TULSA, Oklahoma – In a thrilling night at the Chili Bowl Nationals at SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Rico Abreu tied Sammy Swindell and Christopher Bell for the most qualification night victories at eight as tragedy nearly struck a third of the way into the race.
Abreu has made a career of racing in the Wednesday night prelims. With this victory, he has now won the last six consecutive.
They have not all been easy, but this year’s win may well have been one of his toughest. Starting sixth, he quickly cleared three drivers, but was mired in third as the 10th lap began. His position on the track almost became irrelevant, however.
Ten laps into the 30-lap race, Ashton Torgerson,16, crashed hard on the backstretch and was ejected from his car. Torgeson was making his first start in the Chili Bowl and his first start in a midget. The night started remarkably. He ran well enough in his preliminaries and earned enough passing points to lock onto the front row.
Starting second, Torgeson fell back in the field and was racing Kevin Thomas, Jr. for seventh when the two drivers ran out of room. Torgeson clipped the wall, his car turned sideways and flipped.
Remarkably, Torgeson was alert and communicating with track officials and paramedics. An update from the family is promising, saying that “Ashton is awake and alert at the hospital. He has feeling in his hands and feet and has passed his tests so far.”
Abreu put on a clinic Wednesday night.
Running a middle line, he began to clip the inside berm when he couldn’t get around second-place Brent Crews. That move drew crews to the bottom. As Abreu went to the top, both drivers found additional speed and closed in on Mitchel Moles. The last two laps were contested side-by-side-by-side with Abreu narrowly beating Moles to the line.
Finishing first and second, Abreu and Moles are now locked into Saturday night’s Main event. Third-place crews will have to make his way through one of the preliminary races.
Update from the @torgersonracing family on @_Torgerson02 –
Ashton is awake and alert at the hospital. He has feeling in hands and feet and has passed his tests so far.
He’s now going into scans. We will continue to keep you posted. @cbnationals
— Petersen Media (@Petersen_Media) January 12, 2023
As energizing as the final laps were, the drivers’ thoughts were elsewhere once the checkers waved. Fellow competitor Torgerson left the quarter-mile indoor dirt track in an ambulance for evaluation after his horrific crash.
“Those are tough moments as a racecar driver,” Abreu said in the postrace press conference. “I didn’t personally witness what happened, but you could just feel the energy shift in the building. It’s anxiousness and a little fearfulness that was being created. You could feel that. And to see a curtain coming across the track. I don’t want to say any more about that.
“We’re racecar drivers. We have to strap into these things once everything cools off and hat’s off to the Chili Bowl having an unbelievable safety crew on sight right away.
“You see the circumstances that have been going on across all sports recently and you just feel gutted. All I have been thinking about the last hour or so here is making sure that boy is okay.”
In Victory Lane, Abreu pledged his Chili Bowl qualification night winnings to the Torgeson family.
Update on Ashton @_Torgerson02
Passed back ,neck tests waiting on CT scan… 1st thing he asked me was what place was he in!!.. you have no idea how much the support means to Ashton and the family…
— Torgerson Racing (@torgersonracing) January 12, 2023
NASCAR driver Kyle Busch sponsored Torgerson in Micro Sprints in 2022 and joined the litany of voices wishing the family well.
The Busch family send our thoughts and prayers out to the whole Torgerson family and Ashton that he is ok!! We’ve gotten to know them the last couple years and have loved to c the racer Ashton is and the friendships we have made! 🙏🏻
— Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) January 12, 2023
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