CHILI BOWL: Grant wins preliminary feature

A great week got a little better for Justin Grant on Friday night at the 31st annual Chili Bowl. His wife gave birth to twins a few days ago and then the Californian turned in a flawless drive to capture the 25-lap preliminary feature in the car owned by Bryan Clauson's father, Tim.

"To win for this family is so special in a week where my wife had twins and I feel like I got all the glory but I'm just along for the ride," said Grant after starting on the pole and leading all 25 laps to lock himself into Saturday night's A Main at Tulsa's Expo Center. "Tim does such a good job of preparing these cars and this car was amazing on the bottom of the track.

"I was arguing with Danica (Patrick) before the race and she said it would be cool to win from the bottom and I said it was not cool to win on the bottom – but I may have changed my mind."

Clauson, the 2014 Chili Bowl victor who lost his life last summer in the Belleville Nationals, is represented in spirit this week by a four-car team co-owned by his father. Tyler Courtney won Tuesday night's A Main before Grant delivered on Friday night.

"Bryan said when we left here last year we were coming back with a bunch of bad-ass drivers and we did," said Tim Clauson. "Tyler is a great story and so is Justin, who used to sleep on garage floors to be part of this."

While Grant was low and fast, World of Outlaw regular Daryn Pittman went high and used the cushion to charge from eighth to second place – just ahead of Ronnie Gardner, who started second.

Ricky Stenhouse, being cheered on by girlfriend and fellow NASCAR racer Patrick, just missed the transfer spot and finished fourth but will start on the pole position in one of Saturday night's B Mains.

MAVTV will televise Saturday night's show beginning at 7:30 ET.