Held inside the Tulsa Expo Center, the Chilli Bowl is arguably the most famous midget race globally.
The Chilli Bowl has been an annual haunt for NASCAR and IndyCar drivers and regularly attracts international competitors from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell has won the Chilli Bowl three times while NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson has won it twice.
Van Gisbergen is keen to tackle the midget race but admits his more than six-foot stature puts him at a disadvantage.
“Justin’s keen to do it and obviously I did some midget racing,” van Gisbergen told Speedcafe.
“It’s pretty hard for a big fella to drive those cars. I spoke to Kyle Bush about it, because he did the Tulsa shootout, the micro cars the week before, and it’s tough.
“There’s no rules in Chilli Bowl either. You know, they’re all lightweight cars, lightweight drivers, so you’re at a huge disadvantage being over 60 kilos.
“They’re all little jockeys. So for anyone normal sized it’s hard to rock up and do that race.”
At a minimum, van Gisbergen said he plans to watch the race. However, he’s keen to compete if a program can be put together.
“I’d love to do it, to experience it, or fly up and watch the finals night as a fan,” he said.
“Man, doing that race, that would be super tough to just jump in a car and have a proper crack.
“But never say never you know. Justin’s talked about it. I think we might do a test in a couple months. We’ll see what it goes like.”
Van Gisgbergen has plenty of experience in sprint cars but has largely stayed away from the wingless “speedcars” as they’re known in Australia.
When he was competing for Triple Eight Race Engineering in Supercars, his then-team boss Roland Dane stopped him from racing midgets in New Zealand after a crash at Bay Park.
“There’s a big difference when I drove a midget compared to a sprint car,” said van Gisbergen.
“I felt safe in a sprint car, I felt in control of the car. You have that cushion on the roof whereas in a midget, you’re on the edge the whole time and about to have a huge crash.
“It’s an awesome feeling, but a bad one as well.”
Before any Chilli Bowl antics in the new year, van Gisbergen will return to New Zealand where he’ll race sprint cars.
“I’m planning to do some sprint car racing over the summer – race a bit at Western Springs and Bay Park,” said van Gisbergenn.
“I’ll get to spend two or three weeks at home, which will be good. I’ve only been back once this year in March.”
Get the latest NASCAR news, stats, and US racing coverage at Speedcafe US
Discussion about this post