“They say the best in the business come to this race so where are they at?”
That was Tanner Thorson at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals last year when asked about the absence of Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell — two of the absolute mainstays of the Tulsa Expo Center Raceway in Oklahoma.
“I don’t want to say too much and burn any bridges, but I’m here,” Thorson said in the year after he won his own Golden Driller Trophy in 2022. “I’m a little bit sour about it to be honest. I wish those guys were here. I have a really good race car again, and I want to race the best, and if the best are supposed to be here, why aren’t they here?”
What a turn of events as Kyle Larson decided last minute, literally on Tuesday morning, to call Keith Kunz and ask if he could drive an unused backup car sitting in the back of their hauler.
Larson, who won the race in 2020 and 2021, will be busy racing a Late Model on Wednesday and Friday but has Thursday night off at Vado Speedway Park. Who just so happens to qualify on Thursday nights at the Chili Bowl?
Well, that would be Tanner Thorson.
“I’m glad he is going to be here,” Thorson said on Wednesday night. “It’s about time.”
When Thorson won the race in 2022, it came against the likes of Bell and Larson, before both drivers opted not to continue racing in the event. Both Cup Series starts had expressed dissatisfaction with the purse, but ultimately Bell isn’t here because Joe Gibbs Racing no longer permits it, but Larson started racing Late Models this week because it was basically the Chili Bowl purse six times a week.
Chili Bowl founder and promoter Emmett Hahn doubled the win bonus from $10,000-to-$20,000 this year.
“Like I said, this is the Super Bowl of Midget racing and if he is the best, he needs to be here,” Thorson said. “I’m happy he is here because it makes everyone here step up their game. I’m going to go out and do what I need to because it’s all hands on-deck.”
So, here is the set-up:
Larson and Thorson are the favorites for the two transfer spots into the Saturday Championship Night main event that comes with finishing first and second in each preliminary feature. However, it’s a generally stacked night that also features Spencer Bayston, Brady Bacon, Gavan Boschele, Jesse Love and CJ Leary.
If Larson doesn’t automatically transfer into the feature, he probably isn’t coming back on Saturday night because he is racing at Vado through the weekend but has just enough time to fly back to Tulsa for the main event.
And while his presence makes it harder for everyone to either make the feature or outright win it, everyone also wants to go through Yung Money to do it, too.
That was a point of disappointment for Logan Seavey, who won last year in the first year without Bell and Larson in the field. No one is putting an asterisk next to the Seavey and Swindell Speedlab name in the record book, but like Thorson, Seavey wants to validate himself against the best.
It’s especially true after Larson beat Seavey in November to win the Hangtown 100 at Placerville.
“Anyone who is here wants to prove themselves against the best in the world,” Seavey said. “That’s why this race is such a big deal. It’s in the winter and anyone can make it out here and without guys like him, it’s still the Chili Bowl and it’s still a big deal, but you want to be the best.
“It makes a difference when he is here.”
Seavey and Swindell made a statement on Monday when they looked unbeatable in the Race of Champions and that’s all the more reasons why they want to pit their No. 39 against all comers.
“I felt better in Race of Champions that I did in the feature here last year,” Seavey said. “We drove out to a big lead and I gave up a little bit to Thorson but it didn’t matter because the track had rubbered up. I feel way more confident than I did last year and I embrace all of it, all the challenges, and anyone in this building the way we’re running right now.”
Let’s go.
Buddy Kofoid, the two-time USAC National Midget champion, and a young driver uttered in the same air of talent as Bell and Larson felt the same way.
“I want to beat the best,” Kofoid said. “I’m excited to have him back in the building and if we’re going to win this race, I want it to be against him if he can make it to Saturday night.”
Chase Briscoe expects to be in that Saturday night main event feature for the first time since 2017 and he expects Larson to be too. And while he recognizes that as a challenge to get in the way of his own pursuit of the Golden Driller, Briscoe is also just a fan of the discipline and says this race is better for the participation of his fellow Cup Series contender.
“Of course, 100 percent,” Briscoe said. “Any race in the world, if Kyle Larson is in it. You have to beat the best. As far as I’m concerned, in my generation, he is the best of all-time. This race, we talk about how it’s the hardest race to win, but that’s only true if the best guys are in it, and the best guy is back in this race.
“I was excited and found it really cool that Kyle is coming back to run it. I think it just shows how much he loves racing, that he found a way to run a Late Model race in New Mexico and the Chili Bowl on the same night. That’s just cool, right?”
Hank Davis of Oklahoma, who will compete in his second straight feature on Saturday after finishing second in the Tuesday prelim, echoed that sentiment.
“To be the best, you have to beat the best,” Davis said. “And I want to beat the best. It’s cliché but it’s true. I’m excited. I know he was upset about what the race paid but I guess he is going to come back and give it an effort for 20.”
A reference to the win bonus, something Thorson expected too.
“I knew he was going to come as soon as I saw the purse announcement,” he said. “I knew it. I even though he might do it the way it played out. When you talk the talk about the purse, you have to walk the walk and come back.”
Now it sets up a showdown on Thursday between three Golden Drillers winners from 2020 to 2022 but also the 2023 winner and everyone who wants one in 2024.
It’s on. Â
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.