{"id":1988,"date":"2026-01-14T08:50:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/?p=1988"},"modified":"2026-01-14T08:50:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:50:39","slug":"blake-hahn-steals-tuesday-thriller-at-the-2026-chili-bowl-locks-into-saturdays-a-main","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/blake-hahn-steals-tuesday-thriller-at-the-2026-chili-bowl-locks-into-saturdays-a-main\/","title":{"rendered":"Blake Hahn Steals Tuesday Thriller at the 2026 Chili Bowl, Locks Into Saturday\u2019s A-Main"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Intro<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday night (Jan. 13) at the SageNet Center in Tulsa delivered exactly what \u201cChili Bowl week\u201d is supposed to feel like: relentless traffic, changing lanes, and a last-five-laps move that flipped the whole night. On Warren CAT Qualifying Night, Oklahoma\u2019s Blake Hahn drove from eighth to the win \u2014 and, with it, a guaranteed ticket into Saturday\u2019s championship A-Main.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key event recap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hahn\u2019s path wasn\u2019t a wire-to-wire cruise. Zach Daum controlled the early portion out front, but as the race funneled into traffic and the cushion came alive, Hank Davis surged into the lead mid-race. Hahn methodically picked off positions, grabbed second late, then launched the decisive slide job to take command with five laps remaining \u2014 holding Davis off all the way to the checkered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Chili Bowl format rewarding Tuesday\u2019s top two finishers, Hahn and Davis both locked themselves into Saturday night\u2019s A-Main picture (and into the Pole Dash pool).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top 10<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Blake Hahn<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Hank Davis<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Jett Barnes<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Zach Daum<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Landon Brooks<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Corbin Rueschenberg<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Kaidon Brown<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Gavan Boschele<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Kyle Jones<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. J.J. Yeley<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Performance highlights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Biggest movers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Gavan Boschele: +16 (24th \u2192 8th)<\/strong> \u2014 one of the most eye-opening \u201csurvive and charge\u201d runs of the night.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Blake Hahn: +7 (8th \u2192 1st)<\/strong> \u2014 didn\u2019t need clean air early; he built the win in traffic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Jett Barnes: +6 (9th \u2192 3rd)<\/strong> \u2014 in a Chili Bowl debut, no less.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Landon Brooks: +6 (11th \u2192 5th)<\/strong> \u2014 a steady climb into the top five when the race got messy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Most points \/ high-point runs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Zach Daum<\/strong> didn\u2019t win, but he led early<\/strong> and still came home fourth \u2014 enough to earn the night\u2019s high-point honors<\/strong> (and a bonus payout tied to the event\u2019s point fund).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Context matters here: Chili Bowl prelim nights are built on passing points + qualifying races funneling into the A<\/strong>, so \u201chigh point\u201d is often a blend of speed and<\/em> forward progress \u2014 not just the finishing spot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Quietly strong<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • Corbin Rueschenberg (6th)<\/strong> and Kaidon Brown (7th)<\/strong> put in the kind of nights that don\u2019t trend on social media \u2014 but absolutely set up a realistic Saturday climb.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Ty Gibbs (14th)<\/strong> and Ryan Timms (11th)<\/strong> kept themselves within striking distance of better \u201calphabet soup\u201d positioning, even without a headline result.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          Crashes\/near-misses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

          The racing didn\u2019t come caution-free. A multi-car incident early<\/strong> reshuffled the field, and Sheldon Creed\u2019s night ended in a DNF<\/strong> after getting caught up in the A-Main trouble \u2014 turning what looked like promising speed into a much steeper Saturday path.
          On the broader safety front, the event\u2019s week-long flip count<\/strong> continued to climb, with reports indicating everyone was okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          What it means\/what we learned<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

          Tuesday proved (again) that the Chili Bowl doesn\u2019t reward impatience \u2014 it rewards timing. Hahn\u2019s win wasn\u2019t about dominating lap one; it was about staying close enough to strike when the leaders hit traffic and the track finally offered a lane that could stick. Now Hahn and Davis are in the Saturday A-Main conversation by rule, not by hope<\/strong>, and the rest of the Tuesday front-runners shift into \u201cpositioning mode\u201d as the week builds toward the 55-lap finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Intro Tuesday night (Jan. 13) at the SageNet Center in Tulsa delivered exactly what \u201cChili Bowl week\u201d is supposed to feel like: relentless traffic, changing lanes, and a last-five-laps move […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[243,247,246,251,245,250,244,242,252,248,249],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1990,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions\/1990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}