CHILI BOWL: Bell dominates qualifying feature

Christopher Bell, one of the bright young talents in American motorsports, rescued what had been an otherwise bleak Chili Bowl week for Keith Kunz Motorsports on Thursday night with a runaway triumph in the 25-lap qualifying feature.

A native of Norman, Okla. who was snatched by Kyle Busch a couple years ago to start driving stock cars and spent 2016 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Bell started second, grabbed the lead on lap three and built more than a straightaway advantage over runner-up Danny Stratton.

With vaunted teammates Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu running into trouble on Tuesday and Wednesday, Bell finally got one of Kunz's Toyota-powered Bullet chassis into Saturday night's A Main.

"This car was really good tonight and Keith (Kunz) just kept making it better as he always does," said Bell. "I've been in this position a couple of times before here and it hasn't worked out but I think I've learned a lot and I'm going to attack things differently on Saturday night.
"Running pavement has taught me a lot about being patient and 55 laps (A main distance) is a long way, so I'm going to ride a while and then go for it."

Stratton was strong and never lost second but was no match for Bell while Greenfield native C.J. O'Leary earned the other automatic transfer into the Lucas Oil Midget Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Center.

NASCAR regular Justin Algier was running fourth on the final lap when he hooked the cushion and flipped, so now he'll start on the pole in the D Main on Saturday instead of the pole of the A Main.