Tony Stewart has never been the type to soften his words, especially when it comes to NASCAR. Over the past few years, Smoke’s frustration with the sport has only grown louder. Whether it’s the charter system he’s openly criticized, the sponsor struggles that drained Stewart-Haas Racing, or NASCAR’s steady drift away from the roots he once helped define, Stewart has been vocal in voicing his opinions. He did that again, and this time, it was towards The Great American Race.

That growing disconnect ultimately led to the shutdown of SHR, a move Stewart admitted took the fun out of competing at stock car racing’s highest level. Now, amid those souring ties, Stewart has taken a pointed swipe at NASCAR’s crown jewel, the Daytona 500, by placing it behind a very different kind of racing spectacle.

Why Tony Stewart put the Chili Bowl above the Daytona 500

“For NASCAR, obviously, the Daytona 500 is the pinnacle, and then short track racing, especially on the midget side, nothing comes close to the Chili Bowl.

“The same guys that run every week at a NASCAR track are the ones you see at the Daytona 500. The Chili Bowl is drastically different than that,” Tony Stewart recently shared his opinion on two of the greatest spectacles in American motorsports.

In a way, Tony Stewart isn’t wrong. While the Daytona 500 represents stock car racing’s biggest stage, the Chili Bowl thrives on chaos, variety, and sheer difficulty. It pulls talent from every corner of motorsports, not just one discipline. The entry list routinely reads like a racing encyclopedia.

Drivers from NASCAR, IndyCar, High Limit Racing, World of Outlaws, USAC, and the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series all converge under one roof. Recent editions have featured NASCAR stars like Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Jesse Love, and more, all lining up against dirt specialists who do this for a living. Whereas in Daytona, it’s just limited to NASCAR.

The scale alone is staggering. The 2026 Chili Bowl has drawn 400+ entries, split across five grueling nights of preliminary action before Saturday’s finale. And unlike NASCAR, where qualifying sets the grid, and the race itself leaves room to recover from mistakes, the Chili Bowl format is relentlessly unforgiving.

Each driver is thrown into Preliminary Qualifying Nights that begin with a draw and heat races, followed by qualifiers, Lock-Ins, and the infamous “Alphabet Soup” of mains. One bad run can send a driver tumbling through multiple mains in a single night just to stay alive.

Every lap matters because points from each race determine where you line up next. Eventually, only 24 drivers make the Championship A-Main, a 55-lap showdown for the Golden Driller trophy.

That’s where Stewart’s comparison falls flat. The Daytona 500 (a long-form race) and Chili Bowl (short-form race) are different forms of racing built on completely different foundations. Comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges. They both are elite, they both are historic. However, both are built on entirely different definitions of greatness.

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When NASCAR rivalries spill onto Tulsa clay

The 2026 Chili Bowl Nationals isn’t just another dirt spectacle. It’s a full-blown NASCAR rivalry dropped into a pressure cooker. At the center of it all is the familiar, combustible pairing of Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson, two drivers whose competitive history stretches back to their dirt-track roots and now collides again under the lights in Tulsa.

Bell enters this year chasing something personal. A three-time Chili Bowl winner (2017, 2018, 2019), the Oklahoma native is still trying to reclaim the Golden Driller after a relatively quiet 10th-place finish in 2025. Larson, meanwhile, arrives as the man to beat.

With victories in 2020, 2021, and 2025, he’s defending his crown and flirting with the idea of a modern Chili Bowl dynasty. Their past head-to-heads have defined eras. What makes this rivalry electric is the contrast. Bell thrives on bold, banzai-style moves, willing to risk it all in traffic.

Meanwhile, Larson counters with calculated precision, especially on restarts, where inches decide everything. When they’re on the same track, wheel-banging chaos feels inevitable.

Adding another layer is Ty Gibbs, the wildcard. The Joe Gibbs Racing sophomore returns for his second Chili Bowl appearance, carrying lessons from a modest 2025 debut. Gibbs brings raw NASCAR aggression to an arena that punishes impatience, making him one of the most intriguing unknowns in the field.

Beyond them, NASCAR influence runs deep. Sheldon Creed makes his Chili Bowl debut with Ninety-Four Racing after proving his credentials. Corey Day blends winged sprint dominance with growing midget finesse after finishing third in 2024 and 11th in 2025.

In a 400-plus car field, Bell vs. Larson may headline. But the NASCAR ripple effect could redefine the entire show.