Nothing is Guaranteed But Buddy Kofoid is an Obvious Chili Bowl Pick

The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals doesn’t owe anyone anything but it has always felt inevitable that Buddy Kofoid would follow Keith Kunz Motorsports contemporaries Rico Abreu, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson into winning a Golden Driller.

He’s that good and the team remains the cream of the crop in the discipline.

Now, with Bell and Larson not participating in the event this year, that odds have to favor the two-time and defending USAC National Midget Champion more than ever before will all due respect to Abreu, Justin Grant and defending winner Tanner Thorson.

This isn’t a declaration that Kofoid is the winner, but the 21-year-old has to be on everyone’s top five, right?

Consider the math: In 2022 alone, Kofoid won 41 percent of his USAC Midget appearances, with 13 wins in 32 starts. This follows a six out of 40 run the season before. But he also recognizes that the Tulsa Expo Center is different in ways both physical and intangible.

With finishes of 7, 19 and 4, Kofoid seems on the precipice, but also recognizes he is not just one fix away from suddenly becoming the de facto favorite.

"It's hard to pinpoint just one thing, right," Kofoid said. "The format is tough, finishing heat races is huge and maximizing points wherever you start and trying to win to get the best position possible to make it easier on your prelim night.

"I say easier but it's never easy. You have to be in the front on Saturday night, the first couple of rows to have a chance to win, and everything we do this week is building towards that goal."

"There's the pole shuffle too. 55 laps is a long race and the track changes more than any place on the outdoor season. And our Chili Bowl car runs so much more gear than you'll see outdoors, the tires too, everything is so different. Honestly, this race is just more radically intense and violent on the car than anywhere else we go."

In other words, the USAC accolades just don’t entirely translate to the Expo Center.

"I still get nerves here," Kofoid said. "I don't feel it anywhere else or with anything else that we do. This place is hard to describe. What they say about when you're on the ramp and you're rolling down the hill, going onto the track, that's all real and it's weird how this place does that.

"There are still a lot of nerves and a lot of excitement. It's a fun week and I am excited."

And even though the absence of Bell and Larson makes him an easier pick for Saturday night, he knows it's not a given.

"I agree with both sides of it, or whatever the case might be (over the purse debate) but once you get here, you still have to go through all the best teams to win the Driller," Kofoid said. "Even if those guys aren't here, there are still a lot of great teams you have to get through.

"I'd rather see them here because they are the bar that won five between themselves and I've learned a lot from watching them over the years, but on the other hand, there are 300 teams here that can make it hard on you too."

Even though Kofoid will remain an occasional fixture in Midget racing this coming season, the majority of his work will come running a true outlaw Sprint Car schedule with Crouch Motorsports in 2023.

"Right now, 80 plus Sprint Car races with Crouch and Toyota will hopefully be involved," Kofoid said. "I'll be in a Midget every once in a while, definitely Chili Bowl. I want to venture into the pavement world where I can. The majority of our races is running a true outlaw schedule."

What about his NASCAR and NASCAR goals?

"Still to be decided," he said with Toyota looking to fit in him based on availability and results.

It would be such a natural progression to move onto his Sprint Car campaign having won two USAC National Championships and follow it up with a Golden Driller.

"Winning a Driller would be life changing in general," Kofoid said. "But as far as my Midget career, with me not returning to full-time next year, winning a Driller would make me feel complete for this stage of my career.

"Doing everything that we've done in a Midget, that would be the last piece of the puzzle. I'll never step away from Midgets, but winning a Driller would give me personally, everything that I could have dreamed of going into this."

And doing it for Keith Kunz and Pete Willoughby would be the icing on top.

"I've said it before but Keith and Pete changed my life in 2019, when I first got hired to run the house car," Kofoid said. "That opened the door to get involved with Toyota and the development program.

"I don't know how many opportunities I would have gotten without Keith and Pete. I am forever grateful to them because they made so much of that happen for me."