A Deep Dive Into Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals Stat Book
A Deep Dive Into Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals Stat Book
Prepare yourself for the 35th Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals by studying up on this stout statistical binge courtesy of Walkapedia!
Prepare yourself for the 35th Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals by studying up on this stout statistical binge courtesy of Walkapedia!
Subscribe to watch the Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout AND Chili Bowl Nationals 2021 Live HERE
BY THE NUMBERS: 2,000+ drivers have attempted the Tulsa spectacle. Of those, 640 drivers have qualified for a preliminary feature. To narrow it down more, only 244 drivers have started Saturday’s main event. From that group, only 21 drivers have claimed a Lucas Oil Chili Bowl championship. Then, an elite seven drivers have multiple Golden Drillers, including Kevin Swindell, who has amassed four of the coveted trophies.
PASSING POINTS: Since the expansion to five preliminary nights in 2019, the average total needed to make a preliminary feature straight from qualifiers (Top 16) is 179.6 points. In 2019… Mon (177); Tues (178.5); Wed (175.5); Thur (184.5); Fri (181). In 2020… Mon (170.5.); Tues (185.5); Wed (177.5); Thur (185.5); Fri (180.5).
ENGINES: Esslinger Engineering is the winningest engine manufacturer with seven straight titles from ’08 to ’14 with Gardner, Sammy & Kevin. Toyota Racing is next closest on a run of six consecutive from ’15 to ’20 with Abreu, Bell & Larson. Gaerte Engines also had six during their dominant days through the 90’s and into the 00’s.
CHASSIS: Stealth Chassis is still the winningest chassis manufacturer with a total of ten titles. Spike Chassis, the modern-day dominator, is next closest with nine victories.
SECOND BEST: Sammy Swindell has the most runner-up finishes of anyone at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals: four second-place finishes along with his five Golden Drillers. The Dude Danny Lasoski has run a career-best second on three occasions, losing to Boat in ’97, Drake in ’01, Kruseman in ’04. The quartet of Ron Shuman, Cory Kruseman, Jay Drake and Kevin Swindell all have two P2’s each
PILL DRAW: Since ‘13, the most common heat race starting position for Lucas Oil Chili Bowl preliminary winners is eighth – outside of row four. The average of all 34 nights is 4.9 in the heat. The most common slots are eighth (7 times), fifth (6 times), first (4 times), third (4 times), fourth (4 times), and sixth (4 times). Only one of 34 winners has ever scored less than 100 points in a heat race (Larson’s heat race crash in ’17).
STATE WINNERS: Thanks to the Swindell’s, Tennessee is the winningest state with nine Golden Drillers belonging to Germantown. The other ten states owning Lucas Oil Chili Bowl titles are California (7), Oklahoma (4), Indiana (4), Illinois (3), Wisconsin (2), Arizona (1), Pennsylvania (1), Ohio (1), New York (1), and New Mexico (1).
LONGEST GAP: The Wild Child Jac Haudenschild holds the record for longest gap between Lucas Oil Chili Bowl feature starts with 14 years between his runs in ’97 and ’11. Also over the decade notch is Aaron Fiscus at 13 years (’95 – ’08), Robbie Flock at 12 years (’91 – ’03), Justin Allgaier at 11 years (’09 – ’20), Jason Meyers at 10 years (’03 – ’13), and Daryn Pittman at 10 years (’99 – ’09).
NON-TRANSFERS: Chase Briscoe is the only driver in Lucas Oil Chili Bowl history to miss the main event by one spot in back-to-back years (’19-’20). He’s tied with Robbie Flock, Greg Lueckert, Steve Knepper, Joe Gaerte, Levi Jones, and Ryan Smith, for most first non-transfers at two apiece.
WORST-TO-FIRST: In the category of drivers improving from their worst finish to best finish, nobody has done it better than Kyle Larson. In ’11, he was dead last in the K-Main. In ’20, he was the Chili Bowl champion
B-MAIN’S BEST: Of 461 drivers to contest the 68 B-Mains, Tracy Hines owns the mark for most B-Main appearances with 16 runs in the B across his 23 attempts. Also up there is Daryn Pittman (13), Donnie Lehmann (12), J.J. Yeley (11), Jerry Coons Jr. (11), Gary Taylor (10), Steve Knepper (10), and Dan Boorse (10).
SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR: One of the most agonizing stats belongs to Tim Siner, who has contested a record eight B-Mains, but failed to transfer every time. He even did it across four different decades in the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s and 10’s. Other notables with multiple B-Main attempts and zero main event starts are Dave Camfield Jr. (6), Tim Crawley (5), R.J. Johnson (5), Robert Harr (5).
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: The benchmark for most feature starts without a Golden Driller is currently at 18 by Jerry Coons Jr., who has finished a career-best fourth three times in ’09, ’10 and ’16. Also winless is Dave Darland (15 starts), Danny Lasoski (14 starts), Kevin Doty (13 starts), Jason Leffler (11 starts), Shane Cottle (10 starts), and Kevin Olson (10 starts).
CONTROLLING COMMAND: Over 34 years, only 38 drivers have led Saturday’s Lucas Oil Chili Bowl main event. Sammy Swindell tops the charts with 203 laps led across eight features, both records. Behind him is Cory Kruseman (131 laps), Kevin Swindell (131 laps), Bryan Clauson (123 laps), Christopher Bell (108 laps), Kyle Larson (81 laps), and Tracy Hines (76 laps).
SURNAME SURPLUS: The most common surname in Lucas Oil Chili Bowl A-Main history is “Johnson” with four starters via Chase, Jon, Ricky & Wayne. The “Jones” name has three starters with Levi, Page & PJ, as does “Thomas” from Kevin, KTJ, and Tyler. Other names with two starters include Berryhill, Boat, Cottle, Fike, Gardner, Gennetten, Hines, Kaeding, Knepper, Pauch, Shuman, Swindell, Taylor, and Wente.
PRELIM PROWESS: The Lucas Oil Chili Bowl has hosted exactly 100 preliminary features through 34 years. Sammy Swindell (8 wins) holds the record for most preliminary wins over Cory Kruseman (7), Christopher Bell (6), Kyle Larson (6), Rico Abreu (5), Bryan Clauson (4).
GOIN’ STREAKING: Christopher Bell has topped Thursday’s preliminary for five consecutive years now, the longest streak in Chili Bowl history. Other active streaks include Kyle Larson winning three straight on Tuesday and Rico Abreu claiming three straight on Wednesday.
ANY DAY, ANY NIGHT: Along with eight prelim triumphs, Sammy Swindell has conquered three different preliminary nights including Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Eight other drivers have won on two different days, but nobody has matched Swindell’s record of three nights.
DRILLER DOUBLE: Only four drivers have collected Golden Drillers at both the Chili Bowl and Tulsa Shootout: Bryan Clauson, Christopher Bell, Kevin Swindell, and Kyle Larson. Clauson & Bell both accomplished this feat with Winged Outlaw micro sprint wins, while Swindell found his Shootout success in flat karts and Larson did his in the outlaw kart ranks.
INTERNATIONAL ICON: Michael Pickens of Auckland, New Zealand owns the mark for best finish by a non-American with his third-place behind Kevin and Sammy in ’11. Of the 47 podium finishers in Lucas Oil Chili Bowl history, 46 have hailed from the United States with Pickens leading the rest of the globe.
RISING ROOKIES: Since established in ’04, only nine of the 17 Rookie of the Race’s have qualified for the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl main event in their first attempt. Names like Stratton, Pickens, Goodman, Crawford, Mosen, Vanderweerd, Bayston, Scelzi, and Kofoid. The highest finishing rookie in history is still Oklahoma’s own Donnie Ray Crawford with a fifth-place finish in 2007.
TEENAGE TITANS: Only five teenagers have ever finished on the podium of Saturday’s main event at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. The exclusive group includes Cannon McIntosh (17 years, 1 month), Cole Whitt (18 years, 6 months), Christopher Bell (19 years, 1 months), Spencer Bayston (19 years, 3 months), Kyle Larson (19 years, 5 months).
NO PROVISONALS NEEDED: Of the 55 drivers to qualify for at least five main events, only two drivers have done it at a 100% success rate. The two that have never missed a feature are Dave Blaney (’93, ’95-’98) and Johnny Parsons (’87-’88, ’90-’92). Also noteworthy in this category is Ron Shuman (9-for-10), Tanner Thorson (6-for-7), and Steve Kinser (5-for-6).
GIRL POWER: The record for highest finishing female in Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals history belongs to Oklahoma’s Harli White, who ended up 19th in the B-Main in ’16.
COUNTIN’ CAUTIONS: Since cautions were recorded in ’95, the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl has averaged 6.7 cautions per main event. The record for most cautions came in ’03 and ’11 with 11 cautions each, while the least number of stoppages was two in ’95 and ’12.
LOADS OF LAPS: In 2020, the Tulsa Expo Raceway hosted 1,394 total laps of competition from Monday’s preliminary to Saturday’s finale, excluding practice and hot laps. 398 laps were run in Saturday’s alphabet soup portion.
YEAR-AFTER-YEAR: Jerry Coons Jr. owns the remarkable record of qualifying for 14 consecutive Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals main events, contesting every finale from ’04 through ’17. The longest active streak belongs to Christopher Bell with seven straight starts, every year since ’14.
HOLY CAR COUNT: In 1987, the inaugural Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals ran with roughly 50 entries. They didn’t hit the century mark until the eighth annual event in ’94. A total of 200 cars came in ’03, while the first year of 300+ plus was ’15. The all-time record came in ’17 with a whopping 365 entries packed into the Tulsa Expo.
TASTING THE FRONT: Before his breakthrough last year, Kyle Larson held the mark for most main event laps led (64) without a Golden Driller. Now, that category is topped by Ron Shuman (43 laps), Page Jones (40 laps), Danny Lasoski (37 laps), Kevin Doty (30 laps), Jerry Coons Jr. (26 laps), Jason Leffler (25 laps), Aaron Fike (25 laps), Justin Grant (25 laps), Gene Gennetten (22 laps), Logan Seavey (20 laps).
AGE IS JUST A NUMBER: Kevin Swindell is the youngest champion in Lucas Oil Chili Bowl history, topping the 2010 edition at the ripe age of 20 years, 10 months, 26 days. On the other end of the spectrum, Kevin’s dad Sammy Swindell is the oldest champion with his 2009 win coming at 53 years, 2 months, 22 days.
LAST-LAP LEGACY: Only twice in 34 years has the Golden Driller been stolen on the final lap of Saturday’s grand finale. It first happened in ’03, when Dan Boorse went top shelf and drove right around Jay Drake on the bottom to snatch his second title at the line. In ’19, Christopher Bell snuck through the door left open by Kyle Larson on the bottom and earned his third consecutive win in jaw-dropping fashion.
HEARTBREAKING LOSSES: On nine occasions has a driver led 30+ laps of a main event yet failed to see the victory through. These agonizing defeats were felt by Ron Shuman (led 43 in ’95), Page Jones (led 40 in ’04), Cory Kruseman (led 40 in ’03), Christopher Bell (led 38 in ’20), Billy Boat (led 36 in ’96), Bryan Clauson (led 35 in ’16), Jay Drake (led 34 in ’06), Kyle Larson (led 34 in ’19), and Sammy Swindell (led 31 in ’90).
ELITE ELEVEN: Only 11 drivers have competed in ten or more Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals main events. It’s a list led by Sammy Swindell with 25 appearances in the big dance, the all-time record. Behind him is Jerry Coons Jr. (18), Dave Darland (15), Tracy Hines (15), Danny Lasoski (14), Kevin Doty (13), Cory Kruseman (12), Tony Stewart (12), Jason Leffler (11), Shane Cottle (10), and Kevin Olson (10).
MORE SOUP PLEASE: In ’04, J.J. Yeley crafted the greatest charge in Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals history. Advancing from the F-Main to the E-Main to the D-Main to the C-Main to the B-Main to the A-Main, Yeley gained a whopping 69 positions in six consecutive features and capped his night with a jaw-dropping podium finish in third-place behind Kruseman and Lasoski.
STARTING POSITIONS: The average feature starting position of all 34 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl champions is 3.8. It’s been won most from the outside pole, ten different times. The pole position has gone on to win on seven occasions. The farthest back any champion has come from is 16th, when Donnie Beechler won it from the eighth row in ’95.
LUCAS OIL CHILI BOWL WINNERS (21 Winners in 34 Races):
Sammy Swindell (5); Kevin Swindell (4); Christopher Bell (3); Dan Boorse (2); Cory Kruseman (2); Tony Stewart (2); Rico Abreu (2); Rich Vogler (1); Scott Hatton (1); John Heydenreich (1); Lealand McSpadden (1); Dave Blaney (1); Andy Hillenburg (1); Donnie Beechler (1); Billy Boat (1); Jay Drake (1); Tracy Hines (1); Tim McCreadie (1); Damion Gardner (1); Bryan Clauson (1); Kyle Larson (1).