By T.J. Buffenbarger
(January 14, 2026) — After an exciting feature event Wednesday night at the Chili Bowl Nationals, here are my takeaways.
• Emerson Axsom describing the handling of his entry from Swindell Speedlabs should have the rest of the competition concerned going into Saturday night’s finale.
Even though Axsom has now won two Wednesday night preliminary features in a row, we don’t see his name pop up as often as some of the contenders with more star power.
For those that have been paying attention (which is likely someone reading this column), Axsom has shown speed with his pick in choose schedule in the winged sprint car over the past several seasons.
Putting a driver that has not reached his talent ceiling, does not lack confidence, and is driving a car with former Chili Bowl champion Kevin Swindell overseeing it is going to produce results. While some of Axsom’s teammates might get more headlines by the time Friday night is over, Wednesday’s program proved that Axsom is not someone to sleep on for Saturday’s finale.
• Thomas Meseraull will have plenty to talk about on his YouTube channel after last night’s fourth place fun, and after the past year he should boast a bit after his strong run on Wednesday night at Tulsa.
Last season was unusual for Meseraull being on the shelf from injuries and spending some time getting acquainted with the winged sprint car world.
Signs of Meseraull being back in form showed up when he won the indoor race at Du Quoin in December, but on the biggest stage Meseraull drove a smart race on Wednesday that had him just miss out on locking into Saturday, but put his team in solid position to make the finale through the B-Main on Saturday.
Life in the midget and sprint car world is a bit more interesting when T-Mez is competitive, and it appears we have some more interesting times coming up this season is Meseraull can keep up this level of performance.
• The track surface of the Tulsa Expo Raceway at the SageNet Center appeared to be considerably wetter than the previous two programs at the start of the night. By the time the program was over we just witnessed what I felt was the best main event we had seen all week.
Wednesday’s preliminary program produced the kind of action that grew the Chili Bowl from a weekend event to a solid week of racing. The feature had comers and goers, leaders scrambling through slower traffic to maintain position, and a cushion that was fast and yet had consequences if a driver pushed the envelope too far.
It was the kind of action we’ve grown to love at the Chili Bowl, and the rest of the week is going to have a difficult time topping what we witnessed on Wednesday.