The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals ended for one expected contender before it could even begin.

Buddy Kofoid has made the Championship Saturday main event five times in six attempts with Keith Kunz Motorsports but an illness is going to keep him away from the Tulsa Expo Center this week.

After winning 18 times in a 410 Sprint Car across numerous tours in 2025, and becoming the richest (in terms of winnings) driver in the discipline, Kofoid looked poised to challenge for a Golden Driller this week.

Instead, the No. 71W will not idle this week as Kunz told Motorsport.com at the Expo that there are ‘no plans’ to fill the seat despite making some calls when it became apparent that Kofoid couldn’t make it.

Kofoid has won prelims in 2022 and 2024. He finished second in the main event in 2024. He finished sixth in the main event last year. He is one of the most prolific drivers in the building.

Ultimately, it’s one less major contender for those hoping to lock in on Friday night. 

Pretty standard day, but …

For everyone else, it was a largely procedural practice day, even if the track was not reflective of what it will be the rest of the week.

It was especially slick and tricky, as best articulated by USAC National Midget champion, and perennial contender Cannon McIntosh.

“You know, this track is very unique,” McIntosh said. “It’s small. We got the berm, which is, you don’t run a berm very often throughout the year, so just trying to time that right, you know.

“You can’t just go in there and just plow into it and that is a lot of people’s mistake is just going in there and hammering it. Everything has to be calculated and just trying to figure out the way the track is changing.

“You know, today was kind of strange in that the curb was kind of like a small ledge and then you could get above it as well. Just very, very different.”

In addition to the near moment above, it didn’t look procedural for Corey Day and Willie Kahne, who spent a good amount of time debriefing after the second session trying to make their car better than it was in 2025 after locking into the feature in 2024. 

“You know, we wish we really knew,” Day said of the struggles last year. “We really don’t know. I think the track had a lot of grip in it last year compared to the year prior. Like, the curb was really thick and gripping. It would suck you in.

“Whereas, the year before it was kind of powdery and it would crumble and wasn’t completely that way. So, I think it’s like in the middle of both of those this year in practice day, but it could be way different come the prelim nights and all that. So we just are kind of trying to be ready for everything.”

Photo by: Bruce Nuttleman

Meanwhile, Nathan Crane rolled over and Ryan Bernal became the first flip of the week during the morning session.

Of Swindell Speedlab 

Last year, in the pursuit of three consecutive Chili Bowl victories, Logan Seavey said he was ‘being annoying’ because every session included complaints about his throttle response. They won their prelim and finished seventh in the feature through it all.

At least on Sunday during practice, Seavey said they almost got it back, but wants a little more power put back into it.

Trial and error.

“I was pretty happy with it,” Seavey said. “We’ve changed a lot with our engines. We changed a lot last year because all I did was complain about how they throttled. The way they drive did not fit the way I wanted to drive the car. We changed a lot this year to try to help me out a little bit. 

“We’re really close to where we need to be, I think. I’ve been really happy in both sessions.”

Swindell, the four-time race-winning driver said it’s a work in progress.

“We tried to do stuff to work on that more and what we did is better but they also kind of don’t run as clean as they should,” Swindell said. “It’s like, we calmed them down correctly, but it’s like we’re just not balancing something to offset the changes to get ‘em exactly right.”

Swindell has four cars this year with defending Wednesday winner Emerson Axsom, Jett Barnes and Kyle Cummins joining Seavey.

“So, we kind of swung at Emerson’s there at the end to go back to normal and it ran and then we kind of did half and half on Jett’s there (on) that last run to sort of see and I think it was okay,” he added. “So it’s like basically sitting around here trying to figure out if I’m gonna go all the way back to normal, go somewhere in between. Like Logan was happy, it just has like a little sputter crackle to it that’s not as clean as we would like it to be.

“But Logan almost asked for more motor basically today so I think we did the right thing. It’s just trying to find the kind of the happy medium to make sure it kind of takes off and does some things.”

Overall, this is where having four cars has helped the entire team.

“Today was is hectic, because we ran all four, and tomorrow we’re running three (with Race of Champions) but then it’s just one a night,” Swindell said. “So the prelim nights are not a big deal, and I can just babysit each one individually from there on out.

“Saturday, if you’re in good shape, you just throw them out there from how they were in their prelim. It’s just getting through these first two days of working on multiple cars each day.”

And, Swindell says he’s having fun, and that he really feels like a legitimate crew chief with this much volume.

“I needed my wife to go buy me an actual notebook,” he said with a laugh. “I had just been writing on cardboard and sheets of paper every time I needed to keep note of something today.”

Seavey says he likes having teammates too and it makes his car better.

“I feel like our car looks slightly different than everyone elses,” Seavey said. “So its weird to see it from the stand and watch our cars go around and the things I feel from inside the car.”

Interviews

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– The Motorsport.com Team

Meanwhile, quotes from Fred Vasseur suggest Ferrari are in no rush to take drastic measures in testing.

The 57-year-old points to the budget gap as a factor to consider when charting this year’s upgrade plan:

“If a team starts introducing four or five updates in the first races,” he told Gazzetta.

“Or if, for example, they have to send a new floor to a distant race like Japan or China – they’re burning through half their development budget at the start of the year.

“It will therefore be important to carefully evaluate step by step what to do, based on where we are.

“Whoever is ahead of everyone in Melbourne, at the first race, won’t necessarily have the winning car of the year.”

Avoiding mistakes of the past

Ferrari know better than most teams about how deceptive the first races of the year can be. At the beginning of the 2022 regulations, for example, the Maranello team was flying high.

Two wins and one second place for Leclerc in the opening three rounds, alongside DNFs for Verstappen in Australia in Bahrain, painted a very positive picture for the season ahead.

Within a few months, however, Red Bull not only out-developed their Italian rivals, but also eliminated all reliability issues – whereas Ferrari suffered a series of devastating retirements in Spain and Baku.

Moreover, the last set of regulations showed the price of investing in the pursuit of a flawed concept.

Mercedes in 2022, Aston Martin in 2023 and even Red Bull in 2024 were headline examples of wasting resources on upgrades that were taking the car in the wrong direction.

Ferrari themselves faced this issue during the European leg of the 2024 season, with updates at the Spanish GP derailing the team’s progress that season.

Eager to avoid this fate over the next twelve months, Fred Vasseur has reason to exercise a measured approach. The question is whether the work fundamentals being developed at the factory in Maranello are strong enough to build upon.

Main photo: Ferrari Media Gallery

AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) – Those in Augusta this weekend was revving up their engines with all things motor sports related and beyond.

The 37th annual Northeast Motorsports Expo wrapped up Sunday at the Augusta Civic Center.

The event brings together many motor sport organizations as well as vendors from all over New England under a single roof. An award show also took place yesterday afternoon.

Motor vehicles highlighted this year included everything from short track and drag racing, go karts, dirt bikes and much more.

Organizer Stephen Perry says it’s also a great opportunity for fans to meet drivers before the start of this year’s motor sports season.

“At a race track it’s hard to get up close to talk to these drivers, because their doing their job that day. But here you can talk to them and ask them questions about their cars or a particular race that they’ve won. It’s a more laid-back atmosphere than at a racetrack,” says Perry.

In total, around 2,700 individuals from across New England were in attendance over the weekend.

Copyright 2026 WABI. All rights reserved.

Chris Knight

Chris Knight has served as a senior staff writer and news editor for CATCHFENCE.com since 2001.

In his 20-plus years with CATCHFENCE.com, he has covered NASCAR’s top three national series, often breaking news and providing exclusive at-track content, including in-depth race weekend coverage.

He also offers insider coverage of the entire Motorsports platform, including the ARCA Menards Series.

In 2022, Knight became co-owner of CATCHFENCE.com.

In addition to his active duties at CATCHFENCE.com and other Motorsports-related endeavors, he is also a frequent contributor to SiriusXM Satellite Radio NASCAR Channel 90.

You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @Knighter01 or on Instagram, Snapchat, or Threads at @TheKnighter01.

He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Daytona International Speedway announced today that three-time GRAMMY-award winning country music superstar Miranda Lambert is set to perform the DAYTONA 500 pre-race concert. The most-awarded artist in Academy of Country Music history is set to kickstart the festivities prior to the 68^th running of The Great American Race.