The 2026 Chili Bowl Nationals are finally set to get underway at the SageNet Center in Oklahoma on January 12. With multiple races scheduled throughout the week, the action will build toward Saturday’s finale, when a new champion will be crowned. Ahead of the green flag, Tony Stewart has underlined just how demanding the Chili Bowl is, even going so far as to say it can be tougher than the Daytona 500.
Stewart, a three-time Cup Series champion, is also a two-time Chili Bowl winner. He said, “The same guys that run every week at a NASCAR track are the ones you see at the Daytona 500.”
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“The Chili Bowl is drastically different. Chili Bowl has 370, 380 cars. You’re getting the best of the best come around trying to make a 24-car field on Saturday night.”
The Daytona 500 is a long race that provides a lot of cushion to a driver whose qualifying effort isn’t very good. There is plenty of distance and time to make it to the front. But that’s not the case in the Chili Bowl.
Stewartcontinued, “Your heat race is probably one of the most important events of the weekend because the points you get there are going to seed you for the qualifier and that’s going to seed you for the mains, for the preliminary night. There are so many good drivers and teams out there that you can’t really afford a mistake.”
The 54-year-old explained that a driver can recover from a bad pit stop or a pit road speeding penalty in the Daytona 500. But one cannot do so that easily in the Chili Bowl. This tough corner that the midget event puts drivers in is what makes it so enticing.
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Christopher Bell mirrors Stewart’s opinion
Bellis scheduled to enter the 2026 Chili Bowl Nationals as a driver and owner for the first time in his career. He is a three-time Chili Bowl champion and is heading to Oklahoma purely for the love of the event. When asked to explain the differences between the Chili Bowl and the Daytona 500, he pointed to the contrast in participants, echoing a similar view to Stewart’s.
Bell said, “The Daytona 500 is the biggest race of the NASCAR schedule. But it’s only the NASCAR guys. Whereas anybody can enter the Chili Bowl. So, it’s kind of a barometer for drivers where everybody is there. You get a lot of top drivers from different disciplines and people who don’t compete against each other all the time. It’s a great show.”
One thing appears to be certain from the words of these drivers. Several factors have to go right for a driver to win in the Chili Bowl Nationals. And the shorter length of races and the nature of midget racing make it so that even the tiniest of mistakes are too costly.
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