$200 Million-worth Jeff Gordon set to return as Grand Marshal for Chili Bowl Nationals 

Hendrick Motorsports legend Jeff Gordon has been announced as the Grand Marshal for the 2025 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals. The event is set to take place from January 12-18, 2025, at the Tulsa Expo Raceway in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Chili Bowl Nationals is often referred to as the Super Bowl of midget racing and the 2025 event will be the 39th running of it.

The $200 million worth former HMS driver and current Vice President, Jeff Gordon also participated in the 1990 Chili Bowl Nationals, where he made it to the A-Mains and finished in P16. Ken Schrader and Gordon were the first NASCAR drivers to race in a Chili Bowl National, three years after the inaugural race for the annual event.

The 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals will be Jeff Gordon's second time as the Grand Marshall of the event as he served the role for the 36th running of the midget race in 2022. Speaking before his debut as the Grand Marshall at the 2022 race, Jeff Gordon said (via Tulsa World):

“I don’t know why it took me so long to come back after competing in 1990, but I started coming back five or six years ago. You just can’t miss this event. They asked if he (Rick Hendrick) could be the grand marshal, and unfortunately, he could not be here this weekend. I told the Hahn family that Rick is not able to do it, then about a week later I got a call and they said, how about you being the grand marshal.”

Lanny Edwards and Emmett Hahn debuted in the race in 1987 with local businessman Bobby Berryhill’s ‘Original Chili Bowl’ coming in as the main sponsor, giving the event its name Chili Bowl Midget National. The race takes place over six days where drivers participate in different categories with the lowest category named P going all the way up to A, which is the most competitive category.

The format is such that the drivers compete in heat races to earn the passing points with the Top 40 drivers making it to the qualifying stage. The fastest 16 directly make it to A-Main while the others compete in B&C Mains to get another shot in the feature race with 24 drivers starting the 55-laps feature race.

---

Jeff Gordon on his rekindled love for Midget Racing

Jeff Gordon made his full-time NASCAR Busch Series debut (now Xfinity) in 1991 before moving to the full-time role in Winston Cup (now Cup Series) in 1993. It was before his full-time debut in Xfinity in 1990 that Gordon participated in the Chili Bowl Nationals, and only returned to the event in 2022 as a Grand Marshal.

However, driving the midget at the IMS dirt track rekindled his love for dirt racing as Jeff Gordon said in 2022 (via Tulsa World):

“This past year I got a chance to drive a midget again for the first time in many years. That is when I said, why did I not go and do more races over the years? It would be fun, and it brought back my love for dirt. The thought crossed my mind. I am so competitive, but I am at this place in my life where I love the business side of motorsports. I don’t have anything I have to prove.”

Jeff Gordon was then asked why he didn't race in the Chili Bowl Nationals while racing in the Cup Series like many NASCAR drivers do, to which he replied:

“I don’t know if it was just me or what, but when I went to Cup I just wanted to focus on that. A lot of people don’t remember when I did Silver Crown or Midgets and different events. But in the last eight to 10 years my love for it as a fan has gotten so much greater.”

Kyle Busch will be making his Chili Bowl Nationals debut in 2025. Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, JJ Yeley and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will also be racing at the six-day-long event.