The Chili Bowl: Tulsa's Hidden Gem

(Photo: Aaron Bearden/Motorsports Beat)

By Aaron Bearden

It’s been nearly a week since the conclusion of the Chili Bowl Nationals. Teams have all slowly left the River Spirit Expo Center, as has the dirt they raced on – stashed away nearby to use again next year. Media outlets have shifted their attention to this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, and all that lingers from Tulsa are memories and symptoms of the infamous Chili Bowl Flu.

Most of the racing world will forget about the event until it comes back around next January. But for the majority of those that experienced it in person — drivers, teams and fans alike — the fun had and memories made will stick with them for the rest of their days, beckoning many back to Oklahoma for years to come.

The Chili Bowl is a peculiar event, one of the racing world’s best-kept secrets for many years. Even to those within 10 miles of the makeshift track in Tulsa, it’s possible to let the entire week go by without knowing the race is going on. If it’s particularly windy out, you can even drive on the road next to the Expo Center without hearing the 300+ midget cars roaring around the temporary track inside of it.

This race isn’t the Indianapolis 500 or the 24 Hours of Le Mans. You aren’t likely to see billboards plastered with advertisements for it – the only racing billboard I spotted in the entire week was an old sign along a Tulsa highway showcasing October’s Formula One race at Circuit of the Americas.

But make no mistake, the Chili Bowl is a premier event. It doesn’t need intricate social media campaigns or popular concert lineups to attract fans because the unique atmosphere and racing are enough for it to sell out on word of mouth alone.

The environment at the Chili Bowl is unlike any other I’ve experienced in racing. It combines the pressure and star power of the Super Bowl with the drinking and camaraderie of a Super Bowl party.

Started in 1987 by Emmett Hahn and Lanny Edwards, the Chili Bowl began as a two-day show with 52 entrants and a big-name inaugural winner in Rich Vogler. In the three decades since the event has grown much larger in scale. The past five years have averaged more than 300 entrants per year, leading event organizers to spread the racing out over six days.

Running in mid-January with little in the way of competition, the week-long spectacular is essentially grassroots racing’s version of Spring Break. Everyone heads down to partake in the festivities. Tony Stewart worked in the infield again this year, rocking Rico Abreu’s mullet hat along the way. NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell and FOX Sports analyst Jeff Gordon made the trip to Tulsa. Landon Cassill and Conor Daly chose to try their hand at competing in the event. Open wheel legend Bobby Unser popped up in the Expo Center.

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The race format can be challenging for a newcomer to learn, but broken down its quite simple. Each driver is given the opportunity to race on two days – a qualifying night and feature Saturday. The field is split into fifths going into the week, and each group runs on one of the five preliminary nights to position themselves for the final showdown.

Those drivers competing are filled with intensity and motivation. The others show up to hang out, enjoy the races, sell some merchandise and party at night’s end.

What plays out each evening is a series of high-risk races, where one position or move could make or break an entire Chili Bowl run. The massive number of entrants means each prelim night provides a driver lineup strong enough to put on a feature by themselves at a local track, and with the field gridded by passing points instead of finishing position prior to the A-Main, and only the top two drivers clinching their way into the feature each evening, every participant is left scrambling to make up as much ground as they can and position themselves for Saturday success.

This leads to an environment that requires near-perfection to succeed – all while many are running against competitors they only see once per year.

Make a mistake in your heat and you wind up in a C-Main on your prelim night. Slip up in the C and you could be trapped in an O-Main – essentially doomed with 14 races to transfer through to make the feature. With each race on Saturday you survive, you have to start at the tail of the next one and move your way back into a transfer position. This is referred to as the ‘alphabet soup,’ and no one’s made it to the feature from further back than the F-Main.

If you think such a fate could only befall poor drivers, or “squirrels” as they’re referred to with seeming affection by those in the dirt community, think again. Former USAC star and NASCAR veteran JJ Yeley suffered that very fate in this year’s edition, leading him to mount a charge to his L-Main before a mistake on a pass attempt left him crashed out and done for the day.

Yeley had entered the day knowing he was already essentially defeated. He just tried to make the most of it.

“You have to take the good with the bad,” he said. “You put yourself in a bad position. The year I came from so far back and set a record, there’s so many things that come along with it. It comes with being in the right flight, having the right cars, getting the right brakes, getting cautions. And you don’t always get that.”

Most don’t fair quite as poorly as Yeley on their prelim nights. But even for those that succeed early on, the risk of a week-ruining crash persists throughout each race.

Rookie Karsyn Elledge’s 2019 performance offers a great example. She claimed her heat race on her prelim night and needed only a serviceable drive in her qualifier to make the night’s A and have an opportunity to secure a spot in a C or better for the big show. But Elledge was involved in a crash during her qualifier and wound up relegated to an H-Main come Saturday.

Amid the chaos a group of competitors survive, and the field is cut down to a 24-car feature at night’s end with potential for a couple provisionals. The favorites have a way of taking care of business — Kyle Larson, Rico Abreu and Christopher Bell all won their preliminary features — but along the way are occasional surprises. World of Outlaws regular David Gravel secured a spot in Saturday’s A main for the first time with a second-place finish on his qualifying night despite limited dirt midget experience, and Jake Swanson drove from the C to a top-five in his night’s feature to salvage a difficult qualifying night.

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When the night’s races are complete, the few high finishers celebrate their runs while others curse their circumstances for Saturday. But most move on quickly.

Regardless of the end result, the real festivities begin shortly thereafter.

Fans familiar with most modern racing tours know that drivers and teams are traditionally quick to leave at the end of a race, but that isn’t the case in Tulsa. Instead many choose to stick around and enjoy the celebration of another successful night. Tools disappear in place of beverages. The familiar hum of midget cars circling around the quarter-mile oval is replaced by the loud, pulsating rhythm of a popular tune echoing from various trailers – one of which is equipped with a disco ball.

Drivers stick around and hang with their crew, family and visitors. A walk of the pit area post-race could lead to the sight of anyone from Bell, Kunz and Gordon to Kevin Swindell chatting with those around them depending on the night. There are few barriers or security guards. Instead everyone is accessible, open and willing to engage with those around them for the majority of the night.

Those that do leave the Expo Center early often don’t go far – moving the party on to one of the many local watering holes or the nearby Hard Rock Casino. Some turn in early to rest up for the next day, but it’s not uncommon to hear of a driver or crew member enjoying the Tulsa sunrise before heading to bed.

This is the scene for each of the opening five nights. Favorites like Bell, Logan Seavey and Justin Grant make statements with wins through the week, while others struggle and leave themselves mired in the soup. But the party continues on unabated, carrying on well into Friday night.

The race week doesn’t become all business until Saturday.

But when the time comes, things get quite serious.

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Race day starts early — 10 a.m. local time — with a short hot-lap session proceeded by the first O-Main. Fans slowly trickle in – coffee and breakfast in their hands, tired eyes still struggling to fight off a lack of sleep amid the sights and fumes of race cars. They take their seats and prepare for a full day of racing.

Drivers in the early stages of the day race for pride. Anyone starting in a D-Main or earlier knows their chances of making the finale are minute. But with a proper run, a driver can still showcase their abilities and generate buzz that adds value to their sponsor and may yield a few last-minute merchandise sales.

Those lucky enough to be in a C or later often don’t show up until later in the day, sleeping in and ensuring they’re ready for the task at hand. When race time draws near they head to the trailer, throw on their driving suit and strap in for their features.

The pre-race festivities kick off late in the evening, and it’s immediately apparent that the race carries special distinction. Drivers from throughout the week are introduced by the state or nation they competed in, with each area’s flag carried by one of its top representatives. Certain states draw a large pop from the crowd – the native Oklahoma and dirt-heavy Indiana and Illinois are among the favorites.

Speaking of the crowd, they’re as loud and passionate as any in racing. The Chili Bowl’s seating is intimate, not far removed from that of a top-tier outdoor dirt track. But those in attendance are loud and playful – particularly in the stands outside of Turn 2, where the Top Row Rowdies can be found. That group spent the majority of the pre-race festivities screaming out various chants and trading frisbee throws with the drivers on-track.

Eventually the chants and salutes give way to the national anthem, played on a trumpet per the event’s tradition. Everyone makes their way off-track, and those racing in the day’s premier features prepare to strap in and compete. The pole shuffle is contested to see how the top 10 will line up, then come the main races. First are the twin B-Mains, where seven drivers each secure a spot in the finale.

Then the moment of truth arrives.

Feature time.

The final race is the highlight of the entire weekend, a challenging 55-lap main event on an ever-changing track. The winners and runners-up from the week’s preliminary races fill the top 10, while those that survived the alphabet soup and drove in through a B follow.

Just making the feature is an honor – proof that a driver was capable of outperforming 300+ other competitors. But for a select few, it isn’t enough. Winning the grand event is all that matters.

The most notable of the elite group are Larson and Bell.

They rarely compete on NASCAR circuits, with Bell still working his way up the ladder. But on dirt tracks there are few rivalries quite like Larson and Bell. They’re dirt racing’s equivalent of the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning war that dominated the NFL’s AFC conference through the mid-2000s – right down to the distinctions of each driver.

Bell is like Brady. Smooth. Consistent. Talented. Most importantly, a winner on the biggest stage. He entered the weekend’s festivities looking for his third-straight Golden Driller, a mark that would place him just one win behind Kevin Swindell for the most consecutive triumphs in the race’s 33-year history.

Larson shares similarities with Manning. He has stats that rival Bell’s, and gives the Oklahoman a fierce challenge wherever the pair race. But on the biggest stage — the Chili Bowl — the Californian has yet to win. He came close for the second-straight year in Saturday’s feature, but was overtaken by Bell on the final circuit after making a pair of mistakes.

He emerged from his machine moments later to stunned faces, shocked and devastated by a victory that slipped away. Whether he’ll manage to pull off a victory or two like Manning ultimately did in his time remains to be seen, but the young star will keep returning each year to take another shot at dirt midget racing’s signature event.

Kyle Larson after one of the toughest losses of his life. pic.twitter.com/AGV5XN46Eb

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) January 20, 2019

Larson and Bell are largely responsible for the Chili Bowl’s rise to nationwide prominence in recent years. The duo are a special set of talents, crossover NASCAR stars that have succeeded in every series they’ve competed in. Team owner Keith Kunz praised the pair, calling them stars unlike any he’s seen in his lengthy tenure.

“These two are a cut above and I think a lot of that has to do with their time in NASCAR,” Kunz said. “Going 200 miles per hour. They come back here and everything slows down. We’ve seen that before these two, when Jason Leffler came back, they were just better.

“That’s what happened to these guys. They come back here and run a lot. They run 30 sprint car and midget races a year and that’s abnormal, and that makes them better.”

The pair’s success in the Chili Bowl has defined the race for the past three years. But perhaps more important for the event has been their rise to stardom elsewhere. The popularity gained by the duo with their NASCAR success has led to added eyes on every race they run.

When they traded race wins in New Zealand over the holiday break, it made headlines in the racing tabloids. The same is true whenever Larson takes a victory at an Indiana Midget Week date, or Bell triumphs with the World of Outlaws. They don’t have to run any dirt races, but their genuine love of the racing brings them back to grassroots facilities around the world multiple times per year.

With it comes added exposure and, upon seeing their genuine enthusiasm for the racing, bolstered interest. And they seem to hold more enthusiasm for the Chili Bowl than any other race they run.

Larson and Bell have seen success and disappointment on some of NASCAR’s grandest stages. Bell has won and lost titles in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Larson’s felt joy and heartbreak at Daytona International Speedway, having both won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and lost a Daytona 500 in the closing laps.

Each driver has experienced some of the biggest highs and lows in American motorsport. But when they come to Tulsa, the race somehow seems to mean even more. Bell’s euphoria upon winning his third-straight Chili Bowl Saturday was matched only by Larson’s contrasting dysphoria.

Justin Grant drove home third with the newly-formed RAMS Racing in an effort that would seem to be a strong underdog performance, but his face showed the disappointment of a close loss post-race. Tyler Courtney drove through the B-Main and a mid-race spin to finish sixth, but showed clear frustration afterward upon realizing that with better fortune he could have won the race.

Chili Bowl race week elicits some of the strongest emotion you’ll see from the race’s competitors, even with the party-like atmosphere that accompanies it. Whether it be Larson, Bell or one of many disgruntled finishers in an F-Main, there’s genuine passion on display from the majority of the field throughout the week.

That’s because of one fact that sometimes gets lost in the midst of the event even after three decades of growth and prosperity.

The Chili Bowl is more than just another race or an excuse to have fun in the middle of the traditional racing offseason. It’s a true crown jewel – the ultimate test of skill and consistency for grassroots midget racers across the globe. The Tulsa Expo Center might as well be Indianapolis Motor Speedway for those that compete on it, because Saturday’s feature is their Indy 500 – and it might actually be more challenging to qualify for.

Everything about the Chili Bowl is special. The community. The tradition. The racing.

Those that attend the event have known that for a long time.

Now the rest of the racing world is starting to catch on.