Tanner Thorson’s attempt to defend his Lucas Oil Chili Bowl didn’t begin the way he drew it up… until it did. A spin two laps into his heat race became a distant memory when Thorson charged back through the field, won his qualifier and claimed the preliminary night victory Thursday at the SageNet Center. 

The victory for Thorson was the second Chili Bowl preliminary night win of his career. 

“I thought my prelim night was over at the start of that heat race,” Thorson said. “I was kind of just waiting to get hit. Luckily enough I didn’t get hit and I was able to keep going.”

After falling back to seventh, Thorson charged back through the field and made a last-lap pass to win his heat race. From there, he started fifth in his qualifier and once again used a last-lap pass on Emerson Axsom to score the win and claim the pole for the 30-lap feature. 

From there, Thorson left no doubts in the feature, leading every lap to claim the victory. 

“We had a really good car. I’ve worked on my package a lot over the past few years. Last year I came back with something pretty similar but I was able to adjust on it and make it better.”

“I feel good. It’s hard to tell at this place. This place, you can take it for granted really quick and it can bite you. I have a lot of confidence in my partners, my guys and my race car right now. It’s just a matter of making it happen at the end.”

Axsom was the best of the rest on Thursday night, comfortably remaining in second for the entire race and locking himself into Saturday’s A-Main. The race was Axsom’s first behind the wheel of the No. 19 Reinbold Underwood Motorsports ride that Thorson took to victory lane one year ago. 

“It was my first night in the car, so I was confident with what my guys would give me but it’s just a new team for me and a new car for me,” Axsom stated. “They built it brand new and it’s never hit the race track.”

While Axsom was never able to close in and challenge Thorson for the lead, he was happy with what he was able to learn for Saturday’s main event. 

“I felt like I could gauge in clean air where we needed to be better with Tanner. I felt like that was a good thing so we can get better for Saturday.”

In his 18th career Chili Bowl attempt, Brady Bacon rolled the bottom in the closing laps and picked off two positions to finish third. The finish will put him in a good starting spot for Saturday’s B-Main. 

“They take a ton of cars out of the B, so as long as we don’t do anything too crazy and stay out of trouble I think we’ll be alright. We’ll take that opportunity to make our car better and try some stuff to get better for the 50 laps later in the night.”

Tim Buckwalter and last year's Monday night preliminary winner Tanner Carrick completed the top five. 

One night of preliminary action remains at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals on Friday night. Catch all of the action live on FloRacing.