TULSA, OK (January 17, 2026):  One of the exciting parts about championship Saturday at the Chili Bowl is the myriad of elimination races that are staged throughout the day. Starting in the early morning and stretching through the mid-afternoon, racers try to climb one of two ladders which may lead to the coveted A Main.

Some of the competitors had hard luck on their qualifying night, whether caused by an on-track skirmish or a mechanical failure. For them, alphabet soup is a chance at redemption.

Some of them are young drivers making their first or second try at the Chili Bowl. They may be driving obsolete or underfunded equipment owned by friends or family members. Some may be in rent-a-rides. Either way, for them it is a chance at validation.

Some are aged veterans in cars that are also well past their prime. For them, it is a chance at capturing the magic once again.

The fans who turn out early are always hoping that, regardless of the particular circumstances, some racer gets on a hot streak and moves ahead several rounds.

In 2026, we were fortunate to have a couple of racers make significant progress during the day. Two of them raced nine times each. While neither one reached the higher rungs of the ladder, they still captured the hearts of the diehard fans who watched them make their marks on Chili Bowl history.

Two of the competitors with nine races on their resumes were on the same ladder. Previously, the most races that any one driver ran in was seven. That was done by Chris Carroll.

One, Darren Naida, started in an O feature, which turned out to be the second race of the day when the Q Mains were eliminated due to an insufficient number of cars that staged for those events. Naida, who is a Sprint Car driver from Michigan, spent most of the 2025 season racing with the revived All Star Circuit of Champions. He was driving an unusual car for Danny Bates. The car was equipped with a handmade three-cylinder motor that Bates and his father crafted in the span of twenty-four months. Naida’s progress stopped in the first G feature.

While Naida was making his progress, a teenager from Ohio, Mack Leopard, was also gaining attention and fan support. His trek started in the N Main and ended in the first F feature. Leopard won four of the nine races that he entered. His worst finish of the day was in the F that ended his run. He was ninth in that race. In all but one race, Leopard started outside the top ten. For his efforts, Leopard was the recipient of a special award and a bonus of more than $3,000.

A driver on the other bracket raced six times. Jace Park, a young shoe from Kansas, started in the second K Main and he made it to the second F. Along the way, he piled up two wins. His best starting spot was ninth in the K.

Unfortunately, none of the drivers who transferred into the A had to climb more than one run on the ladder.

The pair of B Mains were hard fought affairs.

In the first one, Cannon McIntosh held off Ryan Bernal for the win. Surprisingly, McIntosh was for first driver for Keith Kunz Motorsports to make to the A Main. Corbin Rueschenberg came from row five to transfer, and Tim Buckwalter quietly drove a Seymour car from row seven to get the A Main start. Daryn Pittman, Kyle Cummins, and Gavan Boschele also advanced.

In the second, a Chili Bowl darling, fourteen-year-old Jett Barnes, handily defeated Coleny Copeland and Shane Golobic. Barnes was driving for Kevin and Jordan Swindell. Also making the big show were Kevin Thomas, Jr., Spencer Bayston, Tanner Thorson, and Wout Hoffmans from the Netherlands.

Jaceb Boxell went wire to wire in the first C Main in a race that was botton dominant. Jacob Denney was second, followed by Ronnie Gardner, J.J. Yeley, and Austin Wood.

The second C Main was similar. Chelby Hilton drove an old Beast to victory. He was followed by Late Model star Nick Hoffman, Kyle Jones, Hayden Wise, and Ryan Timms.

Joel Myers captured the first D Main, ahead of Kale Drake. Mason Hannagan, Gunnar Setser, and Steven Shebester also transferred. Steven Snyder, Jr. missed the transfer by one spot after starting in row nine with a car that was patched together after a devastating crash late in Friday’s A Main.

Caleb Stelzig won the second D Main. Dillon Welch, Brecken Reese, Chase Randall, and Jake Newman also moved ahead.

In the first E Main, Ryan Padgett held off fast-closing Steven Snyder, Jr. for the win. Aiden Price, Noah Harris, and Brandon Carr made the transfers.

K.J. Snow prevailed in the second E Main. Justin Zimmerman, Nick Drake, T.J. Smith, and Brant Woods earned another chance to race.

Cap Henry, from Western OH won the first F Main, but he crashed out in the next round. Casey Shuman, driving a throwback car to his father’s days in the Ofixco 21x, was second. Daniel Adler, John Barnard, and Cole Wakim also advanced. Mack Leopard was ninth, ending his day.

Jesse Schlotfeldt, Paul White, Wesley Smith, Cooper Miller, and Jeffrey Newell moved ahead from the second F Main.

Garrett Benson, Leopard, Adyn Schmidt, Kaleb Johnson, and Garet Williamson raced successfully in the first G Main. Naida’s spectacular run ended with a sixth place finish in this one.

The second G Main had Sam Hinds taking the checkers ahead of Rees Moran, Jace Park, Cale Coons, and Braxton Cummings.

Logan Prickett led Jeb Sessums, Kaylee Bryson, Leopard, Naida, and Jacob Dykstra to the line in the first H Main.

Moran, Park, Emilio Hoover, Tyler Edwards, Tyler Robbins, and Preston Norbury prevailed in the second H Main.

Leopard, Ethan Mitchell, Naida, Justin Bates, Connor Lundy, and Nathan Crane were the top six runners in the first I Main.

Park, Logan Julien, Cadan Sarale, Shawn Jackson, Austin Nigh, and Santino Ferrucci were the frontrunners in the second I Main.

Leopard was the winner in the first J Main. T.J. Stark, Naida, Ayden Gatewood, Nathan Crane, and Casey Friedrichsen also came from that race.

Roger Crockett crossed ahead of Ferrucci, Julien, Park, Tyler Hewitt, and Will Gerrits in the second J Main.

Rylan Gray held off Leopard, Fredrichsen, Naida, Brenham Crouch, and Joshua Tyre in the first K Main.

Park, Julien, Cody Brewer, Kade Taylor, Gerrist, and Cole Vanderheiden moved from the second K Main.

In the first L Main, the race was shirtened to eight laps due to the number of cautions during the event. The last one was for Glenn Styres, whose flip in turn four eliminated his chance of advancement. P.J. Gargiulo was declared the winner, with Jim Vanzant, Leopard, Crouch, Naida, and Jon Hughes also transferring.

The second L Main went the full ten lap distance, with Joe Walker getting the win. Grant Schaadt, Gerrits, Brewer, Dayton Shelton, and Corey Mullins making the grade.

Leopard took the first M feature, followed by Shon Deskins, Josh Hawkins, Naida, Kyle Hawse, and Sye Lynch.

Earl McDoulett, Jr., Shelton, Brewer, Hawkins, Pierce Urbanosky, and Matt Johnson came from the second M feature.

Leopard started his record-setting run in the first N feature. Naida, Hawkins, Tommy Colburn, John Hartzman, and Kevin Studley moved along.

Bill Johnson, Urbanosky, Tadd Holliman, Brewer, Ben Covich, and Matt Johnson went forward from the second N feature.

Naida won the first O feature. Colburn, Hawkins, Seth Shebester, Matt Carr, and Chris Hartman advanced.

Ryan Bowers, Holliman, Matt Johnson, Cody Beard, Brewer, and Covich advanced from the second O feature.

Shebester, Chris Hartman, Eric Webber, Kevin Mahoney, and Carr started the day in the first P feature.

In the second P feature, Noah Madler, Jordan Knoght, Sammy Swindell, Henry Chambers, Donovan Peterson, and Mike Sullivan advanced. Swindell crashed out of his O feature.

TULSA, OK (January 17, 2026) – At the ripe old age of twenty-one, Emerson Axsom is a Chili Bowl Champion. “This is like a dream, it’s the best day of my life,” he said after scoring his first national-level win. “I won’t believe this until next year, or until I see my name on the trophy or T-shirt with everyone else that’s won this race.”

The talented driver from Franklin, IN almost missed this year’s event. He found out during the summer that his ride in the Keith Kunz Motorsports stable was in jeopardy. “Last year, I drove Keith’s personal car, and he said that he wasn’t bringing it back. He said that I could still have a seat in one of the other cars, but I wouldn’t have had him as my chief mechanic.” Instead, Axsom would have been in the hands of one of KKM’s army of crew members. Axsom was not pleased with that development, but he stayed calm, hoping that something better would fall into place.

It did. Later in the summer, he got a text message from Kevin Swindell inquiring whether he would be interested in joining his team. That was followed by a telephone call, during which Swindell informed him that he “was going to do this right” by bringing four cars. All would be equipped the same as Logan Seavey’s two-time championship ride for Swindell Speedlab. Axsom jumped at the chance.

Axsom did not get much of an opportunity to talk with Swindell about the car before they arrived in Tulsa. He did talk briefly with him during the Tulsa Shootout, which is THE EVENT for Micros. “He was busy with his Micro stuff,” Axsom explained. They did go out for dinner in the break between the Shootout and the Chili Bowl and they were able to compare some notes at that time.

Swindell has figured out how to make cars fast at the Chili Bowl. In addition to Axsom’s winning car, the team fielded cars for Seavey (fourth), Kyle Cummins (nineteenth), and rookie of the race Jett Barnes (twenty-first). Fourteen-year-old Barnes was also feted as the rookie of the race. No other team had as many cars make the exclusive A Main line-up in 2026.

Axsom’s strategy for the race was simple. He was going to pass Kyle Larson, the pole-sitter, as early as he could and he was going to set his own pace. That way, he figured, Larson would have to press to regain the lead and, maybe, just maybe, he would make a mistake. The plan could not have been better conceived, or better executed.

Axson followed Larson for the first few laps of the race. He got the opportunity to take the lead coming off turn two on lap four. Axsom began to separate himself from the rest of the field. Larson was still in second place when misfortune struck. He came upon a slower car coming off turn two on lap sixteen. He checked up, but another competitor turned him. Larson nosed into the wall and turned over midway down the back stretch. Axsom’s biggest threat was gone.

Not that he had smooth sailing for the rest of the way, mind you. Axsom had a good string of laps in the middle portion of the race. For most of that time, Seavey was lurking in second, looking for an opportunity to pass. But, nothing appeared. Around lap thirty, Justin Grant began to assert himself. He was batting hard with Seavey for second place, and everybody in attendance knew that, if Grant got into second, he would press Axsom much harder that Seavey was doing. Well, Grant did manage to reach second and he did slide Axsom for the lead on lap forty-eight. But, fate intervened. Cummins came to a stop before the lap was completed, so the pass was nullified.

When the race resumed, Axsom darted out to the lead. The battle raged for second place. Seavey regained the position but Grant was persistent. On lap fifty-four, Grant went four wheels above the cushion in a desperate attempt to pass Seavey. There was contact, and Grant tumbled.

That set up a green-white checkered finish, with Swindell’s cars first and second.

The gravity of the situation came to Axsom with eleven laps remaining in regulation. “I looked up (at the scoreboard) it was lap fourty-four. I was like ‘Holy crap, there’s elevent to go. This could be real.’” Axsom concentrated on getting good restarts. “I needed to protect to keep myself from getting slid.”

Axsom was feeling some jitters as the laps clicked off. He was starting to struggle with the big curb that developed coming off turns two and four. He explained that the track was slick up to the berm. “I had to slide up to it,” he said, adding “it’s not my forte to enter above the cushion” like Larson and Daison Pursley were apt to do. He admitted that he made some mistakes, but he was always able to recover.

“Every time I saw a guy’s nose, I just defended.” That accounted for a little rub with teammate Seavey who tried to turn under him when Axsom bobbled coming off turn two.

On the final laps, Kevin Thomas, Jr. got a good run on Seavey to take over second. He made an attempt to pass Axsom coming off turn four on the final round, but he came up a bit short. “I saw KTJ on the bottom. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to slide myself, so I just stayed on the bottom.”

Thomas noted that the rash of late cautions was a big benefit to him. “I stuffed a piece of mud under my throttle pedal. I got to the bottom by mistake, and the mud went away. It was an old man’s game down there. The long run was not my play. The caution every four laps was good.”

Thomas joked that he may have taught his protege, Axsom, a few too many tricks of the trade. “He stayed on the bottom. He’s smarter than I thought,” he said as he nudged Axsom in jest.

Local favorite, Hank Davis, charged into third at the end of the race. He was aboard the Seymour car once again, a car that he rode to a preliminary night victory in a previous Chili Bowl attempt. “I fell back to twelfth or thirteenth, and I got pissed off,” he said. He added that he started trying to make adjustments on the car. Whatever he did worked, as the long runs helped him to regain lost position.

The pole shuffle set the starting order for the A Main, which was scheduled to go fifty-five laps. Larson and Axsom earned the front row, followed by Blake Hahn and Seavey. Christopher Bell and Daison Pursley were in row three, with Briggs Danner and Davis next in line. Grant and C.J. Leary were the last of the preferred starters. Then came Cannon McIntosh, the lone KKM driver in the field, and Barnes. Three of the next four cars were from the Wood stable, Ryan Bernal, Colby Copeland, and Shane Golobic. Nestled in that bunch was Corbin Reuschenberg. Tim Buckwalter and Thomas made up row nine. Daryn Pittman, Spencer Bayston, Kyle Cummins, Tanner Thorson, Gavan Boschele, and Wout Hoffmans completed the field.

It took two attempts to get the race started. The original effort was washed out by Copeland’s miscue in turn one.

On the second try, Larson took the lead, with Axsom, Hahn, Seavey, and Bell in tow. Axsom made his move on lap four to grab the lead. Larson remained in second, followed by Seavey, Hahn, and Bell. Grant joined the top five by lap ten, nudging Bell off the scoreboard.

A pivotal moment occurred on lap sixteen, when Larson got jammed up in traffic and tipped over midway down the back stretch.

Axsom maintained the lead over Seavey in the middle of the race despite several cautions for minor incidents. The hometown crowd was disappointed during the lap twenty-six caution when Hahn’s car suddenly stopped on the track, ending his bid for Chili Bowl glory.

Following that caution, a spirited duel developed between Seavey and Grant for second position. That continued through lap fifty-four, when Grant went all in to try to regain second from Seavey.

On that restart, Pursley was penalized for jumping the start. He was sent back two positions, which moved Thomas into contention in third. He took over second immediately and showed his nose to Axsom.

Axsom applied the lessons learned from his mentor, Thomas, and remained steady in the bottom groove to preserve his victory.

Following Axsom, Thomas, and Davis on the bonus lap were Seavey and Briggs Danner, who ran a quiet but steady race. Pursley, McIntosh, Bell, Bayston, and Thorson rounded out the top ten.

The 2026 Chili Bowl Rookie of the Year is Jett Barnes, who was the only event rookie to make the 24-car field.

The 2027 Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink will take place January 11-16, 2027, inside the SageNet Center at Expo Square. Fans unable to attend the Chili Bowl Nationals can watch every lap live at http://www.floracing.com.

For continued updates on the Chili Bowl Nationals, fans can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with @CBNationals.

RACE RESULTS:

40th Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink
Tulsa Expo Raceway (Tulsa, Okla.)
Driller Day presented by QuikTrip
Saturday, January 17, 2026

Event Count: 387

JST Motorsports A-Feature:

A Feature 1 (55 Laps): 1. 39A-Emerson Axsom[2]; 2. 14K-Kevin Thomas Jr[18]; 3. 29S-Hank Davis[8]; 4. 39-Logan Seavey[4]; 5. 55I-Briggs Danner[7]; 6. 86-Daison Pursley[6]; 7. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[11]; 8. 21CB-Christopher Bell[5]; 9. 1S-Spencer Bayston[20]; 10. 88-Tanner Thorson[22]; 11. 21-Daryn Pittman[19]; 12. 52-Blake Hahn[3]; 13. 55X-CJ Leary[10]; 14. 51-Gavan Boschele[23]; 15. 27W-Colby Copeland[14]; 16. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[15]; 17. (DNF) 87-Justin Grant[9]; 18. (DNF) 87W-Ryan Bernal[13]; 19. (DNF) 39G-Kyle Cummins[21]; 20. (DNF) 17W-Shane Golobic[16]; 21. (DNF) 1A-Jett Barnes[12]; 22. (DNF) 29-Tim Buckwalter[17]; 23. (DNF) 1K-Kyle Larson[1]; 24. (DNF) 14J-Wout Hoffmans[24]

TULSA,OK (January 16, 2026) – For the fourth consecutive year, Logan Seavey won the Friday preliminary night feature at the Chili Bowl. It was his fifth preliminary night win of his career.

“At the point of the caution (on lap seventeen), I didn’t really know where my opportunity was going to come,” Seavey said. “I went from third to the lead to fourth in what felt like the blink of an eye.” Indeed, Seavey actually fell to fifth briefly before making his surge. “Justin (Grant) slid me and I looked up and I was in fourth real quick., so I kind on had to settle back in and (I) made a few minor adjustments with my car. It was like instantly I came over the top really hard and then I could still kind of roll around the bottom and make speed. The bottom was almost greasy early when it kind of bailed on ot and, then, you know, there was still a lot of grip down there when it did come in. There was always speed down there. It was kind of like real narrow on entry. They didn’t really work the entries at all, but then the exits had a bunch of grip. We kind of got a reset there and kind of went back at him and Gavin (Miller) had a bunch of speed and then made like one bad lap and I was to his bumper and slid him and didn’t seem like I could really get away from him very well. We were able to get it together at the end.”

Grant, who was second on the night, decided that after he lost the lead to Seavey, it was better to lock in than to risk crashing in a go for broke maneuver to get the win. “I mean, you want to lock in, right? I think there’s maybe a little more balance between running first and second as opposed to running second and third. I think, you know as well sell out, try and run second if you want to have a shot at it on Saturday. It’d be really tough to do that from the B Main. You really don’t want to be in an E Main or whatever it is now if you crash the thing, but, at the same time, you’re wasting your time if you’re not locked in.”

Grant recognized that he had nothing for Seavey late in the race. “He was really, really strong there late. I felt really good tonight in the qualifier. Really good first part of that feature there. The first probably two thirds of the feature, and then got to struggling there a bit. Lapped traffic was kind of a saving grace for us a little bit, it kind of slowed the pace down enough that I could, that I could get back to Logan and I felt like we were all right when the pace dropped a little bit. The entry speed was there when it was high, I had trouble landing where I wanted to land, and that just made me really susceptible to getting slid. Then it’s tough when you’re taking on water, you’re just swinging, trying to get out of the hole at that point.”

Daryn Pittman threw a last lap hail Mary that came up a bit short in his bid for second. “I had it at the white, and I had no idea what to do with it going into turn one. I could hit the bottom pretty good in three and four for a few laps in the restarts, but I knew it wasn’t the fastest way around the racetrack after a few laps. It’s what got me there, I hit the bottom again in three and four coming to the white and knew I dad to . . . If I opened my entry, I felt like Justin was probably going to have a run off of four so I knew I was going to get slid. So, I just choseto slide myself and hope it was enough  and I kind of felt like I knew that if I could get off two I could somehow get it to the line. It just wasn’t enough. It came out a little bit short. He was able to cross over me. I haven’t seen it, but obviously I’m assuming he must have entered on the top and got crossed over. He slid himself in three and four and I thought I hit the bottom again pretty solid coming to the checkered and at least made it look closer than it was going down the back stretch.”

Pittman was critical of his performance. “I try to tell myself to run harder and harder and just trying to figure it out. I don’t hustle a car historically very well. In the Midget, you have to. It’s always just really about me finding what’s comfortable and figuring out how hard can I push the car to the point of either being fast or failure.”

The thirty lap A Main went to the post with Grant and dutchman Wout Hoffmans on the front row. Behind them were Seavey and Pittman. Steven Snyder, Jr. and Hayden Reinbold occupied row three, followed by Gavin Miller and Mason Hannagan. Ronnie Gardner and Matt Westfall made up row five.

At the drop of the green, Grant surged ahead of Seavey, Snyder, Hoffmans, and Pittman. That group remained intact through the first ten laps. However, soon thereafter, Miller cracked into the top five.

With Grant maintaining the lead, the action heated up for the remaining positions in the top five. By the halfway mark, Snyder was second and Miller was third. Seavey slipped back to fourth.

Following a caution on lap seventeen, Seavey regained the third position. By lap twenty, he was second and pressing Grant for the lead. Within a couple of laps, Seavey slid past Grant for the lead.

Grant had to switch to defense, as Miller and Snyder were looking to advance. The action was intense for a couple of laps. Miller got a big run coming off the inside of turn four and his momentum carried him past Grant and all the way up to the outside wall. Miller began to climb the wall and began to flip wildly. Snyder had nowhere to go. The impact with Miller’s car caused substantial damage to Snyder’s mount.

The accident shook up the running order for the four lap dash to the finish. Seavey was on the point, followed by Grant, Hoffmans, Jesse Love, and Pittman. For the first two laps under the green, Hoffmans threw hard sliders at Grant in turn three before falling in line behind him. That opened up the inside line for Pittman, who got a good run off turn four to take third.

On the white flag lap, Pittman slid Grant for second, but Grant turned back under him coming off turn two. Grant held Pittman off for the final half of a lap to take second.

Hoffmans and Giovanni Scelzi followed Pittman across the scoring loop for the final time. Love crossed in sixth before launching into a violent flip near the entry to turn one. Ace McCarthy, Reinbold, Gardner, and Hayden Wise completed the top ten.

Nine heats opened the program, with victories going to Matt Westfall, Santino Ferrucci, Reinbold, Jack Berger, Hoffmans, Scelzi, Austin Wood, Miller, and Adyn Schmidt. The four qualifier races belonged to Reinbold, Snyder, Grant, and Hannagan.

Love and Broedy Graham shared the B Main wins. Clinton Boyles and Carson Bolden captured the C Mains. Josh Most and Andrew Felker prevailed in the D Mains.

A new record attendance was reached on Friday, with 387 out of the 406 entries received confirmed at the draw. The previous record was 381, set in 2021. Friday’s Hard Rock Hotel Casino Tulsa field was comprised of 83 entries. Going into Saturday, the flip count has grown to 46, with all drivers able to walk away.

Saturday’s soup is set to begin at 9:00 A.M. (CT) with double Q-Mains, and is presented by QuikTrip.

The 40th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink takes place January 12-17, 2026, under the giant roof of the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Okla. Fans unable to attend the Chili Bowl Nationals can watch every lap live at http://www.floracing.com.

For continued updates on the Chili Bowl Nationals, fans can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with @CBNationals.