TULSA, Okla. — Each season when teams converge in the SageNet Center for the running of the Chili Bowl Nationals, the largest Midget car event in the world, a handful of active NASCAR drivers join the fray in pursuit of the famous Golden Driller trophy.
No fewer than eight drivers who competed in one of NASCAR‘s three national divisions last year are entered to compete in this year‘s Midget car racing extravaganza.
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They include defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, defending NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love and Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs, among others.
However, if you look a little closer, you‘ll find even more involvement from NASCAR personalities in the Chili Bowl pit area.
Five active NASCAR Cup Series drivers are entered in the Chili Bowl this year as car owners, including Larson, Bell, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch. Another familiar face in the NASCAR garage, Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Blake Harris, is the car owner for Love this year at the Chili Bowl.
Car ownership is a growing trend among NASCAR personalities at the Chili Bowl, especially for those who grew up coming to and racing during the Chili Bowl.
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Bowman is a perfect example. He has been traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma each January for more than a decade to compete in the Chili Bowl, first as a driver and now as a car owner and crew chief for his own team.
That shift from driver to owner/crew chief was a gradual one for Bowman, who is fielding cars this week for drivers C.J. Leary and Briggs Danner.
“I think this is like the 11th year I‘ve brought a car to the Chili Bowl, and I‘ve driven five or six times out of those 11 years,” said Bowman, who made 10 Chili Bowl attempts as a driver during his career but never qualified for the Saturday championship feature.
The stress, according to Bowman, has less to do with being a car owner and more to do with being the guy who makes the final setup decisions on his race cars.
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“I‘m making all the setup calls on these cars,” said Bowman. “Trying to get those calls right is probably the most stressful part of the week, but it‘s a lot of fun, and I really enjoy this event.”
So far this week in Tulsa, Bowman‘s setup calls have been spot-on. Danner, who was in action Monday night, finished second to Larson in the preliminary feature to lock into Saturday‘s championship feature. His second driver, Leary, races Thursday night.
“Briggs has been really fast both years he‘s driving for me,” Bowman said. “I think he probably could have, should have, would have won last year. He made some really conservative decisions there at the end (of Monday‘s feature) to take the locked in spot, which I‘m all good with. That was a good night for us.
“With C.J., we‘re such close friends that it is probably the more stressful one of the week for me. Thursday is inherently always the hardest night of the week. In my opinion it is the most stacked night.”
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While Bowman‘s time as a driver at the Chili Bowl is effectively over — he admits he doesn‘t really fit in a Midget anymore — his competitive spirit remains. If he can‘t win the Chili Bowl as a driver, he wants to win it as an owner.
“I want to win this event, and my best chance is to do it with not me in the seat probably,” Bowman said. “I‘m definitely having fun with it.”
Christopher Bell
Bell, a three-time Chili Bowl champion driver, is the latest NASCAR competitor to field his own equipment in Tulsa.
After previously racing for Keith Kunz Motorsports and CB Industries inside the SageNet Center on the temporary quarter-mile dirt oval, Bell made the decision to shift gears and build his own team from the ground up for the 2026 event.
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“Last year I drove for KKM, and when I left the event, it just kind of really hit me. I felt like that chapter of my career was behind me,” said Bell, who is fielding a car for himself and Australian Kaidon Brown this week. “I said, ‘I wanna try something else.‘ My goal isn‘t to drive for myself. Honestly, my goal was to have two drivers I enjoy being around.
“Kaidon was always part of the plan, but unfortunately the guys that were on my list (for the second car) already had commitments. So, I was then like, “Well, I guess I‘ll just drive it.‘”
From the moment the checkered flag waved for the NASCAR Cup Series finale last November at Phoenix Raceway, Bell has been solely focused on the Chili Bowl. It‘s been a gratifying process for a driver who grew up attending the Chili Bowl long before he was a competitor.
“From the car owner side, I just enjoyed the prep process and the shop work and assembling the cars,” Bell said. “Thinking of how we‘re going to setup our pit area, the handling of the food, all that stuff. I think I just enjoyed all the extracurriculars of it.
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“The Chili Bowl and the Tulsa Shootout is literally the perfect event for me to spend my offseason. I don‘t have to put much into it during my regular day job, then when the offseason comes, I‘ve been full-time working on these things and preparing for this week.”
Bell kicked off his tenure as a car owner at the Chili Bowl in fine style Monday when he won the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Race of Champions for the fourth time.
Winning inside the SageNet Center is one thing, but doing it in his own equipment meant just a bit more. The goal, of course, is for either himself or Brown to do it again Saturday night.
“I think it‘s definitely going to be more special,” Bell said. “Even the Race of Champions just felt very rewarding to win with myself crew chiefing, my father-in-law helping working on the cars, my best friend working on the cars, it definitely meant more.
“Certainly if I could do it with another person driving, it would be icing on the cake.”
