MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Jan. 18, 2021) – JRM driver Justin Allgaier’s bid for a second straight Chili Bowl A-Main ended early Saturday after a pair of incidents slowed his progression through the labyrinthine qualifying features.
After winning his heat race in Friday’s preliminary program at the 35th annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, Allgaier amassed the fourth-highest point total and started sixth in the qualifying feature. The race ended with Allgaier on his head, as his No. 1A Team Ripper midget flipped out of contention. After a thrash to get his Evel Knievel-themed open-wheeler fixed for the B-Main, Allgaier finished 13th and did not qualify for the Friday A-Main. The result left him squarely in the “alphabet soup” of qualifiers on Saturday.
That meant that Allgaier would have to advance through seven qualifiers to get to Saturday’s A-Main. Allgaier won his first event, the I-Main, to transfer to the H-Main, where he would have to come from the rear of the field to the top six to continue on.
In the H-Main, Allgaier got caught up in an accident not of his making just two laps in and was forced to the work area to put things right. Restarting last, Allgaier advanced into a transfer spot with one lap remaining, but a traffic jam ahead bottled him up and he wound up one spot below the transfer.