43 cars start the Daytona 500 each year. Typically, no more than 50 show up to try to earn a starting spot.
33 cars in 11 rows of three is a tradition at the Indy 500. In recent years, 33 has also been the number of cars trying to qualify.
But at the 30th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire, just 24 cars will line up for the Saturday night finale on January 16, yet more than 335 entries will be competing for one of those two dozen spots.
The Chili Bowl is a uniquely American phenomenon. A quarter-mile dirt track is built inside Tulsa, Oklahoma’s cavernous QuikTrip Center each January in what would otherwise be considered racing’s off season. The 300-plus midget race cars, which are direct descendants of the cars seen in the 1950 Clark Gable-Barbara Stanwyck film To Please a Lady, buzzsaw through five days of eliminations to get to that 24-car, 55-lap main event. 15,000 spectators – there would be more but that’s the maximum capacity of the building – sell out the place months in advance.
Considering that less than eight percent of the entrants will make it to the feature, it is a wonder that so many even try. But they come from coast-to-coast and beyond. The 2016 entry list includes drivers from 236 cities, 24 states, and five countries.
“Rapid Rich” Vogler won the first Chili Bowl in 1987, Tony Stewart won it in 2002 and 2007, and Rico Abreu won the 2015 edition. We were in the house in 1994 when local Oklahoma driver Andy Hillenburg won what many believe to have been the greatest Chili Bowl ever. In fact, after that race we considered seriously never attending another race, because we knew we had just witnessed the best one we’d ever see. But we had to go back, of course. Just like everyone else.
For fans of grassroots American racing, the Chili Bowl is more than a “bucket list” item. It’s a “can’t miss” item. 
Photos courtesy https://www.chilibowl.com/