It's the event that many motorsports enthusiasts wait for all year long. Six straight nights of racing from the 37th Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals are set to begin Monday night, January 9 at the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

We get you ready for the big event in this edition of "Everything You Need to Know" on FloRacing. 

The Race

The Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals is an indoor racing event held every year at the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. More than 350+ are entered for this year's event with hopes of claiming a coveted Golden Driller trophy. 

The inaugural Chili Bowl Nationals were held in 1987. Since that time, the race has become the most prestigious race in Midget racing and one of the biggest motorsports events of the year. 

The Track

Each year, the race track inside the Tulsa Expo Center is built from the ground up in order to accommodate two events: the Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout and the Chili Bowl Nationals. Event officials began constructing the track in mid-December to have it prepared in time for the Tulsa Shootout at the end of December. 

The track itself is a quarter-mile banked oval that will be reworked throughout the event so that fans and racers can enjoy the best racing possible. 

The Drivers

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE ENTRY LIST

The Format

With more than 350 drivers entered for this year's race, there will be five nights of preliminary (qualifying) action to set the stage for Saturday. Drivers will compete in a preliminary night on either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

If you're new to the Chili Bowl, there are two words that you'll need to familiarize yourself with: passing points. 

During the five qualifying nights, drivers will be looking to earn maximum passing points during heat races and qualifying races. The more passing points they earn, the better starting position they'll have during their qualifying night A-Main.

Passing points during heat races and qualifying races will be determined using the chart above.

The 40 drivers gaining the most passing points in heat races will advance to qualifying races. The rest of the drivers will go to C-Mains. 

For qualifying races, the top 24 in points (six in each qualifier) will be inverted to give them a chance to race for more passing points.

At the end of qualifiers, the top 16 in combined passing points between their heat and qualifying race will advance to the night's A-Main feature. Those who do not transfer to the A-Main after qualifiers will be placed in B-Mains. 

The top four finishers in each C-Main will be added to the back of the B-Mains and the top four finishers in the B-Mains will be added to the rear of the starting lineup for the A-Main. 

From there, it's 30 laps of racing with only the top two finishers qualifying for Saturday's A-Main. Everyone who does not qualify will be placed in the "alphabet soup" on Saturday. 

Saturday's racing will begin with either P-Mains or O-Mains depending on the amount of cars that enter. Drivers will attempt to work their way up through the alphabet one step at a time with hopes of making the A-Main. There will be two B-Main features that will each lock in the top seven finishers to the A-Main, giving us our 24-car field for the 55-lap main event. 

The Pole Dash featuring the top two finishers from each preliminary nights will determine the first 10 positions in the A-Main starting lineup.

VIDEO: FloRacing made a stop at Tanner Thorson's race shop as he prepares to defend his Chili Bowl crown. 

The Storylines

- Tanner Thorson enters the race as the defending winner and will be looking to become the fifth driver in Chili Bowl history to win two consecutive golden drillers. 

- Other former winners entered for this year's race include Rico Abreu, Sammy Swindell and Tim McCreadie. 

- The list of NASCAR drivers entered for this year's event includes NASCAR Cup Series winner Chase Briscoe and Alex Bowman. 

- The dirt late model world will be well represented with Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion Tim McCreadie and 2021 Dirt Track World Championship winner Ricky Thornton, Jr. 

- Big-Block Modified star Max McLaughlin will be representing the Modified community in his Chili Bowl debut. 

- A strong field of 12 female drivers are on the entry list for this year's race. Kaylee Bryson became the first female to qualify for the A-Main during last year's event. 

- Thirty-six drivers that competed in last week's Tulsa Shootout are entered for the Chili Bowl. Three of those drivers -- Emerson Axsom, TJ Smith and Gavan Boschele -- collected driller trophies. 

How to Watch The Chili Bowl

For the first time, every race during the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals will be streamed live on FloRacing. Like in previous years, FloRacing will provide coverage of all five qualifying nights (Monday-Friday) and the alphabet soup on Saturday. The C-Mains, B-Mains and A-Main to conclude the event on Saturday night will also be streamed via MAVTV on FloRacing. 

STREAMING: Watch the 2023 Chili Bowl Nationals on FloRacing. SIGN UP HERE.

On Your TV: Now Available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast & Apple TV.

Cast: Cast to your smart TV including Vizio, Samsung and LG TVs.

On The Go: Download the FloSports app on iOS or Android.

Broadcast Schedule

Chili Bowl Winners