Logan Seavey was perfect in Friday night’s Chili Bowl Nationals prelim A-Main, and in the closing laps of the Main Event on Saturday night, he was perfect when it mattered most, as he scored his first-career win in the prestigious indoor dirt midget event.
The driver, who started from the pole in the 55-lap event, held off a hard-charging Tanner Thorson in the closing laps, and endured a late restart after a crash by Rico Abreu, to score the all-important win.
While the end result will show it was a near-flawless week for Seavey in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the racer admitted he was a little nervous when he lost the lead to Cannon McIntosh on lap 21 of the race.
“Yeah, to be honest, right there was probably as worst as I felt at any time in this car,” Sevaey stated from victory lane. “I felt like I was on defense the whole time. I felt like I had to defend. That’s kind of how it goes leading these races. The lane changes so much.
“You don’t know when you’re leading where the line is. That’s kind of what happened with Cannon, I was able to go to the middle and then found the cushion in [turns] 3 and 4. Gained ground back on him and got by on the restart.”
As Seavey worked around McIntosh, McIntosh’s hopes at a Chili Bowl victory faded, and he fell to third as Thorson emerged as the main contender against Seavey down the stretch.
Thorson, who wound up just missing out on his second consecutive Chili Bowl Nationals victory, was frustrated by track conditions and chalks his loss up to that.
“Just a better race track to be honest,” Thorson stated when asked what would have given him a chance to win over Seavey. “I felt my car was great. Logan’s car was obviously really good. I’m not a dirt worker by any means, but when you get this back-to-back you have to do something to fix it. I get these guys work their asses off to fix this race track and stay up late. But we all stay up late too to fix our race cars and make them better and do. So, I’m frustrated as hell.”
Despite the frustrations about the track conditions, Thorson credits Seavey, who he holds in high regard.
“He’s good,” Thorson explained of his competitor. “He knows what’s up, man. He’s looking at the board probably just like I was. He’s a badass racer. I’ve grown up with him. He’s been a buddy of mine, another West Coast kid.”
Overall, the 2023 Chili Bowl Nationals turned into a hotly contested battle between some of the best in the world on the dirt, and in the end, it was a couple of West Coast guys slugging it out for the win.
After a clean duel, it was Seavey who finally came out on top in the Chili Bowl Nationals.
Here were the top-10 finishers from the 2023 Chili Bowl Nationals:
- Logan Seavey
- Tanner Thorson
- Cannon McIntosh
- Shane Golobic
- Emerson Axsom
- Kyle Jones
- Mitchel Moles
- Trey Marchum
- Tim Buckwalter
- Justin Grant
