Ringing in the new year across the country for most involves confetti poppers, fireworks and devouring plenty of special food dishes.
For motorsports fanatics, the new year is christened by screaming midgets racing around a tight quarter-mile clay oval inside the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Okla.
As of Jan. 4, 370 drivers from multiple disciplines have entered the Jan. 8-13 event with dreams of hoisting a Golden Driller trophy.
Among the drivers looking to snag a taste of Chili Bowl glory is NASCAR Cup Series regular Chase Briscoe.
While his day job entails wheeling the No. 14 Ford Mustang, the Hoosier will make his ninth attempt at the Chili Bowl as he looks to kickstart his year on a high note.
Briscoe has always dreamed about competing in the Chili Bowl.
“I remember watching it all the time as a kid. Truthfully, for me, growing up sprint car racing, I never really had been introduced to midgets outside of when they would come to midget week,” Briscoe told SPEED SPORT. “Always wanted to go run that race.”
He got his chance in 2015.
“Jeff and Jill Davis saw a Facebook post I had made and said, ‘Hey, do you want to drive our car? We’ll take you there.’
“We went, and I remember starting in a heat race with Kyle Larson thinking that was the coolest thing ever,” Briscoe recalled. “Here I was, racing this guy that I’d watched on TV. I got spun out right in front of him and we all crashed together.”
For Briscoe, what stuck out to him throughout his first Chili Bowl run was the precision that’s needed to find success.
“I just remember how hard that event was, really from the get-go. My first kind of experience in it, I learned really quickly how everything kind of has to go your way,” Briscoe said. “One hiccup can really affect your whole week.”
Despite the incident in his prelim night, Briscoe saw it as a learning opportunity. Starting off in the L-feature, Briscoe wheeled his No. 33c up to the I-feature before his run came to an end.
“I kind of got to do a soup run,” Briscoe said. “I think I went through like five mains my first time there. Got a lot of honestly track time that I wouldn’t have got if I didn’t have all the issues on my prelim night. Just was a really cool event.”
Since his first Chili Bowl bout, Briscoe has made the feature once (2017). It was a short-lived experience, however, as he flipped and finished 22nd.
One of the many x-factors that makes the Chili Bowl unique in its 38th season is the massive entry list of teams and drivers, including racers from various disciplines and backgrounds. Driver ages range from 14 to 68 this year.
Through that, brings drivers from various disciplines and backgrounds. Driver ages range from 14 to 68 this year.
For Briscoe, one of the most difficult aspects of the Chili Bowl is not knowing every driver’s tendencies on the track.
“That’s the hard part I feel like. On the NASCAR side, and even the sprint car side and stuff. I know how everybody races,” Briscoe began.
“I know their tendencies, I know what to do in certain situations. But when I go to the Chili Bowl, I have no idea what half the guys do and what to expect. So, I feel like that’s what makes it a lot of fun. You just have to go there and react.”
Briscoe pointed to the “raw natural form” of midget racing that makes it unique, “because there’s not as much of a mental side of it.
“The NASCAR side of things like that, you can play some games on restarts and things just because you know what each guy’s gonna do,” Briscoe said.
“At Chili Bowl, you have no idea what they’re going to do. So that part’s a lot of fun for me. But yeah, it’s definitely interesting, going there and having 400-something entries. It’s a who’s-who, but then at the same time, you just have some people that have never raced in their life.
“All kinds of spectrum of experience and age and things like that. I don’t think there’s another race in the world that has that.”
With his Cup Series schedule filling the majority of his calendar between February to November, the Chili Bowl is one of the few events outside of NASCAR Briscoe can compete in.
While he may only have a handful of time on the side to head back to his dirt roots, Briscoe feels “it’s like riding a bike in the sense of I know right away how to go fast and what I need.
“It’s the racing part that I feel like it takes me all the way till kind of the end of my prelim night, I’m finally getting comfortable and just kind of knowing what I need to do in certain situations,” Briscoe said. “Outside of that, that’s the hard thing for me not doing as much anymore, just feel uncomfortable.”
Nailing down the timing of sliders and passes may take longer for Briscoe to readjust to. However, this year’s run may up the challenge as he’s set to take a new engine package that he hasn’t run yet.
With only two hot-lap sessions before racing begins, getting comfortable quickly will be the name of the game.
As far as what he feels he needs to become a factor, it’s the slightest of improvements.
“I need like an extra tenth to put me kind of in the top 10 of guys there,” Briscoe admitted.
When asked what he feels would be a successful Chili Bowl week, Saturday night’s 55-lap finale is his main goal.
Briscoe, however, feels there’s more on the table that can be pursued.
“I feel like if we could run top 10 on Saturday, I feel like that’s a realistic goal,” Briscoe said. “I think we can get up there in the mix, it’s just a matter of me being on my game.
“I feel like I’m always at 90 percent when I’m in there. This year, I did run a little bit more dirt stuff than I have in the last couple years. I definitely would say, making the main on Saturday.
“If we don’t make the main on Saturday, I feel like it’s a big disappointment of our week.”