“Not Afraid “- Midget Star Breaks Silence Amid Explosive Chili Bowl Tire-Doping Crackdown

The Chili Bowl officials had made their intent clear. They had adopted a zero-tolerance approach to dealing with illegal techniques through which the drivers and teams doped the tires. Tire doping is also known as tire soaking, where the compound undergoes chemical treatment for the rubber to soften. A softer tire compound provides better grip, and with a harder tire now used at the Chili Bowl, this practice has been rampant among competitors.

On Wednesday, Chili Bowl Nationals technical director Cody Cordell kicked someone out of the building after the driver was caught tire doping. He also sent out a stern warning to the entire garage about the detrimental consequences if more drivers were caught in the process. “Think what you want, play the game. But if you get caught, from here on out, you will not be back next year. And it will be known and be made a scene.”

Well, Cordell’s patience was tested as he disqualified two drivers ahead of Saturday night. Clinton Boyles was one of the two drivers barred from competing at the Chili Bowl. But rather than going ballistic against the organizers like Tanner Thorson, he explained the process and shared his side of the story in making the sport more open and fair.

Chili Bowl Nationals cracking down on tire doping

Now, we all know drivers and teams always tread the fine line or bend the rules to gain the slightest advantage on the racetrack. We saw Cup Series champion Joey Logano resort to webbed gloves during the 2024 season, and he did get caught by NASCAR officials. But the situation at Chili Bowl is getting serious with teams tampering with the chemical compound on the tire, which, in Cordell’s opinion, is a clear infringement of the rules.

“Not afraid to talk about this situation because I know I wasn’t doing anything with the intent to cheat or gain an advantage. I appreciate the @cbnational holding everyone to the same standard! I’ll be back again next year.” Clinton Boyles shared this update on X. Meanwhile, the other driver who suffered a similar fate as Boyles after the testing was Hunter Schuerenberg.

“I think that the biggest misconception is that people are tire doping, and it’s just a dope, and wet grinding is a popular thing, and when you use anything basically anything other than water, it can change the chemicals in the tire. And it’s not always about what chemicals are in it; it could be what pulls it out, and looking at the graph, it’s very minimal.” Cordell said this alongside Clinton Boyles. Fortunately, the test results on Boyles’ tires showed minor infractions, and he won’t be barred from competing in the historic midget race next year.

The message by Cordell was clear that even the slightest infraction would be ruled out severely. He is on a mission to maintain the integrity of the historic midget racing event that provides a fair platform for all racers. “We thought that was the fairest thing we could do, and I appreciate you being open. Being open like this makes the sport better and move forward, and showing the littlest thing of changing the benchmark is not what we need. We need to bolt tires on, and we need to keep everything in order.”

Meanwhile, former Chili Bowl champ Tanner Thorson had an interesting perspective as to why tire doping is prevalent this year. His comments weren’t too pleasing to the organizers, but he understood the needs and urgency behind their extreme measures to deal with the situation.

Tanner Thorson has an answer to why drivers are resorting to tire doping

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Now it is going to be an arduous task for Cordell and the Chili Bowl team to take samples from every race car. Another major hurdle that could impede their strict action is the time it takes for the samples to return from the Blue Ridge Race Lab. They were short-handed, and samples taken from Thursday to Saturday wouldn’t be back in time, which is why they dished out a verbal threat to the drivers.

But Thorson had a rather interesting take on this issue. “If you have to cheat to win, you’re chicken sh-t, basically. Steven Hahn and Gravel (Brad Chandler) in the infield have taken a lot of sh-t from me over the last five years over the racetrack being terrible. I think a lot of that just comes down to tire doping, honestly. The RD-12 wasn’t the tire to dope up because it was already soft, and once we got onto these hard tires, the track got way worse. So I give them the benefit of the doubt now.” Tanner Thorson was vocal about being unhappy with the racetrack at the Chili Bowl in 2023 and keeping up his honest assessment of the event, he has ripped into the ones who try to cheat it. He also fully supports there efforts being made by Cody Cordell.

“Cody is doing an awesome job. He knows what to look for. He’s got a lot of different people, including myself, that can kind of allow him to know what I know. Hats off to him and the Chili Bowl for allowing him to do that. I give Cody a lot of cr-p, but he’s doing the right thing.” He added. Well, the Chili Bowl Nationals have a huge issue to deal with as tire doping grows more and more popular among drivers. Hopefully, they have a better system or process in place next year to deal with this issue.