TULSA, Okla. — Binks Motorsports will make the trek from Michigan to Tulsa, Okla., to compete in the team’s first Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire.
The upcoming event will open with qualifying races starting on Monday, Jan 9, and will run through Saturday.
With the support of Champion Parts, Binks Motorsports will enter two Spike chassis’ piloted by rookie Darin Naida (Adrian, Mich.) and Silver Crown veteran Kody Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.). Although this is the first time the team has entered, owner Dan Binks has some past experience in the event, having been a part of two previous Tulsa outings.
During last year’s Chili Bowl, Damion Gardner entered into the competition with a Binks Motorsport engine. Unfortunately, an incident during a qualifying night left the team out of contention for Saturday’s main event.
Behind the wheel of the No. 3p midget will be Naida. He is deemed a rookie for the Chili Bowl this year, but his resume shows he is more than that. The Michigan native has over 80 micro sprint feature wins, which helped lead to three micro sprint championships. In the 2022 season, Naida leveled up to a 410 sprint car, earning 410 Sprint Car Rookie of the Year at three tracks.
On board the No. 4p midget car, Swanson will bring his Silver Crown experience to the table. Swanson has earned many titles, including seven USAC Silver Crown championships, four Hoosier Hundred victories and three Little 500 wins. Throughout his seven Silver Crown titles, he has become number one on the list of all-time series winners.
“I didn’t really set out to start a midget car team, but here we are,” Binks said. “Some of my earliest memories in racing go back to being at Ascot with my dad, so I’ve always followed this part of the sport even though I was on the road racing side all of my career. And a few of those relationships is what got this midget car program going. We’ve got Champion Parts on board and even through this is a wildly unpredictable week, I think we are as prepared as we can possibly be, so hopefully we can have a good week in Tulsa.”
Slusarski Excavating and Paving as well as Candy Dynamics will join Champion Parts on the side of the Binks Motorsports machines.