Often an overused cliché, this saying is 100% accurate when it comes to the Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout. In 5-10-15 years, you’ll look back at these runnings of the “Mecca of Micros” and notice some of the biggest names in dirt racing, maybe even all of Motorsports.

The Shootout is the older cousin – created one year earlier in 1986 – to the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals and has been molding future superstars for almost four decades now.

To this day, only four drivers own the honor of topping both events (Swindell, Clauson, Bell, Larson), but hundreds more have contested both indoor season staples.

So, keep in mind as you’re watching FloRacing next week that you could be watching the next legend of our sport.

Ahead of the 38th annual “Mecca of Micros,” we look back on 10 of the most recent cases where drivers first flashed their brilliance at the Tulsa Shootout.

CHRISTOPHER BELL – Before winning three consecutive Chili Bowls (2017-19) and becoming a NASCAR Cup Series championship contender with Joe Gibbs Racing, CBell first hit the map in 2011 as a 16-year-old kid wowing in the micro sprint ranks. He was 3rd in Outlaw Non-Wing that year and later won the 2018 Winged Outlaw title at the Tulsa Shootout.

KYLE LARSON – The back-to-back Chili Bowl champion (2020-21), 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion with Hendrick Motorsports, and overall global racing sensation was anything but that back in 2009 when the then 16-year-old “Yung Money” landed on the front row of the Winged Outlaw A-Main next to Kevin Bayer. He came back a year later and won a rare “Silver Driller” at the 25th anniversary event in the Outlaw Kart division.

KEVIN SWINDELL – Prior to his iconic four-straight Chili Bowl titles in 2011-14, KSwin first felt a Golden Driller in the early 2000’s in the Flat Kart ranks. The son of Sammy proceeded to rewrite several records along the way until SpeedLab became his next focus.

BRYAN CLAUSON – The 2014 Chili Bowl champion first earned a Golden Driller back in 2003 when he beat eventual World of Outlaws ace Shane Stewart for the Winged Outlaw title. BC later evolved into one of the greatest talents in the history of the United States Automobile Club.

BRADY BACON – For more than a decade, Bacon was the youngest winner in Stock/Outlaw history at the Tulsa Shootout. He won the 2004 A-Class title at 13 years, 11 months and eventually added three more Golden Drillers among his 30 A-Main starts. You might’ve heard of him as a four-time USAC National Sprint Car champion.

TYLER COURTNEY – “Sunshine” spent most of his youth rising through the micro sprint ranks and started 10 Shootout A-Mains from 2012-17 before ascending the ladder with a 2018 USAC National Sprint Car title, 2019 USAC National Midget title, and 2021-22 All Star Circuit of Champions title. Unfortunately, his 22 combined starts in the Tulsa Expo is the most among drivers without a Golden Driller on their mantle.

CORY ELIASON – From 2014-17, the Visalia, Calif. native recorded six top-five finishes in eight Tulsa Shootout A-Mains. He was a consistent contender for the Golden Driller before eventually becoming a World of Outlaws winner and All Star Circuit of Champions regular.

BLAKE HAHN – The grandson of Chili Bowl and Tulsa Shootout founder, Emmett Hahn, Blake has been an Expo staple since his Jr. Sprints title in 2006. He later made history by becoming the first to sweep Winged Outlaw and Outlaw Non-Wing in 2011. This year, he enters the building as the reigning back-to-back ASCS National Tour champion.

JASON MCDOUGAL – You could point at two nights in J-Mac’s career as being arguably the most defining of his career. You all absolutely know of his 2021 Chili Bowl alphabet soup run which solidified his status, but before that was his three Golden Drillers in one night (Stock Non-Wing, Outlaw Non-Wing, A-Class) at the 2017 Tulsa Shootout which put him on the map.

EMERSON AXSOM – Now a USAC National Sprint Car Series Rookie of the Year with Clauson-Marshall Racing, this Franklin, Ind. Gasser first hit the national scene in 2020 when he topped the Winged Outlaw program at only 16 years old. He made even more waves last winter when he added another Golden Driller in Stock Non-Wing and nearly doubled down in Outlaw Non-Wing when he leapt Jeffrey Newell’s right rear in a photo finish at the checkered flag.

Other names worth mentioning as Shootout heroes first include Emerson Axsom, Chris Windom, Rico Abreu, Michael Faccinto, Donnie Ray Crawford, Joe B. Miller, Andrew Felker, Tyler Thomas, Zeb Wise, Ayrton Gennetten, Jonathan Beason, and Shane Stewart, among others.

The 38th Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout can be seen exclusively on Flo Racing from Wednesday, December 27 to Saturday, December 31.