After the 30-lap main event on Thursday night at the Tulsa Expo Center, Christopher Bell unbuckled, ascended from the seat in his No. 21CB machine, and took a bow. Bell, who won Heat race 5 earlier in the night, captured his ninth career Chili Bowl Nationals prelim race win, tying Kyle Larson’s mark, which was set on Monday night.
Bell’s charge to take the win in the A-Main incredibly came from the eighth starting spot.
? 8th to 1st for @CBellRacing in the Thursday A-Main, @CJ_Leary_ also locks in for Saturday!#ChiliBowl | @NosEnergyDrink pic.twitter.com/eiW15GgnLp
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 16, 2026
“That was a ton of fun, man. That was a ton of fun,” Bell said in his victory interview on FloRacing. “I had to work for that one, obviously.”
Bell didn’t make a lot of progress early in the 30-lap feature, but as things got a little crazy in the back-half of the A-Main, Bell started to change his line, and he found a lot of speed.
“In the middle part of the race, there, I really started struggling, and just didn’t really have the pace that I needed. The guys were driving away from me,” Bell said. “Whenever we got those rash of yellows, I’m like, I’ve got to do something different. I was actually getting off pretty good on the bottom in [Turns] 3 and 4, so I just committed to myself down there, and I just made sure I got low enough on the berm enough to hit it, and I was able to make up some positions.”
Out of nowhere, Bell went from a pretender to a contender, and with a few laps to go, he squirted by the top-two runners, C.J. Leary and Ryan Bernal. Bell wouldn’t look back as he crossed the finish line first.
“That right there is why I love this place, man. You’re never out of it until the checkered flag falls,” Bell stated. “Last year, I was on the other side of it.”
Thursday night’s triumph was the latest moment in what has been a great week for Bell down in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as he also took the win in the Race of Champions on Monday night. After an eighth-to-first race win on Thursday night, his car looks to have what Bell needs to contend for the Chili Bowl Nationals win on Saturday night.
“I feel really good about the speed in the racecar. I think the racecar is super fast,” Bell explained. “We have been working on it and changing the car a little bit. I still think we have a little bit to get the car a little more drivable, especially when the track gets really treacherous like that. The car is super, super fast.”
Bell came home as the winner ahead of Leary, who also locked his position into Saturday night’s A-Main with the runner-up finish. Bernal just missed out on automatic advancement to Saturday’s A-Main with a third-place result, and he’ll have to try to work his way in through the B-Main on Saturday.
While Bell was the only NASCAR contender to advance into the A-Main on Thursday night, another NASCAR racer, Josh Bilicki, performed quite well. Bilicki worked his way into the B-Main 2 by way of his points accumulated in his Heat Race and qualifier earlier in the evening. And while he didn’t do enough to advance into the A-Main, Bilicki put in a gusty performance as he went for a flip early in the B-Main, but was able to continue racing.
Bilicki would be credited with a 10th-place finish in the B-Main after his early-race flip.
