22nd Annual Dodge Chili Bowl Nationals Fires Off Next Week!
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TULSA, OK. – As has become tradition over the past couple of decades, the racing world’s attention shifts squarely upon Tulsa, OK, next week as the 22nd Annual Dodge Chili Bowl Midget Nationals takes place January 8-12 atop the ¼-mile Tulsa Expo Raceway clay oval inside the QuikTrip Center.
From humble beginnings in 1987 that attracted just over 50 cars and a slim crowd, the Chili Bowl Nationals has evolved into a blockbuster event with jam-packed grandstands each night and an indoor pit area bursting at the seams with top guns from all variety of racing disciplines.
And, like the fans, the racers come in increasingly vast numbers with each passing year it seems, as this year’s entry list has reached 282 entries from 27 states as well as Canada and Australia. Last year’s edition of the Chili Bowl featured a record number of 267 competitors, a record that will likely fall by the way side next week.
Few could have imagined way back in 1987 that the Chili Bowl would develop into the mega-event that it has become, with NASCAR stars Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne racing alongside all variety of high-speed chauffeurs, some handsomely paid and some just getting by from one race to the next.
From the nation’s top open wheelers in the Sprint Car and Midget ranks to some Late Model and DIRT Modified aces such as 2006 Chili Bowl winner Tim McCreadie and even straight-liners like Gary Scelzi and Cruz Pedregon, you have a true cross section of the American auto racing scene represented inside the building formerly known as the Tulsa Expo Center.
True, the likes of Stewart, Kahne, Yeley, Leffler and others frequented the Chili Bowl before making the successful leap to the purported “big-time”. But they’ve continued to come back to Tulsa each January, with Tony Stewart’s two Chili Bowl triumphs coming in 2002 and 2007, well after his IRL championship in 1997 and subsequent shift to NASCAR.
You may ask yourself, why?
Stewart, familiarly known as “Smoke Johnson” around Tulsa, perhaps put it best a couple of years ago. “Where are you going to go in the country where you have 250 of the best all in one place for four days running for one prize? You win this race you’ve got bragging rights for a year. I don’t care what you do for the rest of the season, you could drop out of every race for the rest of the year, but you still got bragging rights that you won the Chili Bowl.”
Of course, that was three years ago, when there were “only” 250 entries and “only” four nights of racing. A car count that swelled from 167 to 249 in the span from 2002 to 2005 prompted the addition of a Tuesday night Pre-Qualifying event last year, when 267 took part.
The reasons are countless why thousands upon thousands spend much of the year planning the annual trek to Tulsa. A key reason is the atmosphere, the “feel” of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals. Bottom line, it’s fun. That keeps Tony Stewart coming back; that keeps Dave Darland coming back; that keeps Mark Bush coming back; that keeps Johnny Murdock coming back. That keeps the fans coming back.
The Chili Bowl got that “feel” in the early days. And while the event has grown in leaps and bounds, falling under the nation’s microscope (well, the world’s for that matter), the Chili Bowl still possesses that same, undeniable charm it obtained in the early years. It’s the big event with the same comfortable, laid-back, grassroots feel to it that drew countless fans and racers for the first time. And more often than not, vows were made after the first visit to never miss another one.
No point chases to worry about, few worries at all to be sure. And, when all is said and done and the final checkered flag falls on Saturday night’s feature, one talented (and lucky) driver leaves with that coveted Golden Driller trophy. And bragging rights for a year.
Lucas Oil presents the Chili Bowl Nationals live on HBO Pay-Per-View for the first time on Saturday night, January 12. The live broadcast on Saturday, January 12 begins at 8:00 p.m. ET (5:00 p.m. PT), with an immediate pay-per-view replay and additional replays on Sunday. The HBO Pay-Per-View racing telecast has a suggested retail price $24.95 and will be available to more than 61 million pay-per-view homes in the United States and Canada and millions more worldwide. HBO Pay-Per-View is the leading supplier of event programming in the pay-per-view industry. Ordering information is available at http://www.hbo.com/.
Great find on this article. Thanks for posting it. Unfortunately, though I have cable, I cannot get ppv for the Chili Bowl because that is available to digital subscribers only. It isn’t my cable anyway, it comes included in the place I rent.
Oh well, maybe next year.