Kyle Larson finally wins elusive Chili Bowl in 13th try

Published Jan. 19, 2020 9:00 a.m. ET

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Kyle Larson scored one of the biggest victories of his career by ending an 0-for-12 streak to finally win the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.

Larson passed Christopher Bell with 17 laps in Saturday night's main event to end his frustrating streak of futility and deny Bell a fourth consecutive win in the prestigious dirt race.

Bell passed Larson on the final lap of last year's Chili Bowl to hand the NASCAR star a crushing defeat.

“Its a pretty different range of emotions 365 days later,” Larson said on the MavTV broadcast. “I feel like I’m going to pass out. I’m sorry NASCAR, I’m sorry Daytona, but this is the biggest (expletive) race I’ve ever won. I hope to win Daytona in a few weeks but this is bad (expletive).”

Larson collected the coveted Golden Driller trophy and the 27-year-old, still smarting a bloodshot eye from a nasty crash in New Zealand last month, seemed in disbelief

“It’s taken me 13 years. That’s almost half my age,” Larson said. "I’ve been coming here for 13 years, and it feels better than I can imagine."

Bell, who moves full-time in NASCAR this year to the Cup Series, was second and Cannon McIntosh was third.