Last night’s Chili Bowl A-fixture at Tulsa had a twist to it when race officials, out of nowhere, pranced into action to catch drivers and teams off-guard with a surprise check before the cars took off from the line. When the stakes are that high with the sanctioning body increasing the purse, drivers and teams might be tempted to take it all by cooking up deceitful plots, and trying to figure out an easy way.

With news about teams/drivers using smartwatches and special raceceivers coming to light, the authorities had to step in to take back control. Speaking to FloRacing, Matt Ward, the series’ Director of Operations, shared his thoughts, mentioning the rising trend of odd maneuvers and surprising them with a quick crackdown to ensure the events’ smooth operation.

Racers caught using double-frequency radios

The 38th rendition of the Midget racing extravaganza, unlike its previous iterations, has an increased purse that has caught eyeballs. The dirt racing event will offer $20,000 for a win, and $2,000 to start the championship feature event. Now, with the increased cash prize, there have also been curious patterns on the rise.

As the Director Of Operations Ward himself detailed it, whenever the second ranked guy catches up to the race leader during a race, they always seem to make an automatic switch to change lanes to outrun the frontrunner. While this might seem trivial to a casual fan, it’s an odd anomaly for race officials that can be a reason for concern. Consequently, they’ve also stepped up the game to catch the cheaters, with new tech and officiating processes.

Every car was checked for smart electronic devices like smartwatches along with the officials swapping their receivers instead of the drivers. Reflecting on the odd patterns recurring, Ward said, “We watched the last few Chili Bowls and you know whenever a second place is coming up making a run on the leader, they just automatically switch lanes. So, me and my wife, Ashley, we decided we were going to make them run from our raceceivers, roll down on the track and then we surprised them and then after the races we did out tire sample, we shipped it overnight to the lab, we checked ignition boxes and then we did out fuel samples.” 

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Even though the officials did not find anything significant, they came across a number of racers using switch radios that essentially had two frequencies. Furthermore, the Director of Operations revealed that this process will repeat throughout the week to ward off any attempts to cheat – “Yeah, you’ll see it the rest of the week.” 

Amidst all this news about the authorities putting in stringent measures to tackle the issue, HMS sensation’s surprise Tulsa entry has the fans thrilled as the 2-time Chili Bowl champion returns after a one-year hiatus.

The return of the prodigal son – Kyle Larson’s surprise Tulsa entry breaks the internet

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After acing the indoor dirt racing event back to back in 2020 and 2021, Kyle Larson left the scene, searching for new callings, focusing his efforts on Cup racing and other promotions. He skipped the 2023 iteration of the Chili Bowl but is now making a return to the promotion, parenting with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports in the No. 98K entry.

The HMS ace will also carry the sponsorships of DH Horton, FloRacing, and HendrickCars.com on Thursday. Larson can lock into Saturday’s Chili Bowl Nationals Feature Event by finishing top two in Thursday’s A-Main event and if in case, he fails to do that, he can still work his way into the big show through the alphabet soup of heat races on Saturday.

In fact, the driver would be on double duty on Saturday if he wins Thursday’s event. Larson will compete at Vado Speedway Park’s Wild West Shootout in a Dirt Late Model in New Mexico and then fly straight to Tulsa to compete in the Chili Bowl Nationals Main Event.

READ MORE: NASCAR News: Kyle Larson Reveals Harsh Reality of Rapidly Declining Cup Series Driver Payouts