By T.J. Buffenbarger
(January 18, 2026) — The 40th Chili Bowl Nationals is in the history books and will go down start to finish as one of the most entertaining days of racing in the event’s history. Here are some takeaways from the Saturday night finale.
• The key moment in Saturday’s Chili Bowl Nationals finale happened before the first five laps were completed when Emerson Axsom took the fight for the lead directly at Kyle Larson.
In a 55-lap race one would expect drivers to be patient and wait for the race to come to them. Axsom took a different approach knowing the longer he allowed Larson to control the pace up front there was a high likelihood he would be looking at the back of Larson’s car for an extended period.
Axsom stated in the post-race interview he felt that controlling the race as the leader was better for him. Had Axsom not made that move, he might have been the one collected by C.J. Leary’s slowing car on the backstretch and not Larson.
Over the past several years we have not seen many drivers able to go after Larson once he gets the lead. The way Axsom was not imitated by one of the best race car drivers on the planet at a racetrack that Larson has made his personal playground at times was a culmination of the past several years where I felt Axsom has improved as a race car driver though his winged sprint car efforts.
Even luck was on Axsom’s side with several caution flags sparing him from extended time in slower traffic. Axsom event caught a caution when it appeared Justin Grant had overtaken Axsom for the lead and opened enough distance off turn two that a counter move would not be possible in turn three.
• If there was any thought Kevin Swindell expanding his operation to include four cars at Chili Bowl would hurt his efforts, Swindell blew those thoughts right out of the water.
Swindell had four cars in the finale with Axsom, Logan Seavey, Kyle Cummins, and Jett Barnes.
Two of the top five were Swindell’s entries, and for a majority of the race they ran in the top two positions with Seavey keeping Axsom honest for a majority of the main event.
Barnes showed the world Swindell’s sharp eye for talent as the 14-year-old driver performed with a maturity that is well beyond his years and was running in the top 10 before getting into the wall in Saturday’s finale.
Cummins has one of his strongest Chili Bowl outings under the watching eye on Swindell.
2025 is the year Swindell Speedlabs emerged as the new super team in the building, joining the ranks of some of the other multiple car entries that have performed at the highest level inside of the SageNet Center each January.
The other top midget teams that contend for wins every year in Tulsa are going to have a lot to think about over the next year before coming back to Tulsa if Swindell is going to continue to bring multiple cars.
• The vibe for Saturday night was set early thanks to the outstanding performance by Michigan driver Darin Naida and Ohio’s Mack Leopard.
Naida and Leopard now are in the Chili Bowl record books for progressing through the most feature events as both made it through nine events. Leopard ended up with the honor of passing the most cars in Chili Bowl Nationals finale history at a +74, just edging Naida’s +69, along with holding the distinction of the most victories in features on Saturday with four wins.
The runs through the alphabet on Saturday had everyone captivated with the fans going crazy every time they hit the race track. The excitement and vibes both of these drivers created kept the excitement level the highest I’ve felt for the Chili Bowl in well over a decade.
With Naida being just 19 years of age and coming off a highlight season where he made the Kings Royal and picked up his first career win at Fremont Speedway, I find it remarkable that a team has not taken up his services on a full time basis for 2026.
Leopard also is a driver I’ve been watching from afar and is immensely talented as well. Hopefully both young men find their way into some bigger opportunities for the 2026 season.
• Besides the Speedlab team, the two best performing teams in the building at the SageNet Center were the track prep crew and the Floracing team.
2025 was probably the best track conditions I’ve seen for the Chili Bowl from start to finish. Typically, at the Chili Bowl there might be one or two nights where the track is a little off. With the number of entries and races contested at the Chili Bowl it’s easy to see how this could happen.
2025 the track crew nailed it at every corner. Every feature was compelling and had a good racing surface to compete on. Even on Saturday through the mains the track stayed racy throughout and built up to a final that was not a letdown after six great nights of racing, which is a huge achievement.
During the Tulsa shootout I was critical of Floracing for having technical issues that forced viewers over to YouTube to watch the program, which had been a trend at times for bigger events on Flo.
The reason I was critical of this is their on-site staff do such a great job at the Shootout and Chili Bowl, I felt the technical issues off site were letting down the folks on site that were working extremely hard to produce such a great product.
Chili Bowl week in 2025 went off flawlessly and I felt was one of the best, if not the best, streaming broadcasts of a major event I ever watched. It blew away the terrestrial versions of the Chili Bowl I had seen because they were not married to talent or production that was not as in tune with the ins and outs of open wheel racing on dirt.
Flo should take their victory lap as well for producing such a great product in front of captive winter audience.