Another wild night of racing at the SageNet Center during the 40th Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink had me scrambling a bit over the final 10 laps of the main event. When that happens it typically is a good thing for fans with the unexpected happens and ends up producing a great race like we witnessed on Tuesday. Here are my takeaways from the second night of action in Tulsa.
• About halfway through the feature event, I had a decent start on the takeaways from tonight’s race.
Then Blake Hahn started to circle the top of the racetrack, and it was time to just press ctr-a and delete.
Hahn’s performance on Tuesday night was something I never expected. Even though Hahn has strong runs in the past on his preliminary nights including three consecutive third place finishes between 2020 and 2022.
Last season I felt Hahn did not perform as well as I expected in the sprint car and he has not made the Chili Bowl finale since 2022. After going back and looking at Hahn’s results from 2025 one trend that shows up is a gradual increase in performance from October through the end of last season. That momentum carried through to Chili Bowl where Hahn was finally able to park a midget in victory lane at the event his family lives, eats, and breathes throughout the year.
I’m sure Oklahoma fans enjoyed seeing the yellow 52 parked in victory lane, and his grandfather Emmett, who was the creator and co-promoter of the Chili Bowl would not only be proud that his grandson won by in the manner he did so putting on a show blasting around the top of the speedway (Emmett is a promoter after all).
• The past several years I’ve frequently written about the success of Matt Seymour as a car owner in a variant of different divisions. From the Little 500, Chili Bowl, NEMA, Non-Wing midgets on pavement, and now winged pavement sprint cars, Seymour has managed to hire talented drivers and surround his team with the people and partners that make them go fast.
Seymour found success again on Tuesday night with Hank Davis locking into Saturday’s finale with a second-place finish right on the heals of Hahn over the finish line.
Through all the things I’ve written about Seymour, I have not touted Davis ability as much as I should have. At just 22 years old, Davis might be the most under rated driver in his age bracket. From 410 and 360 sprint cars to midgets at the Chili Bowl, Davis seems to have the knack of being able to get race cars to the front of the field.
Hopefully in the next couple of seasons everyone will have the chance to see Davis compete on a national level throughout the country.
• Jett Barnes is a name I had heard of but had not seen race with my own eyes until Tuesday night at Chili Bowl Nationals. Barnes proved once again Kevin Swindell has an excellent eye for talents as Barnes was impressive from start to finish capped off with a ninth to third place run in the feature, putting himself and the Swindell Speedlab entry in excellent position to make a run at making Saturday’s finale through the B-Main.
Barnes drove with confidence that was beyond his years. There were moments when I was waiting for him to step over the edge and make a mistake, but that never happened. At just 15 years of age Barnes is the next California kid we will need to keep an eye on and anxiously wait for him to start racing more in the Midwest, unless some form of high paying pavement racing snatches his services up first.
• While Monday night saw most of the top contender’s flourish with solid performances, several drivers managed to find trouble on their preliminary night.
Michael Pickens appeared to be starting off the night with a solid run before a big flip in turn four sunk his Tulsa efforts for 2026 to the point where he is now going to fly home and attempt to win the New Zealand midget car title Friday and Saturday at Baypark Speedway.
Ryan Timms had a solid run going in the feature on Tuesday when an errant bicycling car put Timms in a position to stall his car out, where Timms rallied for an 11th place finish, but appears to be on his way to a much better result.
Jonathan Beason had everything go his way in route to winning a golden driller trophy at the Tulsa Shootout, but Tuesday misfortune made Beason have to make his way through the “alphabet soup” of mains with a run from D to the A-Main to salvage a 12th place finish from 20th starting position, but likely left Beason wondering what could have been if the earlier misfortune could have been avoided.
Timms, who could seemingly do no wrong throughout the middle and late portion of the 2025 season, proves how fickle fortunes can be with the hundreds of entries vying for 24 spots in Saturday’s feature at the Chili Bowl.
• After a year away the Andy Bondio entries returned with a performance fitting of their stature inside of the SageNet Center. Zach Daum and the Bondio team were in the hunt for a majority of the feature on Tuesday night, scoring a top five finish and were in the hunt for a position to lock into Saturday’s finale until the closing laps on Tuesday.
The Chili Bowl is more interesting with entries like Bondio, with such a rich history at the Chili Bowl, are competitive.