With the 40th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy only one week away, the hype is building in a hurry; especially with our first look at the five preliminary night rosters now available.

Currently at 385 entries, which would top the all-time record held by the 2022 event at 381, the field has been split into five groupings from Monday to Friday. Everybody practices on Sunday, runs their respective prelim, and reunites on Saturday for the iconic all-day-long alphabet soup.

FloRacing is the official live streaming provider of the Chili Bowl Nationals and will bring you wall-to-wall coverage of “The World’s Greatest Midget Race” all week long. New this year, the Chili’s Grill & Bar Pre-Race and Post-Race Show will add even more content to an already jam-packed week on FloRacing.

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There are six former Chili Bowl champions entered this year with at least one Golden Driller winner represented on each of the five prelim nights. In total, 75 former Championship A-Main starters are entered with that group currently split up with 14 A-Main starters on Monday, 13 on Tuesday, a week-high 20 on Wednesday, another 15 on Thursday, and down to 13 on Friday.

If you hone in specifically on last year’s Championship A-Main in the Tulsa Expo, the 23 returning starters are split up with three (Larson, Golobic, McIntosh) on Monday, a week-high six (Brooks, Kofoid, Davis, Crouch, Rueschenberg, Beason) on Tuesday, five (Pursley, Axsom, Day, Buckwalter, Drake) on Wednesday, five (Bernal, Bell, Flud, Denney, Thorson) on Thursday, and another four (Seavey, Miller, Grant, Edwards) on Friday.

Looking at last year’s preliminary night results, 99 of the 120 prelim starters are returning with them currently split up with 18 on Monday, 19 on Tuesday, a week-high 25 on Wednesday, 20 on Thursday, and down to 17 on Friday.

Six drivers who finished in the top-10 during their preliminary night last year are flipping nights, including the most notable changes like Ryan Timms moving from Friday to Wednesday, Ashton Torgerson going from Monday to Thursday, Kameron Key switching from Tuesday to Monday, and Kyle Cummings heading from Wednesday to Thursday.

Another nine prelim top-10 finishers from last year are not entered to compete next week including Tyler Courtney as he continues to recover from a back injury, NASCAR Cup Series star Ricky Stenhouse Jr, and former Tulsa Shootout champion, Brent Crews.

Here’s a quick breakdown of each night, with the full preliminary night entry lists available at ChiliBowl.com.

Chili Bowl Preliminary Night Rosters

MONDAY NIGHT

Last year’s podium of Kyle Larson in his own No. 1K with Paul Silva on the wrenches, Shane Golobic in the lead-off role for Matt Wood Racing in the No. 17W, and Cannon McIntosh aboard a Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 71W, will all return as favorites to win the opening preliminary night.

New names switching to Monday this year include CJ Leary, Drake Edwards, Jett Yantis, Nick Drake, Garet Williamson, and Kameron Key, among others.

They’ll be joined by consistent contenders on Monday like Tanner Carrick, Jerry Coons Jr., Joe B. Miller, Justin Peck, Trey Marcham, Gary Taylor, and Dillon Welch. Additional names to watch in the first prelim include Nick Hoffman, Tanner Berryhill, Garrett Benson, Alex Sewell, Jakeb Boxell, and Jake Andreotti.

TUESDAY NIGHT

The top-five finishers from last year’s wacky and wild Tuesday night preliminary all return to the same program this year in what is currently slated to be the largest of all five prelims. It was nothing but young guns at the front last year with Landon Brooks (Matt Wood Racing No. 07W), Brenham Crouch (Crouch Motorsports No. 1C), Buddy Kofoid (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanain Motorsports No. 71W), Corbin Rueschenberg (Rueschenberg No. 26), and Gunnar Setser (4-Kings No. 4K) leading the way.

New names switching to Tuesday this year include Michael Pickens, J.J. Yeley, Kyle Jones, Ethan Mitchell, Roger Crockett, Zach Wigal, and Luke Storer, among others.

They’ll be joined by traditional Tuesday racers like Jonathan Beason, Hank Davis, Kaylee Bryson, Zach Daum, and Gavan Boschele. Additional names to watch in the second prelim of the week include Jett Barnes, Darin Naida, Austin Wood, Sye Lynch, Chance Morton, Chase Randall, Clinton Boyles, Kris Carroll, Ricky Thornton Jr., Parker Price-Miller, Kalib Henry, Kyle Beilman, Ty Gibbs, and Sheldon Creed.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT

You could certainly make the case that Wednesday’s middle of the road program is the toughest of the week. A whopping 20 former Championship A-Main starters are set to go on Wednesday with another week-high 25 of last year’s 99 preliminary starters on this one night.

The core four budding superstars of Emerson Axsom in the Swindell/Harvey/Curb No. 39A, Daison Pursley in the Chad Boat No. 86, Corey Day in the Willie Kahne No. 41, and Ryan Timms in the KKM No. 71 will draw most of the attention as favorites. Beyond them, it remains loaded with Tim Buckwalter, Kale Drake, Blake Hahn, Mitchel Moles, Jake Swanson, Colby Copeland, Alex Bright, Sammy Swindell, Jake Neuman, Steve Buckwalter, Colten Cottle, and Tom Harris.

New names switching to Wednesday this year include Ryan Timms, Kevin Thomas Jr., Thomas Meseraull, Jason McDougal, TJ Smith, RJ Johnson, Bradley Cox, and Cap Henry, among others. Additional drivers to watch in the third prelim include R.J. Johnson, Chelby Hinton, Jeffrey Newell, KJ Snow, Kaidon Brown, and Austin Torgerson.

THURSDAY NIGHT

Only five of the top-nine finishers from last year’s Thursday night will return this year headlined by Tanner Thorson in the Feather Foot Garage No. 88, Ryan Bernal in his Matt Wood Racing No. 87W, Christopher Bell in his own No. CB21 entry, Jacob Denney aboard the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 67, and Frank Flud back in Jody Rosenboom’s No. 81F.

New names switching to Thursday this year include Ashton Torgerson, Briggs Danner, Kyle Cummins, Cameron La Rose, and Trevor Cline, among others.

Plenty of star power remains in Thursday’s prelim, however, with studs like Spencer Bayston, Karter Sarff, Brady Bacon, Chris Windom, Andrew Deal, and Danny Stratton in the field. Additional names to watch in the foruth prelim of the week include Matt Sherrell, Chance Crum, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Brant Woods, Joel Myers Jr., Parker Jones, Danny Sams III, and Logan Julien.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Of the five preliminary nights, Friday has the lowest number of former Championship A-Main starters (13) and the lowest number of 2025 prelim starters (17). Last year’s lock-ins will return with the same outfits as two-time champion Logan Seavey prepares for another go in the Swindell/Curb/Bertrand No. 39 and Gavin Miller readies another in the Kunz/Curb-Agajanian No. 97.

They’ll be joined by familiar faces on Friday including Daryn Pittman, Justin Grant, Michael Faccinto, Andrew Felker, Tyler Edwards, Ronnie Gardner, and Giovanni Scelzi.

New names switching to Friday this year include Steven Snyder Jr., Matt Westfall, Casey Shuman, Rylan Gray, and Mario Clouser, among others. Additional racers to watch in the fifth and final prelim include Billy Wease, Jace Park, Brody Roa, Jett Nunley, Santino Ferrucci, Ace McCarthy, Daniel Robinson, Cale Coons, Hayden Wise, and Chris Andrews.