The Scoop
MSA CHAMP SCHMIDT RETURNS TO CHILI BOWL IN ’25
Posted on: Thursday January 9, 2025
Plymouth, Wisconsin’s Ben Schmidt poses next to his Chili Bowl ride in 2020. The defending MSA sprint car champion is returning to compete in the Chili Bowl in 2025. (Dave Olson photo)
Landing a ride for the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Oklahoma can be about as rare as a genuine sighting of Big Foot.
So when Midwest Sprint Association (MSA) champion Ben Schmidt got a phone call before Thanksgiving offering him a ride for the biggest open wheel event in the country, the 45-year-old sprint car veteran from Plymouth, Wisconsin didn’t hesitate to say YES.
Thing is, Schmidt battled at the Chili Bowl back in 2020. It was a bucket list item back then, and still is for the sprint car veteran. The Chili Bowl features midget racing on an indoor, eighth-mile, clay oval. The big event is truly a “Who’s Who” of motorsports racing and draws some of the biggest names from both dirt and paved racing. It’s nothing at the Chili Bowl to rub elbows with NASCAR champions Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Tony Stewart, Christopher Bell and many, many more.
Ben Schmidt in action at the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, OK in 2020. (Dave Olson pic)
How’d this deal come together? Well, in motorsports just like other parts of life it’s all about networking. “Five years ago I called Bill Rose who at the time was a World of Outlaw sprint car owner/driver,” Schmidt said. “He started running with the Interstate Racing Association (IRA) sprints in 2014 and 2015 when I competed in that series. I finished runner up to Bill in the final IRA points in ’15. I drove Bill’s car for the Chili Bowl then and that event is something every race fan or racer should take part in sometime.”
Rose placed a phone call to Schmidt just before Turkey Day late last year. “Bill had sold his midget operation to Josh Hodge and Josh still had Bill’s midget he raced at the Chili Bowl,” Schmidt explained. “But, Bill had an accident and cracked his sternum and won’t be ready in time to compete himself. Bill asked me if I was willing to race his car this year at the Chili Bowl and I immediately said “Yes” and that we would work out the details later. It’s not often you have a World of Outlaws racer and a friend ask you to drive his car at an event at prestigious as the Chili Bowl. So, we’re fired up.”
Plymouth’s Schmidt will return to the Chili Bowl for the first time since 2020. (Dave Olson pic)
Rose’s racing operation is based out of Plainfield, Indiana. Schmidt, who’s a welder by trade, is taking the week off and will be living on “Tulsa Time” beginning next week. As this story drops, 381 drivers are entered in the big race. There are so many entrants that the promoter divides everyone up into different preliminary races each night. “I picked Thursday night and there are 76 drivers also racing on my preliminary night,” Schmidt explained. Schmidt has some heavy hitters he’s going up against on his night, including three-time Chili Bowl champ and NASCAR ace Christopher Bell and another Wisconsinite and NASCAR driver Josh Bilicki, among several of the best USAC midget pilots.
The only prior experience Schmidt has racing midgets was his last time at the Chili Bowl five years ago. He signed up for a practice session on Sunday, January 12. Points are accumulated based upon a driver’s finish in the preliminary races and sets them up for the popular “alphabet soup” of last chance qualifying races Saturday.
Wheeling an open wheel midget is vastly different animal than horsing around a winged, sprint car. “The biggest thing is you don’t have that wing to plant the car to turn it in the corners,” Schmidt explained. “With the midget, you have to stand on the gas and keep rotating through the corners. The driving style is a lot different. With a sprint car, you try to keep it straight. With the midget, you’ve got to back the car into the corners.”
24 cars will start the big show. With such a talent-loaded field, Schmidt would be content with simply making the big show. “The Chili Bowl brings out the best of the best,” Schmidt admitted. “It’s got a ton of NASCAR guys and some of the best dirt track racers in the country. They are all in Tulsa for this, under the same roof, for an entire week. No worry about rainouts and that’s a good thing.”
Rose will have his own team members working on Schmidt’s ride all week. However, Schmidt will have a couple of his own crew members come down to lend a hand. As a true “hired gun” per se, Schmidt simply shows up with his helmet and driver’s suit. The rest of Schmidt’s family will also accompany him for the Chili Bowl, as he and 380 other drivers will chase “The Driller” trophy – a smaller version of the 30 foot statue that sits nearby the Tulsa Expo center.
Schmidt plans on defending his MSA sprint car title in 2025. (RC Custom Design photo)
As for the rest of Schmidt’s 2025 racing season? He plans on defending his MSA titles again with a 27 race schedule set from April through September between the MSA schedule and his hometown track Plymouth Dirt Track at the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds. But Schmidt’s ’25 campaign will kick off as he’ll battle among the best in the country in Tulsa, OK all next week. “You try your best not to be star struck while your down in Tulsa,” Schmidt admitted. “It’s going to be exciting. The action is real close in nature. But to potentially be able to race against guys like Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Sammy Swindell, it’s truly a good measuring stick to see where you’re at in terms of talent.”
The marketing partners making Schmidt’s trip possible to Tulsa include Gibbsville Cheese, Bitter Neumann Appliance, Pit Stop Pizza, Gutschow Detailing and Trip Edge Design.
In addition to Schmidt and Bilicki, other Wisconsin drivers who’ll be “giving it a go” at the Chili Bowl include: Tommy Colburn (New Berlin), Todd Kluever (Sun Prairie), Brandon Waetli (Sun Prairie), Brian Peterson (Mukwonago), Parker Jones (Blue Mounds), Zach Boden (Cambridge), Eric Blumer (Sun Prarie) and Carter Jensrud (River Falls).
Also entered is North Pole, Alaska’s Bill Balog. Balog is a World of Outlaws regular and multi-time IRA sprint car champion who’s resided in Wisconsin.