BREAKING NEWS - Prodigal Son returns to Tulsa: Kyle Larson a surprise late entry for Chili Bowl
After one year off, 2020 and 2021 Chili Bowl National Champion Kyle Larson is returning for another heapin' serving of the Chili Bowl this week in Tulsa, Okla.
Larson, who originally planned to not be at the largest midget race of the year, changed course when he saw the possibility of what is being dubbed the “Dirt Double”.
Larson is running the Wild West Shootout Late Model race in Vado, New Mexico for the second year. The Wild West Shootout is another crown jewel racing event that takes place over 10 days. The Shootout has off nights during the week including Thursday which gives Larson the chance to fly to Tulsa, head to the Tulsa Exposition Center and attempt to qualify for the Saturday A-Main.
Just after 8 am CST Tuesday morning, Larson called his former sprint car team owner Keith Kunz to congratulate him on Tanner Carrick’s Monday Preliminary Night win. Somehow, the conversation reportedly then morphed into Larson asking Kunz for a ride for Thursday night's qualifying race.
Kunz agreed to find Larson a ride and didn't have to look far, putting the 2021 NASCAR Cup champion in Carrick's backup midget, the Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 98K sponsored by DH Horton, FloRacing and HendrickCars.com.
For the “Dirt Double” to work, Larson practically has to make the A-Main out of his Thursday night feature, meaning that he must finish in first or second, which would then secure him a spot in Saturday's A-Main.
But even if he makes the A-Main, Larson has a task to complete earlier Saturday, as the Wild West will potentially run its Saturday feature early to beat the cold weather snap that will be affecting the local area along with the rest of the country. If the timing and logistics work out, Larson will fly to Tulsa after the Wild West Late Model feature and attempt to make it into the Chili Bowl host facility for the A-Main -- but nothing is promised.
Larson famously stated last year that he would not run the Chili Bowl for a second straight year due to the small purse associated with the event, and instead would race the Rumley #6 Late Model at Wild West.
Although he claimed his actions were not in response to Larson's original plan to skip this week's event, Chili Bowl co-founder Emmett Hahn subsequently announced this past October that this year's winner would receive $20,000 instead of $10,000, which possibly could have played into Larson's eventual change of heart.
Complete list of every Chili Bowl winner:
- 1987: Rich Vogler
- 1988: Scott Hatton
- 1989: Sammy Swindell
- 1990: John Heydenreich
- 1991: Lealand McSpadden
- 1992: Sammy Swindell
- 1993: Dave Blaney
- 1994: Andy Hillenburg
- 1995: Donnie Beechler
- 1996: Sammy Swindell
- 1997: Billy Boat
- 1998: Sammy Swindell
- 1999: Dan Boorse
- 2000: Cory Kruseman
- 2001: Jay Drake
- 2002: Tony Stewart
- 2003: Dan Boorse
- 2004: Cory Kruseman
- 2005: Tracy Hines
- 2006: Tim McCreadie
- 2007: Tony Stewart
- 2008: Damion Gardner
- 2009: Sammy Swindell
- 2010: Kevin Swindell
- 2011: Kevin Swindell
- 2012: Kevin Swindell
- 2013: Kevin Swindell
- 2014: Bryan Clauson
- 2015: Rico Abreu
- 2016: Rico Abreu
- 2017: Christopher Bell
- 2018: Christopher Bell
- 2019: Christopher Bell
- 2020: Kyle Larson
- 2021: Kyle Larson
- 2022: Tanner Thorson
- 2023: Logan Seavey