The third night of preliminary racing at the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals was completed on Wednesday, December 15, at the Tulsa Expo Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 90 entries. The Chili Bowl is known as the “Super Bowl of midget racing.”
Emerson Axsom, driving the #68K entry, won Wednesday’s Chili Bowl preliminary feature. With the win, Axsom locked his spot in Saturday’s main event at the Chili Bowl Nationals.
Axsom emerged victorious when he grabbed the lead from pole-sitter Daison Pursley early in the 30-lap feature and held off the rest of the field to cross the finish line in P1. It was his first career Chili Bowl prelim victory.
Daison Pursley, who started from the pole, held off the charge from Corey Day to finish runner-up and earned a lock-in spot into Saturday’s A-Main in the Chili Bowl Nationals.
Meanwhile, Corey Day finished third, followed by Tim Buckwalter and Kale Drake in the top five. Blake Hahn, Mitchel Moles, Jett Yantis, Kyle Cummins, and Jake Swanson completed the top 10.
NASCAR veteran JJ Yeley, who competes part-time in the Cup and Xfinity series, driving the #3J entry, started 16th and finished 12th.
Emerson Axsom and Daison Pursley joined 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, Shane Golobic, Landon Brooks, and Brenham Crouch as drivers who advanced to Saturday's Chili Bowl main event.
Chili Bowl Nationals’ Wednesday prelim feature final results
Below are the final results of the York Plumbing Qualifying Night in the 39th annual Chili Bowl:
- #68K - Emerson Axsom [2]
- #86 - Daison Pursley [1]
- #41 - Corey Day [8]
- #29 - Tim Buckwalter [3]
- #97K - Kale Drake [9]
- #52 - Blake Hahn [19]
- #19T - Mitchel Moles [4]
- #4Y - Jett Yantis [7]
- #3G - Kyle Cummins [13]
- #55A - Jake Swanson [11]
- #40X - Steven Snyder Jr [6]
- #3J - JJ Yeley [16]
- #27W - Colby Copeland [10]
- #3U - Rylan Gray [17]
- #7AU - Harry Stewart [21]
- #32C - Alex Bright [15]
- #1 - Sammy Swindell [14]
- #91X - Danny Wood [20]
- #16C - David Camfield Jr [22]
- #22X - Steven Shebester [23]
- #25K - Taylor Reimer [12]
- #4B - Chelby Hinton [18]
- #8K - KJ Snow [5]
- #4P - Kody Swanson