2023 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals Entry List

[rpm72x]

5 hours ago, jumper12a said:

There are easily 100 drivers on that entry list that have the ability to win that race. The car quality is unmatched. Every year the equipment level in that building rises. More & more teams step up their game each & every year. There were at least 150 first class cars this year. Until you’ve been there and seen everything first hand, you have no argument.

140 of the first class cars should be ashamed of their efforts then. People predicted most of the top 10 finishers prior to a lap being turned. I think many had the idea that there’s only a couple teams fielding cars that are capable of winning this race….and that the drivers were somewhat interchangeable. But if there were 150 cars there, that all were capable of winning…..that strengthens the argument that most all the entries are just fluff. 

[The Rabbitt]

I can't believe I'm with Jumper on this... but there is 100 pieces of equipment there that can win this race..  Does it mean they have the drivers to do it? Hell no... Now.. does it usually come down to the same few.. yes.. But when you have top teams, they get the top talent.. Bondio has been an A-main staple for years with his 47.. this year. No. Thorson was a brand new team. Both Seymour cars made the main... a bit of an upset even tho that team is one of the premiere northeast teams. Kunz had 15 cars entered. 2 made it.. Rico and Kaylee...

[WheelsUpHammerDown10]

6 hours ago, jumper12a said:

There are easily 100 drivers on that entry list that have the ability to win that race. The car quality is unmatched. Every year the equipment level in that building rises. More & more teams step up their game each & every year. There were at least 150 first class cars this year. Until you’ve been there and seen everything first hand, you have no argument.

I don’t see how attending this race vs. watching every night on Flo gives any advantage to anyone to objectively consider how many drivers have an actual shot at winning the race.

It seems to me that only fuels your proximity bias wanting the Chili Bowl to be something from a top-end competitive stand point that it just simply isn’t. 
 

Is the atmosphere in the Expo center unbelievable? By all accounts yes (without first hand experiencing it)

Are there a ton of top-end sprint car, midget, non-wing guys there mixed in with some late model, pavement and NASCAR guys making it one of the most diverse fields in racing. Yes.

Do they need to figure out a way to run more than five races in a span of 6 hours on Saturday so their online and some of their in person crowd doesn’t get bored, Yes.

Can 100 to your now 150 cars win the Chili Bowl? Not a chance. Just because you race for KKM doesn’t mean you have a chance to win if you don’t have the talent to match the equipment. 

 

 

[BobMiller]

First off, enough with the F-Bombs. Acronyms substitute the need for that just fine.

I missed the first night of the Tulsa Shootout because I had another commitment that I couldn't back out of, or I would have watched that too. I also watched the entre Chili Bowl from start to finish with the exception of going into the kitchen to make dinner within earshot of my TV.

The Chili Bowl was televised a bunch of years ago. I don't remember now if it aired live as it was happening live or if it went live to tape, but that would have been the last time I watched it. Baumes and I are friends and he's constantly telling me that the Chili Bowl is the best event in the world and that I can't knock it until I tried it. I invested close to 2 weeks watching everything unfold as it happened. That's the beauty part of streamed broadcasts. It's the next best thing when you can't actually be there. I also watched better than a dozen California Midget shows throughout the season last year.

My goal for watching the whole thing from start to finish was that I had hoped to catch the same fever Baumes has. I was hoping that I could get a little more versed in Midget racing so that he and I could bench race in the off season and that I would have a more solid opinion about the inner and outer workings of Midgets. What I came away with is that it definitely takes a special breed of race fan. I'm not it.

The Tulsa Shootout is really nothing more than a 1,000+ kids trying to make a name for themselves to advance in other forms of racing. I do see and respect the need for this event. If even 1/4 of them choose racing as a career, this is where or next Tony Stewart's and Jeff Gordon's will come from. 

I disagree with Baumes that the Chili Bowl has the star power he claims it has, but then he goes to the Chili Bowl every year. A lot of the people he sees as stars are people he's seen race in previous Chili Bowls. Truthfully, Baumes is a talent scout in a way. He sees the potential in some of these people long before they become mainstream. Who ever heard of Cory Kruseman before he won the Chili Bowl? I'll bet Baumes did, but the Chili Bowl made him mainstream.

As far as mainstream stars not being there, a bunch of them feel the promoter is making too much money. I thought the racing was fine without them, so Baumes wins that argument. But on the other hand, the lack of mainstream star power probably kept a bunch of PPV subscribers away from purchasing the broadcast. He loses that one.

Next year, I won't watch either show until Friday and Saturday. The amount of screwing around in those shows is ridiculous enough sitting at home. I can't imagine being stuck in the grandstands that long. The broadcast team used for the Flo stream knows their Midgets and were fine with cars on the track, I'll give them full accolades for that. But they absolutely sucked - worst broadcast team ever when the track was idle. No entertainment value what so ever, and way too young to have historical stories to tell.

 

 

[The Rabbitt]

1 hour ago, BobMiller said:

As far as mainstream stars not being there, a bunch of them feel the promoter is making too much money. I thought the racing was fine without them, so Baumes wins that argument. But on the other hand, the lack of mainstream star power probably kept a bunch of PPV subscribers away from purchasing the broadcast. He loses that one.

Did he really lose that one? Larson was running the late model.. which was shown on Flo... They got the money either way. 

[Ric]

This thread...jeepers.  It was around Thursday I almost started 2 new threads titled "I hate the Chili Bowl" and "I love the Chili Bowl".   

 

 

[BobMiller]

1 hour ago, The Rabbitt said:

Did he really lose that one? Larson was running the late model.. which was shown on Flo... They got the money either way. 

Larson wasn't at the CHILI BOWL.  This thread is about the Chili Bowl.

[Josh Bayko]

1 minute ago, BobMiller said:

Larson wasn't at the CHILI BOWL.  This thread is about the Chili Bowl.

He isn’t going to be at the Chili Bowl next year either, for what it’s worth.

[BobMiller]

1 minute ago, Josh Bayko said:

He isn’t going to be at the Chili Bowl next year, either, for what it’s worth. 

If you ask me, it isn't worth much because I didn't miss him and I doubt many others did either. A sprinkling of star power is really all it needs. When it gets over saturated with star power, it looks like heat stacking and favoritism when they all qualify.

[dirt-in-my-beer]

I looked forward to waking up Sunday and watching the B's and the A.  Fast forwarding the track prep, driver intros, parade laps with women in the bikini's the back of a pick up truck waving to the crowd is my only option.  No way I'm sitting through that nonsense at 1:30am Sunday morning.

The announcing and camera work is decent.  What's missing is in-car cameras.  I mentioned it to Flo but didn't get a response before the Chili Bowl.
There were times in the B's when drivers advanced many positions on restarts and I'd love to see how they made that happen with their in car camera's.  Most of them already carry a go-pro.

[Josh Bayko]

1 minute ago, BobMiller said:

If you ask me, it isn't worth much because I didn't miss him and I doubt many others did either. A sprinkling of star power is really all it needs. When it gets over saturated with star power, it looks like heat stacking and favoritism when they all qualify.

I agree Larson (and Bell) not being around isn’t really going to impact the crowd. It might impact mainstream appeal some, but it’s not like the race has a ton of that anyways. However, Smoke not being around did impact the show negatively. The surface and prep sessions were a disaster without him there and even longtime fans have complaints about that. 

[BobMiller]

108 flips during the Tulsa Shootout. No idea how many they had during the Chili Bowl week because they stopped counting when Torgerson was ejected. I don't know if you caught this, but Jack Hewitt's interview was spot on when he spoke of Larson and Bell. Rico Abreu's interview was pretty much identical on that subject, only he is one of them - and active at the Chili Bowl. Of course he would say that.
 

 

[BobMiller]

I have to double dip here. Most impressive to me throughout the 2 weeks was Kaylee Bryson. This girl can wheel the hell out of a midget... fearless. She's 21 years old, she's cute as hell and she keeps her clothes on. Instead of being a swimsuit model, she lets her driving ability do her talking. I've got high hopes for her. 

[The Rabbitt]

My favorite comment from all of it was Santino Ferruci in the booth being asked about Kyle Larson going to Indy and his response was "is the purse enough?"

Im on board with Bryson as well as Jade Avedesian... they both can wheel...

[GrandStrunkRailroad]

12 hours ago, jwt said:

Of all the disciplines you referenced they each were represented by top drivers with maybe the exception of north east modifieds. What race is more diverse? Non wing drivers  drivers are most certainly near the top on a national level. 

Max McGlaughlin was there and had a terrible event, but that’s what happens sometimes.

Tim Buckwalter was there and made the A for a second consecutive year.

There was representation of NE Modifieds and Timmy showed up pretty strong.  

[WheelsUpHammerDown10]

4 minutes ago, GrandStrunkRailroad said:

Max McGlaughlin was there and had a terrible event, but that’s what happens sometimes.

Tim Buckwalter was there and made the A for a second consecutive year.

There was representation of NE Modifieds and Timmy showed up pretty strong.  

And I know he has graduated on to late models but Timmy McCreadie still cut his teeth in northeast modifieds and still races one from time to time. 

[luke81]

So my Chili Bowl recap:  Anyone who thinks 150, or even 100, or 50 of the entries (entries meaning car + driver) have a realistic shot at winning is absolutely silly.  And that doesn't matter, it doesn't degrade the quality of spectacle the event is, so I'm not sure why it needs to be defended so staunchly.  The event is amazing even with 20-ish possible winners.    

There is absolutely no good reason any event that wants to be a "premiere" event should be such a terribly long TV event.  They could make taking a pee an hour long process, sheesh.  But it's cool that the race is so easily accessible and actual production is very good.    

The need to address the track at some point.  Sorry not sorry, it's been getting worse and worse every year over the last 2-3 to the point of not being very competitive now.  The A was a train and some of the later prelim races were pretty glassy.  Because of the surface I think it's reasonable to say less than half of the A main field has any opportunity to get to the front.  Maybe it's time to run all but the B mains early in the day and totally till, cut, water and reset the track before the B's and the A.  Or something, i dont know.  But the track surface has been sucking bad.      

Here's a stat to ponder when talking about how competitive this race is:  There were 2 passes for the lead this year, and one last year, zero official passes for the lead in 2021, and 1 in 2020.  So in the last 220 A main laps there have been total of 3 passes for the lead.  That's not very competitive, and a lot of that falls on the one lane track they've been giving.  I saw a comment from someone unfamiliar with midget racing on a video that sums it up perfectly.  He said, "Are they allowed to overtake?"  

 

But with that said, the Chili Bowl is still one of the coolest racing events on the planet.           

[Ric]

1 hour ago, BobMiller said:

108 flips during the Tulsa Shootout. No idea how many they had during the Chili Bowl week because they stopped counting when Torgerson was ejected. I don't know if you caught this, but Jack Hewitt's interview was spot on when he spoke of Larson and Bell. Rico Abreu's interview was pretty much identical on that subject, only he is one of them - and active at the Chili Bowl. Of course he would say that.
 

 

I saw this and it was a gem.  And I didn't miss Larson either.  Anyway, I was watching him race while Chili Bowl track prep was going on.  And then some.

[Ric]

1 hour ago, BobMiller said:

I have to double dip here. Most impressive to me throughout the 2 weeks was Kaylee Bryson. This girl can wheel the hell out of a midget... fearless. She's 21 years old, she's cute as hell and she keeps her clothes on. Instead of being a swimsuit model, she lets her driving ability do her talking. I've got high hopes for her. 

Brent Crews...local (to me) NC kid.  He did pretty darn good.    

[con7]

Not only are there not 100-150 cars who can win the whole thing, but there aren’t even that many who can win a prelim night. When guys have multi year streaks  of prelim night wins, you know there are a few haves and many more have nots. 

Someone had a good idea on Twitter to turn Friday into a Hard Knox event, where the non-qualifiers could have another shot at the A Main. You’d probably have to cap the amount of entries and also limit the Hard Knox piece to only prelim A main qualifiers, but it might be a way to spice the event up. 

[Jack Brady]

Tim McCreadie was up to 10th in the A-Main, I think he finished 11th. And Buckwalter finished inside the top 10. This is why I wish I could of been there because we missed a hell of a lot of racing by not being there.

Did anyone watch the Pre-Show on Mav-TV? Was interesting that the first ever event actually had flat track motorcycles and a few other classes by before they switched to just midgets. And interesting enough is that the first Chili Bowl event only had 35 cars total.

[JAR1972]

7 hours ago, The Rabbitt said:

My favorite comment from all of it was Santino Ferruci in the booth being asked about Kyle Larson going to Indy and his response was "is the purse enough?"

Im on board with Bryson as well as Jade Avedesian... they both can wheel...

Agree both Bryson and Avedisian both can wheel.  Bryson moving to Silver Crown this year and Avedisian is only sixteen.  Taylor Reimer is another one, she can wheel especially in time trials.

[RJO]

2 hours ago, con7 said:

 

Someone had a good idea on Twitter to turn Friday into a Hard Knox event, where the non-qualifiers could have another shot at the A Main. You’d probably have to cap the amount of entries and also limit the Hard Knox piece to only prelim A main qualifiers, but it might be a way to spice the event up. 

That’s what they do on Saturday. All the cars that have not yet qualified get a second chance on Saturday. Every car that raced all week gets a chance to try to make the A main on Saturday. They start racing at 9:00 AM.

[scottnorwood]

2 hours ago, Jack Brady said:

Tim McCreadie was up to 10th in the A-Main, I think he finished 11th. And Buckwalter finished inside the top 10. This is why I wish I could of been there because we missed a hell of a lot of racing by not being there.

Did anyone watch the Pre-Show on Mav-TV? Was interesting that the first ever event actually had flat track motorcycles and a few other classes by before they switched to just midgets. And interesting enough is that the first Chili Bowl event only had 35 cars total.

Yea but in that first Chili Bowl only 15 of the 35 drivers could really win.

[jwt]

“I wasn’t there but” I am sure there are some out there that have been and not thought it was great but I haven’t met one. The Chili bowls bread and butter is the teams and fans in attendance and they are not complaining. 
 

I thought the track was worse then in past years. 
 

hard to cover short track races, they do a good job showing the leaders as well as the fight for qualifying spots but rarely get to see somebody charging through the field. Again, I understand it is no easy task with short track racing.