A little luck, a lot of skill help Kyle Larson win Chili Bowl Nationals for the third time

TULSA, Okla. — The adage that it‘s better to be lucky than good is an appropriate way to describe Kyle Larson‘s Saturday night inside the SageNet Center.

Larson was involved in not one, but two incidents during the 40-lap Chili Bowl Nationals finale and somehow still managed to lay claim to his third Golden Driller trophy in midget car racing‘s grandest event.

“All three (Chili Bowl wins) are different,” Larson said. “The first one was just a big hurdle to get over mentally I feel like to get a win in here finally. Then the next year meant a lot because we didn‘t have the best car that race but we played defense really well.

“Tonight, the track was challenging to make a lap by yourself, so when you can win a 40-lap race on a track that challenging, it‘s pretty cool.”

In reality, Larson‘s good luck began Friday night during the draw for the pole shuffle, when he drew the No. 1 pill.

RELATED: Complete Chili Bowl Nationals results

That meant that he would be the last driver to hit the track during the time trial program that set the lineup for the 10 drivers who locked into Saturday‘s finale via their respective preliminary night performances.

Larson bested Landon Brooks in the final pole shuffle pairing, earning the pole for the Chili Bowl main event that featured some of dirt racing‘s biggest and most talented stars.

“As bad as I qualified in the Race of Champions (on Monday), I knew my best shot to win was to draw the one or two (pill), because it would guarantee me the front two rows,” said Larson, who won his preliminary feature Monday to punch his ticket directly to Saturday’s main event. “Obviously drawing the one I was very happy because I knew I wouldn‘t start any worse than second.”

Wheeling a car owned and prepared by his longtime sprint car crew chief Paul Silva, Larson quickly took command when the green flag waved Saturday night.

Holding a smooth wheel through the opening laps, Larson looked in complete control as he ripped around the top of the temporary Tulsa Expo Raceway like he did when he won the Chili Bowl in 2020 and 2021.

But just like in the NASCAR Cup Series, in dirt racing, things can change in an instant.

Larson was working his way through slower traffic with 17 laps to go when Jacob Denney and Brenham Crouch made contact directly in front of him.

With nowhere to go, Larson drove over the front two wheels of Crouch‘s car. His car briefly stalled, but it miraculously re-fired upon hitting the ground, and Larson was able to continue without losing the lead to his closest pursuer, Daison Pursley.

“He was just stopped sideways in front of me,” Larson said. “I just kind of ramped over the left-front of his race car. I just kind of jumped him really. It stalled in mid-air. When it was getting ready to land, I was like, ‘Please, please, please re-fire.‘ It re-fired, so I thought I would only get one break, not two.”

With no obvious damage done to his car, Larson held the lead when the race resumed. Again, he looked like he was well on his way to a comfortable victory. But yet again, Larson found a way to nearly throw it away.

Coming out of Turn 4 with four laps left, Larson‘s No. 1K caught the edge of the track. His car climbed up the outside wall before coming back down onto the track with the nose pointed toward the infield.

Somehow Larson got the car pointed back in the right direction just as Pursley roared around the top in an attempt to take the race lead.

Luckily for Larson, a banner on the frontstretch wall had become dislodged and was sitting on the racing surface following his failed wall climb, resulting in a well-timed caution flag that saved him from Pursley‘s assault.

“I made a mistake on the frontstretch and was kind of up on top of the wall and it shot me off of it,” Larson said. “I thought I was going to flip similar to how I did last year. I didn‘t know it at the time, but it had ripped the banner down. I thought they threw the caution for me.

“Before I got back around to the other side I was like, ‘Man, I don‘t know how they‘re going to score this.‘ If they were going to have me as the cause of the caution, if I would get penalized or anything. But I saw the banner laying there and I was like, ‘OK, well that‘s good. Maybe I‘ll keep my spot.\"”

Pursley tried his best to upset the apple cart during a pair of subsequent restarts, but Larson leaned on the experience he gained in his 16 previous Chili Bowl starts to win the event for the third time.

Larson understands just how lucky he was Saturday night. Either incident could have taken him out of contention to win the Chili Bowl Nationals.

But they didn‘t. And Larson did exactly what he‘s so good at doing regardless of the type of race car he‘s driving.

Win.