[JessicaJ]

Josh Most Captures Best Chili Bowl Finish in 10th Appearance

JessicaJ Media – Red Oak, IA (Feb. 5, 2019) - Making the 6.5 hour trip to Tulsa for the Chili Bowl Nationals in January, Josh Most was prepared to make his tenth run inside the River Spirit Expo Center. With back-to-back appearances in Saturday's D mains, all signs pointed to an even better result in his third consecutive Oklahoma start.

When Most took to the track for Thursday's fourth heat race in sixth position, he quickly engaged in a battle with two-time reigning Chili Bowl champion Christopher Bell. As the short race took the checkered flag, Most had moved up to third and overall sat twelfth in passing points heading into the Qualifiers. Returning to the quarter-mile dirt track for Qualifier 4 from the outside of row two, the Red Oak, Iowa native began making his move towards the front. However, a broken right front shock mount and subsequent flip sent his #92M back to the pits on the hook. Immediately jumping into repairs on the Most Trucking/Advanced Racing Suspensions/Gage Agronomy Services Spike Chassis, the small team rolled to staging when called up for the second B Main. Starting tenth out of sixteen cars, the part-time midget racer marched his way all the way to third, easily advancing into the A Feature. Taking the green from row eleven, Most survived a chaotic, caution-filled race and carved his way to the front as multiple competitors fell out. Once the checkered waved and the dust settled, he had claimed a fifth place finish and set himself up for an excellent chance at Saturday's A Main.

With a long wait on Saturday until the night's biggest races, Most and crew prepared to capitalize on his best showing throughout the years. Experiencing many changes since his 2007 debut, the modified racer from Southwest Iowa was ready when he pushed off for the second B Main in sixth place. Action immediately picked up as each racer tried to claim one of the coveted top seven positions. Going onto the backstretch a couple laps in, a few competitors piled-up ahead and brought him to a stop. Restarting at the back, the Lance Most-owned machine now had a much longer path to reaching a chance to compete for the Golden Driller. Making it through a few more cautions, laps ran out as the car began to move forward.

Finishing his 2019 Chili Bowl with a fourteenth place finish may not have been what was hoped for at the beginning of the day, but the 33 year old was still happy with beating more than 85% of the field. "I'm happy and everyone that's associated with me racing [the midget] is more than pleased with what went on. We'll just come back next year and try to better it, but that's going to be a tough goal to maintain and do. If it wasn't for Tyler Thomas, his crew and the guys at Advance helping us get it back together on our prelim night, we never would have made the B feature and qualified for the A. We didn't really have any expectations other than just go down there and have a good run. It was more in favor of trying to have fun and we had a good run in that heat race with Christopher Bell. Sometimes not having an expectation and going down there, it seems like you always run better. If you really expect to win or run top five, it kinds of puts a lot of stress on you and it seems like something always happens."

Impressing a lot of people with what he can accomplish by only racing a national midget three times per year, Most is looking to expand beyond indoor racing at Du Quoin's Southern Illinois Center and Tulsa in 2019. With a goal of making five total midget starts, he will also spend a bulk of the Summer racing modifieds, stock cars and perhaps late models closer to home in Iowa. Next up for the personable racer is the Ice Breaker at Abilene Speedway in Texas. Practice will be held February 14th followed by racing on the 15th and 16th. Follow along with Josh Most throughout the year on Facebook @EdgeChassisbyMost.