2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 5/19
| Race | Granite State Derby at Lee USA Speedway |
| Date | Saturday, May 27, 2023 |
| Track | Lee USA Speedway |
| Layout | 0.375-mile oval |
| Location | Lee, New Hampshire |
| Start time | 7:45 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 175 |
| Posted Awards | $88,100 |
| Tickets | JDV Productions |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 4/19
| Race | Buzz Chew Chevrolet Cadillac 200 at Riverhead Raceway |
| Date | Sunday, May 21, 2023 |
| Track | Riverhead Raceway |
| Layout | Quarter-mile oval |
| Location | Riverhead, New York |
| Start time | 2:45 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 200 |
| Posted Awards | $81,600 |
| Tickets | Trackside only |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 3/19
| Race | Duel at the Dog 200 at Monadnock Speedway |
| Date | Saturday, May 6, 2023 |
| Track | Monadnock Speedway |
| Layout | Quarter-mile oval |
| Location | Winchester, New Hampshire |
| Start time | 5 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 200 |
| Posted Awards | $83,450 |
| Tickets | HERE |
| TV Channel | CNBC (Delayed: May 13, 9:30 a.m. ET) |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 2/19
| Race | Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway |
| Date | Friday, March 31, 2023 |
| Track | Richmond Raceway |
| Layout | 0.75-mile oval |
| Location | Richmond, Virginia |
| Start time | 6:30 p.m. ET (Complete schedule of events) |
| Laps | 150 |
| Posted Awards | $120,400 |
| Tickets | Click Here |
| TV Channel | CNBC (Delayed: April 8, 3 p.m. ET) |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 1/19
| Race | New Smyrna Beach Visitors Bureau 200 at New Smyrna Speedway |
| Date | Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023 |
| Track | New Smyrna Speedway |
| Layout | Half-mile oval |
| Location | New Smyrna Beach, Florida |
| Start time | 7:30 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 200 |
| Posted Awards | $122,108 |
| Tickets | Click Here |
| TV Channel | CNBC (Delayed: Feb. 19, 10 a.m. ET) |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
TULSA, Okla. – Chase Briscoe has a love-hate relationship with the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
That relationship continued Saturday night inside the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the driver of Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 14 Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Cup Series fell three positions short of advancing to the 55-lap championship feature that headlines the biggest midget racing event in the world.
This year’s Chili Bowl delivered another heartbreaking result for Briscoe, who has come agonizingly close to making the finale via the B Mains several times over the last few years.
“We got going pretty good there at the beginning. The first five, 10 laps, I felt pretty good and felt like I was in a good spot,” Briscoe said. “I think I came out running sixth, and I felt like if I didn’t make a mistake I could have come out running fifth. Honestly I was just logging laps.
“I was hoping honestly it went green to checkered. I felt like that was probably my best chance to [advance]. The way the cautions kind of fell at the end were kind of weird for me. I’d just got passed, and I was running seventh and still felt like I was in an OK spot.”
At the Chili Bowl, only the top seven drivers in each of the two B Mains advance to race in the Chili Bowl finale. Briscoe was running seventh when the final caution flag of his B Main waved with three laps to go.
Instantly Briscoe knew he was in trouble, because he knew he had a huge target on his back.
“The caution came out and stacked everybody back up, and when you’re seventh with three laps to go, you’re kind of panicking here I feel like because you know big sliders are coming,” Briscoe said.
Briscoe’s panic was warranted. In the final three laps, Briscoe nearly flipped and dropped from seventh to 10th, eliminating him from contention.
“[Kevin Thomas Jr.] had been running the bottom fairly consistently, and I kind of expected him to do the same,” Briscoe said. “He kind of changed lanes real last minute and checked me up, and then [Ryan] Timms came in there and slid me. From there I just kind of got swallowed up.”
Despite the obvious disappointment, Briscoe’s enthusiasm and love for the Chili Bowl hasn’t wavered.
He considers the Chili Bowl one of the greatest motorsports events in the world, and the statistics back it up. More than 15,000 fans pack the SageNet Center every January to watch drivers from a variety of racing disciplines do battle on a temporary fifth-mile dirt oval.
It’s no wonder Briscoe and other NASCAR drivers like Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Tony Stewart have made the pilgrimage to Tulsa to participate in the Chili Bowl through the years.
“I feel like these are the best race car drivers in the world at what they do. You want to be considered one of the best,” said Briscoe, who qualified for his only Chili Bowl finale in 2017. “For me, I’ve been able to taste what the Saturday A-Main is like, but I got flipped over 12 laps in, so I really haven’t been able to experience the full thing, and I was so overwhelmed.
“It was my second time ever here, and I didn’t really savor the moment. I want to do that again and enjoy it a little bit more.”
While Briscoe has all the passion in the world for the Chili Bowl, he’s also realistic. At 28, he realizes he’s slowly slipping out of his midget racing prime.
This year alone Briscoe could only watch as a couple 14-year-olds, his teammate Brent Crews and Ryan Timms, raced their way into their first Chili Bowl championship finale. He knows his time could be running out, but that doesn’t mean he is going to stop trying.
“I’m getting older, I know that sounds weird being 28, but I don’t know how much longer I’m going to realistically do this and be able to do this at a [winning] level,” Briscoe said. “The kids are getting better and better and younger and younger.”
As much as the Chili Bowl broke Briscoe’s heart on Saturday night, his passion for the event still burns as bright as ever.
He’s not afraid to be disappointed, and he’s willing to have his heart broken. All in pursuit of a chance to race for a Golden Driller trophy.
“It’s definitely a week-long event where the anticipation keeps continuing and continuing, and I think that’s why this race creates such passion for it,” Briscoe said. “Because you’re always so close, or you make it and it’s exciting because you’ve been here all week long, or you’re dejected when you don’t make it because you’ve been here all week long.
“That’s part of what makes the Chili Bowl special, and I’ll always keep coming back.”
TULSA, Okla. – Logan Seavey admitted he had lost a bit of confidence in himself.
Entering the 37th edition of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals, Seavey hadn’t won a midget race in more than a year.
He went so far as to ask Kevin Swindell, his midget car team owner and crew chief each year at the Chili Bowl, if he was going to have him back to compete in the 2023 edition of the race.
“We kind of leave this race every year and we just kind of look at each other and nod, like, ‘OK, we’ll do it again next year,’” Seavey said. “This year, I was like, ‘Hey, what are your Chili Bowl plans? I know you’re building a car.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m building a car.’ I said, ‘Well, whose driving it?’
“He said, ‘Well, you are if you want to.’ That’s all that was said.”
Fast forward to Saturday night inside the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Seavey suddenly has all the confidence in the world following a convincing drive to victory in the Chili Bowl.
“As soon as we got in this car, instantly I had a lot of people see it visually, we had a lot of speed and I was comfortable right away and able to drive really hard,” said Seavey, the 25-year-old from Sutter, California. “That’s what it takes to win this race. You have to be comfortable enough to run 100 percent for 55 laps. That’s what it takes to win.
“My confidence turned around pretty quickly.”
🗣️ An emotional @Logan_Seavey talks about his Lucas Oil @cbnationals championship-winning run!
Presented by @Lucas_Oil | MAVTV on FloRacing pic.twitter.com/M0YPkLN5Tk
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 15, 2023
Winning the Chili Bowl is no easy task. That has been proven time and time again by those who have won and, perhaps more importantly, those who have not.
In the 37-year history of the Chili Bowl, 23 drivers have visited Victory Lane. Seavey became the 23rd different driver to win a race that dirt racing legends like Doug Wolfgang, Steve Kinser and Dave Darland and modern stars like Chris Windom, Justin Grant and Buddy Kofoid have failed to win.
Things got off to an ominous start a week ago when, as the team was putting the finishing touches on Seavey’s new race car, they attempted to fire the engine for the first time.
Except the engine didn’t fire.
Rather than panic, the Swindell-led crew figured out the problem and got the car running in time for Sunday’s practice day. It was obvious to Seavey then that he had a car capable of winning the Chili Bowl.
He backed up his belief with a dominant victory in his preliminary event Friday, which he followed early Saturday evening by securing the pole for the 55-lap finale via the annual Pole Shuffle.
All that remained were 55 of the most intense laps in midget racing.
Intense, as it would turn out, was the operative word. Seavey led the opening 20 laps of the race, but just as he was about to catch slower traffic, second-place Cannon McIntosh rocketed past him to take the lead.
That could have been the end of a magical run at the Chili Bowl for Seavey, but he remained focused on his mission. Ten laps later, Seavey dove back under McIntosh to regain the lead.
Despite near constant pressure from McIntosh and defending Chili Bowl winner Tanner Thorson, Seavey survived to claim his first Golden Driller trophy. His name now can now be mentioned in the same breath as Sammy Swindell, Tony Stewart, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and more as a Chili Bowl champion.
“I just happened to make the move at the right time, and it worked out,” Seavey said. “For right now, it feels awesome. It didn’t even set in until I got the Driller.”
He also joined his team owner and crew chief, Kevin Swindell, as a Chili Bowl winner. Swindell, who won four-straight Chili Bowls as a driver from 2010-13, saw his driving career end after a brutal sprint car crash at Knoxville Raceway in 2015.
This year Swindell branched out, forming his own midget team rather than working as part of his father Sammy Swindell’s program. Saturday’s Chili Bowl was his first as a midget team owner.
“I’m just so happy to do it for Kevin. He deserves it,” Seavey said. “He’d probably have a lot more if it wasn’t for his accident. It means a lot to win this race in general, but to win it in the No. 39 in our first try is really, really cool.”
Legends are made inside the SageNet Center every January. Now Seavey can count himself among one of those legends. Like the winners before him and the winners that will follow him, he will forever be known as a Chili Bowl winner.
Confidence is no longer a problem for Seavey. Now all he has to do is look at his new Golden Driller and know he has what it takes. He proved it not just to himself, but to the entire world.
Logan Seavey faced an enormous amount of pressure in his bid to take home a Chili Bowl win early Sunday morning in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tasked with holding off defending Chili Bowl winner Tanner Thorson, the former Kyle Busch Motorsports driver executed a defensive clinic during the second half of the 55-lap A-Main and successfully fended off the challenge to become the 23rd different competitor to win the prestigious event.
“[This is] indescribable,” Seavey said in Victory Lane. “It didn’t really hit me until I got [the Golden] Driller. Hopefully we can get a few more, but for now I’m going to enjoy this win as much as possible. I’m at a loss for words.”
Seavey led the field of 24 cars to the green flag after prevailing in the pole shuffle earlier in the evening, but he briefly surrendered the lead to fellow dirt track standout Cannon McIntosh on Lap 21.
A sequence of restarts enabled Seavey to work his way back around McIntosh at the halfway point of the A-Main. Once back in control, Seavey refused to give up the bottom of the track while Thorson and McIntosh both tried to get the run they needed to pull ahead.
Seavey remained composed through a handful of late restarts and capped off a strong week at the Tulsa Expo Center as a winner in front of an exuberant crowd after taking his preliminary A-Main feature the night before.
With his first Chili Bowl victory, Seavey joins an elite list of competitors who have triumphed in the event’s 36-year history. This group includes current NASCAR Cup Series drivers Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and Seavey’s car owner in Kevin Swindell.
Thorson and McIntosh completed the front row in the Chili Bowl with Shane Golobic and Emerson Axsom taking the last two spots in the top five. Rounding out the top 10 were Kyle Jones, Mitchel Moles, Trey Marcham, Tim Buckwalter and Justin Grant.
Among the notable NASCAR names that participated in the Chili Bowl this year were Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, J.J. Yeley, Josh Bilicki, Kaden Honeycutt and Carson Hocevar. None of them reached the A-Main.
LOS ANGELES – There’s no artist on the planet like Wiz Khalifa, and there’s no NASCAR event like the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. So it’s only fitting that they combine for a powerful performance unlike any other on Sunday, Feb. 5.
NASCAR announced today that the multi-platinum selling, Grammy and Golden Globe nominated recording artist will perform during the race break of the 2023 Busch Light Clash. The performance will air live on FOX as part of NASCAR’s season-opening celebration inside the iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
MORE: Busch Light Clash tickets, more info | Analyzing the Clash action
“Wiz Khalifa is a gifted and talented performer with a worldwide following,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s senior vice president for racing development and strategy. “I know the fans will be on their feet during his performance at the Busch Light Clash as we celebrate the beginning of our 75th Anniversary season together.”
Wiz Khalifa burst onto the scene with the release of his first major label debut album, ‘Rolling Papers’ in 2011. Since then Wiz has been nominated for two GRAMMY Awards and a Golden Globe Award, won “Best New Artist” at the BET Awards and “Top New Artist” at the Billboard Music Awards, and landed a No. 1 album on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. He has collaborated with The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Charlie Puth, Bruno Mars, Imagine Dragons, Juicy J, TM88, Girl Talk, Big K.R.I.T., and more. Wiz’s business ventures include; Packed Bowls by Wiz Khalifa, a ghost kitchen delivery-only restaurant, gin line McQueen and The Violet Fog, and he’s also an investor and ambassador in the Professional Fighters League.
Last year, Wiz released his full-length solo album Multiverse to rave reviews, as well as Multiverse (Deluxe). He also toured North America on his The Vinyl Verse Tour co-headlining with LOGIC. This spring, fans will see Khalifa portray funk icon George Clinton in the major motion picture “Spinning Gold,” which is about the legendary Casablanca Records label, to be released in theaters on March 31, 2023.
But first comes the Busch Light Clash, where Khalifa will once again showcase the skills that made him an icon.
“The NASCAR cars will bring the noise, and I’ll bring the party,” Khalifa said. “We’re going to have a great time celebrating together at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, and I can’t wait to see everybody there.”
NASCAR announced earlier that hip-hop legends Cypress Hill will provide a pre-race performance prior to the main event, and more entertainment announcements are planned in the coming days.
MORE: Cypress Hill set for pre-race concert
The 2023 season-opening exhibition will once again feature the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series competing on a temporary, quarter-mile asphalt track nestled inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It’s one of the many anticipated events taking place this year as a part of the venue’s centennial anniversary celebration – “Coliseum Forever.” Joey Logano won the inaugural event en route to winning the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Tickets for the 2023 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum begin at $65, and kids 12-and-under are $10. Those are the same prices charged for this year’s inaugural showcase. Fans who want to take their race-day experience to the next level can upgrade to the Ally Pre-Race Party, which includes brunch, a drink ticket for Busch & Coca-Cola products, exclusive entertainment, a pre-race track walk and a special appearance from driver Alex Bowman. Fans are encouraged to get their tickets now while supplies last by visiting www.nascarclash.com.
College students can experience the Busch Light Clash from The Coca-Cola Torch Party Porch for just $40. This standing-room-only general admission section, located on the Coliseum’s peristyle steps, provides college students with up-close access to all of the musical entertainment, driver introductions and racing action. College students can take advantage of this exclusive offer by visiting www.nascarclash.com/student.
TULSA, Okla. – Alex Bowman has no problem admitting he hasn’t had a great week performance-wise at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series is competing in his seventh Chili Bowl inside the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On his preliminary night Tuesday, he looked to be in a prime position to advance to the championship feature for the first time.
That’s when things started going wrong.
“We’ve had weeks that were super successful here and then weeks like this where everything is in shambles,” Bowman said.
Bowman had barely started his preliminary feature when he was collected in a crash. He was unable to continue, relegating him to a 23rd-place finish that will bury him deep in the Chili Bowl’s alphabet soup races Saturday.
How much worse could the week get for Bowman?
A lot worse, as it would turn out.
In addition to competing as a driver, Bowman is also fielding cars for veteran dirt racers Jake Swanson and C.J. Leary. Swanson’s qualifying night was Wednesday, and he finished ninth in his preliminary feature after being collected in a crash. Leary hit the track Thursday and was involved in not one, but two crashes in two different cars.
2023 @cbnationals ABR motto pic.twitter.com/AZP364rW4T
— Alex Bowman (@Alex_Bowman) January 13, 2023
“I think our cars are really good. It’s all been things out of our control,” Bowman said. “Daison [Pursley] spun in front of me, and I didn’t have anywhere to go. Obviously that ended our night. Jake got caught in Ashton [Torgerson’s] deal and tore the car up and kind of limped it home.
“Then obviously C.J., in the heat race he made a mistake, and in the B [Main] he just got drove over. It’s been frustrating, but at least our cars are fast.”
That bad luck has left Bowman and company scrambling to have all three cars ready for Saturday night, but it hasn’t stopped them from trying to have a little fun at one of auto racing’s most unique events.
“I just enjoy going racing with my friends. That’s the biggest thing,” Bowman said. “I’m thankful that things haven’t been worse than they’ve been. They could always be worse. Just trying to enjoy it.”
What makes the Chili Bowl so unique? According to Bowman, it’s all about the party.
“I think the party is really what draws the big crowd,” Bowman said. “The pit area has as many people in it as the grandstands do. It’s a weeklong party with some racing attached to it.”
Bowman compared the Chili Bowl to tailgating at a football game, but on steroids.
“It’s like if you could tailgate at a football game in the grandstands. Everybody’s pit area has their own party, and you’re literally at the race track,” Bowman said. “The party is unlike anything else. The people are great. The atmosphere is great. It’s just fun.”
Despite the bad week on the track up to this point, Bowman remains hopeful for a positive result when his cars hit the track Saturday for the final day of action inside the SageNet Center.
While his own odds of making the 55-lap finale are slim, Bowman still thinks one of his cars has a legitimate shot at making the Saturday A-Main.
“If Jake’s car gets to the A Main, that would be phenomenal,” Bowman said. “He’s in the C (Main), so if we can get him through the C (Main), through the B (Main) and to the A (Main), that would be a super successful deal.
“I’m in the E (Main). It’s going to be tough. There are a lot of really good cars in the E. I’m sure C.J. is further back than that. It’ll be tough, but that’s part of it.”
