Where Wednesday's Racers Will Start Saturday At The Chili Bowl

Breaking down where Wednesday night's Chili Bowl preliminary drivers will start in Saturday's alphabet soup.

Jan 16, 2025 by Brandon Paul

With Wednesday night behind us, we’ve reached six lock-in drivers for the Chili Bowl Nationals Championship A-Main and we’re more than halfway through all the preliminary action this week.

Let’s take a quick look at where those preliminary finishers from Wednesday will land in Saturday’s famed alphabet soup:

TO THE A-MAIN (1-2) – Emerson Axsom, Daison Pursley

TO THE B-MAINS (3-8) – Corey Day, Tim Buckwalter, Kale Drake, Blake Hahn, Mitchel Moles, Jett Yantis

TO THE C-MAINS (9-14) – Kyle Cummins, Jake Swanson, Steven Snyder Jr, J.J. Yeley, Colby Copeland, Rylan Gray

TO THE D-MAINS (15-20) – Harry Stewart, Alex Bright, Sammy Swindell, Danny Wood, David Camfield Jr, Steven Shebester

TO THE E-MAINS (21-24) – Taylor Reimer, Chelby Hinton, KJ Snow, Kody Swanson

VIDEO: Watch highlights from Wednesday night's Chili Bowl A-Main.

Emerson Axsom became the second driver through three nights to get his first-ever Chili Bowl preliminary win, joining Tuesday’s Landon Brooks as a new winner. The victory for the Franklin, IN native marked the first lock-in of the week for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports with Axsom going to his third-career Championship A-Main.

Behind Axsom with the final lock-in was his fellow front row starter, Daison Pursley. After back-to-back years of big alphabet soup runs on Saturday - C-B-A in 2023, D-C-B-A in 2024 - the Locust Grove, OK native is finally freed of that with his first lock-in. The future High Roller is the first from Chad Boat’s CB Industries camp to put it in the big dance this week.

Defending Wednesday winner and Chili Bowl podium finisher Corey Day came home third in Willie Kahn’es No. 41 - sending him to Saturday’s B-Main along with the like of Tim Buckwalter, Kale Drake, Blake Hahn, Mitchel Moles, and Jett Yantis, who joins Gunnar Setser as the only two rookies in the B-Main right now.

The C-Main bound boys are Kyle Cummins, Jake Swanson in his Alex Bowman Racing ride, Steven Snyder Jr. driving for Chase McDermand, J.J. Yeley, Colby Copeland in a Matt Wood Racing car, and Rylan Gray for Trifecta Motorsports.

Sammy Swindell, the Chili Bowl GOAT, qualified for his 30th preliminary A-Main (most all-time) and was involved in a caution, which will send him to the D-Main come Saturday along with Harry Stewart, Alex Bright, Danny Wood, David Camfield Jr, and Steven Shebester.

Those struck by bad luck and finishing 21st-24th with trips to the E-Main coming include Taylor Reimer, Chelby Hinton, KJ Snow, and Kody Swanson.

All of the Chili Bowl fun continues tonight with Thursday’s preliminary taking center stage. If you can’t be here to witness the Tulsa magic yourself, you can watch every lap live all week long on FloRacing.

Every lap of the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals will be streamed live on FloRacing. If you’re not already a FloRacing subscriber, click here to sign up today.