The Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals: It’s an event that is known across the motorsports landscape and annually attracts more than 300 entries to the River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Okla.
Though the Chili Bowl is known as the Super Bowl of Midget Racing, drivers from numerous disciplines make the annual pilgrimage to the temporary quarter-mile come to compete at the quarter-mile dirt bullring that is Tulsa Expo Raceway.
Only in Tulsa during January can race fans expect to see drivers with winged sprint car, non-winged sprint car, NASCAR, Indy car, short-track and even NHRA backgrounds battling for a coveted spot among the 24 starters in the 55-lap championship feature.
In 34 editions of the event, the roster of winners reads like a list of racing Hall of Fame inductees.
Sammy Swindell boasts a record five Chili Bowl victories and along with his son Kevin’s four straight wins in the event from 2010-’13, the Swindell family has won more than a quarter of the Chili Bowl main events.
Oklahoma native Christopher Bell is a three-time Chili Bowl winner, with wins in 2017, ’18 and ’19, while two-time victors are Rico Abreu, Tony Stewart, Dan Boorse and Cory Kruseman.
Single winners include the likes of inaugural Chili Bowl victor Rich Vogler, as well as Scott Hatton, John Heydenreich, Lealand McSpadden, Dave Blaney, Andy Hillenburg, Donnie Beechler, Billy Boat, Jay Drake, Tracy Hines, Tim McCreadie, Damion Gardner, Bryan Clauson and reigning winner Kyle Larson, who finally picked up a Chili Bowl score in his 13th attempt.
However, as impressive as the list of Chili Bowl winners is, the list of marquee drivers who haven’t found their way to the victory stage in Tulsa is perhaps just as impressive, if not more so.
Jerry Coons Jr., a champion in all three of USAC’s national divisions, has yet to experience glory at the Chili Bowl, though he has qualified for the Saturday headliner 17 times.
Justin Grant, who recently picked up the USAC Silver Crown Series title for the first time, hasn’t won the Chili Bowl despite landing on the podium in 2017 and ’19 and earning three prior preliminary-night triumphs.
It’s the same story for USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series and USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget Series champion Tyler Courtney, a past preliminary-night winner and multi-time Saturday feature starter. He’s never cracked the top five in the Chili Bowl finale.
Chris Windom, a USAC sprint car and Silver Crown titlist, has seven starts in the Chili Bowl main event but still counts the it among the “races I want to win” rather than having it on the list of races he’s already conquered.
Past World of Outlaws champion and Knoxville Nationals winner Danny Lasoski, now retired from driving and serving as the crew chief for Mason Daniel on the Outlaws tour, finished second three times in the Chili Bowl, but never visited victory lane in 14 feature appearances during a 17-year period.
Ron Shuman, who won nearly everything there was to win in midget racing and holds the record with eight Turkey Night Grand Prix victories, never won the Chili Bowl main event. He made the finale nine times and was a runner-up twice.
USAC Triple Crown champion Dave Darland, who has won most everything there is to win in midget and non-winged sprint car racing, has been trying to win the Chili Bowl for nearly 30 years. His best finish is second (2008) in 15 main-event starts.
Brad Sweet, Daryn Pittman, Kasey Kahne, Brady Bacon and Tanner Thorson are others who have tried but have fallen short of Chili Bowl glory, at least to this point. They have all played a role in the finale in recent years.
Few races are prestigious enough, and challenging enough, that simply having a chance to win them is as telling as actually having won the event. The Chili Bowl is one of those rare gatherings where it is viewed as a major achievement to make the show, let alone actually win it outright.
That doesn’t mean the big-name drivers who aren’t yet on the list of Chili Bowl winners aren’t motivated to join it, however. With each year that goes by, that motivation grows even stronger.
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