When it comes to dirt racing, there’s really nobody out there who can hang with Kyle Larson. And honestly, saying “nobody” is an understatement. After picking up two golden drillers just weeks ago at the Tulsa Shootout, we all had a feeling a third one was on the way.

Yep, you guessed it—Kyle Larson is the 2025 Chili Bowl champion! What a crazy 8 days it’s been for him, now a three-time winner (2020, 2021, 2025) of the biggest event in midget racing. And believe us, this one wasn’t a stroll in the park. The race lived up to the hype and was just as thrilling as you’d expect from the Super Bowl of midget racing.

Kyle Larson wins in style

Larson kicked things off from the pole, but he had no idea the wild ride he was about to be on. The race was full of surprises—especially for Larson, who crashed twice but somehow kept his cool and stayed in the lead. It felt like nothing could slow him down. “Young Money” led all forty laps to match the Chili Bowl wins of Christopher Bell.

While the traditional 55-lap race was cut down to 40, it only meant it was going to be more chaotic, really fast. Just 17 laps into the race, as Larson was navigating through traffic, Brenham Couch and Jacob Denney made contact ahead of him. And he could not help but crash into them. However, somehow he still kept going, holding the lead. Take a look:

“When Grant ran over Crouch, I had nowhere to go. I ran over him and stalled, and when I landed, I’m like, ‘Please re-fire,’ and it refired. And so, yeah, we got a couple of lucky breaks there.” Larson explained what happened.

Then, with just 4 laps to go, Larson pulled off one of the craziest moves we’ve ever seen. He climbed the wall like a skateboarder. And to his good fortune that exact moment a yellow flag was thrown. But not for his contact. It was for the banner being ripped off the wall, as multiple drivers had made contact with it. So that kept Larson on the lead at the restart and Pursley had to give back the position. And despite all the chaos, Larson kept going and took the checkered flag. Seriously, check this out:

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Kyle Larson though he had the luck and the fastest car on his side. That’s probably why he could dodge a few close calls, especially with Daison Pursley, who was all over his tail for pretty much the entire race! Eventually, Pursley ended up in second, while Shane Golobic grabbed third to round out the podium.

As Larson lifted the Golden driller, he must have taken a sigh of relief. It looked like the game was over for the HMS driver at that last incident.

Kyle Larson opens up on riding the wall

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The risk-to-reward ratio at the Chili Bowl Nationals is massive, and Larson knew exactly how to tread the line. Post the race he said, “Yeah, it was just a very difficult racetrack to run the line that I was running. It comes with a lot of rewards with the risk that you’re taking,”

Still. Even though you are Kyle Larson, things could go wrong. What if when the car climbed the wall, it had flipped? But Larson thinks that incident and the caution actually made things easy for him.

“Yeah, I messed up on the straightaway a couple of times, but honestly I’m glad I kept going there because that caution really saved me. Allowed it to be a little bit easier run to the finish. I think if we stayed in traffic, Daison would have had a lot of opportunities to throw stuff at me.”

Which is true. And Daison with two to go attempted to dive on Larson, but it was rendered useless. Literally, this race proved that anything can happen at the Chili Bowl. And that’s why Larson “loves being back here” every year. Now we can’t wait for 2026!

So, did you catch that insane race? What did you think of Kyle Larson’s wild finish? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!