Chili Bowl: Chad Boat wins the Race of Champions over Kyle Larson

Boat led the 20-lap race flag-to-flag in the No. 84x Toyota midget. He edged out Kyle Larson, who started eighth, for his first VIROC win. He earned $6,363.63 for his effort.

“With that many good cars, starting position is crucial, but it’s really no different than Saturday night,” Boat said. “You have to put yourself in the position to be up front and set the pace of the race. We were lucky enough to do that with the draw tonight, but we had a great Pristine Auction/K&C Drywall/Lawson Dry Wall Toyota Spike. Everything was working well and it gives us some momentum going into Friday.

“Obviously we have a job to do Friday before we worry about Saturday. We need to lock ourselves into the pole shuffle to give us a good starting spot. We need to make sure we put the horse before the (kart).”

Boat, the 25-year-old son of 1997 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals victor Billy Boat, qualifies on Friday night. He has 13 CBN starts with three A-Main appearances and a career-best 10th-pace finish in 2014.

Boat has been pleased with the speed in his midget this week.

“The car is working really well,” Boat said. “I felt really good yesterday on practice day, but you don’t really know until you’re on the same track as a lot of good cars. That’s one of the great things the VIROC race does.

“This is definitely the most momentum we’ve had going into a Friday night and hopefully we can carry it on.”

Tanner Thorson, Tracy Hines and Brad Sweet rounded out the top-five finishers in the 19-driver field.