He’s heading home.
Oklahoma native Christopher Bell will compete in the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals in January for the first time since 2022.
Bell won the indoor midget sprint car event in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Bell sat the last couple of years out for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was a ban on dirt racing at his NASCAR team, Joe Gibbs Racing.
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Team owner Joe Gibbs was concerned that his drivers and crew might be injured and taken out of action while competing, but he has apparently come around to how the skills developed in the discipline can translate to success in NASCAR.
“We sort of talked things over to come up with a process by which they can request to run certain races,” Joe Gibbs told The Athletic. “If they get approval from everyone they need on our competition side, then they are free to run the race. That includes dirt, but also potentially other forms of racing.”
Bell will be facing off against avid dirt driver Kyle Larson, who has two Chili Bowl championships and owns his own dirt racing series, and Kyle Busch, who is racing in the event for the first time.
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Other NASCAR Cup Series drivers confirmed so far are Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chase Briscoe, the latter having confirmed Bell’s entry as payback.
Earlier this year at a press conference, Bell accidentally and prematurely announced that Briscoe would be replacing Martin Truex Jr. at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025, which became a running joke on the circuit.
Briscoe returned the favor on social media with the Chili Bowl news.
“Guess I’ll finally get him back for this, pumped to see @CBellRacing back at @cbnationals this year,” Briscoe posted to X with a link to Bell’s gaffe.
More than 260 drivers are already registered for the Chili Bowl, which runs through several rounds of heat races from Jan 13 through Jan 18 at the Tulsa Expo Center.