The Super Bowl of Midget Racing is underway with much pomp. NASCAR stars are making the 2025 Chili Bowl more spectacular. Christopher Bell returned to his three-peat glory home ground after two years and already won the Race of Champions in Tulsa. Then Kyle Larson also bagged the A-Main Preliminary event prize. However, there is more drama to the Chili Bowl.

Popularly renowned as a mud-spitting and temper-raising thrill ride, the weeklong extravaganza showcases core American motorsport. Thousands of rabid fans and racing enthusiasts flock to the Chili Bowl – and sometimes things may spiral out of control as they did recently.

Nascent brawl at the Chili Bowl

NASCAR fans had their fair share of fights last season. Ranging from Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s iconic upper-cut for Kyle Busch to Brandon Jones slapping Cole Custer ahead of the Xfinity Series championship, a lot of racetrack brawls unfolded. During the 38th Chili Bowl, Cannon McIntosh and Thomas Meseraull collided in a wreck, following which Meseraull committed a controversial action. But these incidents had drivers as their main characters. The 39th running of the grand midget event now has a set of new characters in a fight – although they were passive enough.

On the third day of the Chili Bowl Nationals, things became feisty on the pit road at the SageNet Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma. A diehard midget racing fan uploaded a steamy video on Twitter showing exactly what went wrong. In the video, we witnessed two crew members walking together and engaging in a heated conversation. Soon, a racetrack official enters and breaks them up with a stentorian voice.

The fan implied that the two individuals were inebriated. “Are you p–sies gonna fight or what? Eventually they need to find a way to give 4 CREW pit passes to each car and different color wrist bands to the drunk f–ks, and limit their ramp/staging access.”

Matt Ward, the Director of Competition for the Tulsa Shootout and Chili Bowl, had already clarified the rules about fights back in 2022. Brawls are not tolerated anywhere except on the racetrack – for publicity.

There should be some benefit for the officials, as Ward said: “We just can’t control it at the top of the ramp. There are so many people, we don’t want it to get out of control so I’m just trying to express to the drivers if you want to do it put a show on for the fans and do it on the race track.”

Fights are not the only thing that Chili Bowl officials are strict about.

Don’t touch the tires

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Manipulating equipment to enhance race results is hardly something uncommon. Joey Logano modified his racing gloves during the 2024 Atlanta Cup Series race. Then Roger Penske’s team was found guilty of using the push-to-pass maneuver in IndyCar. Similarly, the Chili Bowl also witnessed such attempts to control race finishes.

One primary way to do that is to dope the tires. Prior to last year’s Tulsa Shootout event, the event’s official Twitter page sent a warning in a post. “DO NOT DOPE YOUR TIRES! They will be confiscated. You will be disqualified.” Doping the tires means using chemicals or gasses to enhance the characteristics of tires on a race car. Drivers can do so to gain competitive advantages including better grip, better heat management of the tire, and improved traction.

The same rule is in place for this year’s Tulsa Shootout as well as the Chili Bowl.

To prevent racers from resorting to unfair means, the Tulsa event had ten officials, who kept a close eye tire doping throughout the five-day event. Besides this, the fighting rules were already very succinct. Matt Ward had even specified the circumstances in which two participants could fight. “If you’re going to fight, do it one on one. You can pull anywhere from turn three down to turn one and settle it yourselves one on one…Kind of like hockey rules, our crew won’t break it up until it gets disadvantaged or on the ground.”

Evidently, the Chili Bowl officials must be vigilant to avoid untoward activities. Their hard work only enhances the thrilling midget racing event!