Winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Championship, Christopher Bell already had enough for which to be thankful. But then he went on to cap off his USAC season the same way he started it.

Bell started the 2017 season by winning both the first prelim night and the final night of the prestigious Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, OK.

Bell’s fourth USAC midget win of the season came just six days after he secured the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship.

The 22-year-old NASCAR driver battled fellow NASCAR star and California native Kyle Larson for the win in the 98-lap Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura Raceway.

While only three lead changes were recorded at the line, fans we’re treated to 98 laps filled with these two stars trading sliders.

Larson grabbed the pole by topping the charts in qualifying. Bell was only two spots behind him on the chart, which allowed him to start the feature third. Both drivers have their roots deeply planted in dirt racing and Bell was happy to be back on the dirt battling a friend.

“Oh my god, it’s so much fun,” Bell exclaimed. “I just told Kyle that if he would’ve beat me, I would’ve been, maybe not just as happy, but still happy because it was just that much fun. That race was one of the most fun races I’ve run in a long time.”

After the start, Bell followed Larson around the bottom of the race track to take second from Jake Swanson. Bell took notes during a sprint car to decide when and where he was going to abandon running the bottom so that he protect it from Larson. Bell’s first pass on Larson was set up on the 13th lap. Bell swung to the top groove to line up nose-to-nose with Larson. One lap later, Bell took the lead off of turn four.

“I could tell that the top was going to be good,” Bell said. “Watching the sprint car feature, we saw that it got pretty good. They tilled the bottom and I could tell it was going to be really good at the beginning. Once it started going away, I tried the top and it was right there.”

The first caution came out on lap 49, when Brayton Lynch got turned around while jockeying for position. Chad Boat couldn’t avoid meeting him front-bumper to front-bumper. The collision ended both drivers’ night.

When the field went back to green on lap 52, the fans stood up to watch as Larson took the high line and stole the lead back from Bell. When Larson went high, Bell went higher. In the next lap, Bell narrowly squeezed through the empty space between Larson and the frontstretch wall. After a slide attempt from Larson in turn one, Bell pulled out and created some breathing room.

On lap 57, Brady Bacon and Spencer Bayston collected each other to bring out the second caution.

From that point on, the bottom was out of play for the two leaders as they both chose the high line—dancing on the cushion in the corners. While Bell technically held the lead for the remainder of the race, Larson pulled ahead on several occasions at other spots on the track. Bell beat him to the line each time.

“The majority of drivers understand you have to be good at the end of the race to win the race,” Bell said. “At the beginning, you’re just cruising and making sure you make It to the end of the race. That’s the biggest thing. Kyle and I were both rolling around there about quarter-throttle at the beginning, trying to save our tires and kill some laps. It worked out and we were racing our butts off at the end.”

After a caution for Tyler Courtney slowing on the track, the leaders reset with 10 to go. In full race mode now, Bell pulled out to a one second lead. Four laps later Bell was beginning to think about how to hold the lead through lapped traffic when Holly Shelton and Bacon spun, bringing out the final caution and setting up a five-lap shootout for the win.

The track was so technical,” Bell said. “It was all about hitting your marks and minimizing mistakes because you weren’t going to make a mistake-free lap tonight. You just had to make sure when you made a mistake that you could recover from it. Once I got going on those green flag runs, I could get my momentum built up and make good, competitive laps. But after the yellow flags, it was tough to pick your rhythm back up. I knew I was a sitting duck their leading on the restarts. On the final one, Kyle got one last bomb on me and I was able to get him back.”

Larson edged passed Bell going into turn one to lead down the backstretch before Bell threw a slider in turn three to take the lead back.

With two laps to go, Larson edged ahead one final time. The duo banged together as Larson led down the backstretch. The final pass came in turns three and four as Bell recaptured the top spot.

Coming to the white flag, Larson attempted one last Hail Mary move to pull in line with Bell. As Larson moved in, so did third running Shane Golobic as the trio exited the turns three-wide.

Bell crossed under the checkers 0.193 seconds ahead of Larson. Golobic was coming on strong in the final laps, but could not quite get around Larson as the NASCAR stars finished one-two. Tanner Thorson took fourth and “Rookie of the Race,” Zeb Wise completed the top five.

Top-10 Finishers 
1. Christopher Bell
2. Kyle Larson
3. Shane Golobic
4. Tanner Thorson
5. Zeb Wise
6. Carson Macedo
7. Justin Grant
8. Ryan Robinson
9. Brad Sweet
10. Michael Faccinto
Full Results