On night three of the 24th Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals, five-time and defending champion of the event Sammy Swindell looked as though he would easily take the checkers in Thursday night’s Bully Dog Qualifier, but it was not to be.

With two laps to go in the race, Swindell was caught up by a flipping car on the front stretch while leading the race.

After the incident took Swindell out of commission, Darren Hagen inherited the lead and went on to take the checkered flag. Behind him came Tony Roney and New Zealand’s Brad Mosen in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. All three drivers are now locked into their first Chili Bowl finale event.

“I am a little in shock,” Roney, who finished 2nd said. “I never expected to do this; my goal was to get into a ‘C’ Main (Saturday night), which you had to make the ‘A’ tonight to do that. At the end, I thought I might get third if I played my cards right.  A little luck and it happened, it was awesome.”

Shane Cottle finished 4th, followed by Kyle Larson in 5th and NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne in 6th.

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