | 30 | 11.031 |
| 19 | 1R | R.J. Johnson | 30 | 11.874 |
| 20 | 7X | Thomas Meseraull | 29 | 1 lap |
| 21 | 7MF | Chance Morton | 20 | 10 laps |
| 22 | 11B | Clinton Boyles | 16 | 14 laps |
| 23 | 1Z | Justin Zimmerman | 16 | 14 laps |
| 24 | 3T | Brad Sweet | 1 | 29 laps |
Ty Gibbs, in Chili Bowl Nationals Debut, Finishes Ninth in Tuesday B-Main
It may not have been a sexy conclusion to his first-ever night of racing action at the Tulsa Expo Center, and he certainly didn’t make it into Tuesday night’s A-Main, but Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Cup Series racer Ty Gibbs competed admirably in Tuesday’s prelim events.
Gibbs was able to advance to the B-Main 2 after a fifth-place finish in the eight-car field in the night’s Heat Race 4.
While he wasn’t spectacular on Tuesday evening, Gibbs avoided adding his name to the Chili Bowl Nationals flip counter, and he wound up with a solid ninth-place run in the 16-car B-Main 2 on Tuesday evening. Gibbs, 22, will look to advance to his first ever Chili Bowl Nationals Championship A-Main by way of the Alphabet Soup heat races on Saturday.
