“You will not be back next year,” said Chili Bowl Nationals Technical Director Cody Cordell after reports surrounded the famed dirt track event of teams and drivers ‘doping’ tires to gain a competitive advantage. Also referred to as ‘tire soaking’ at times, the process involves introducing tires to certain chemicals that help soften the rubber compound, leading to a grippier tire for a team/driver to use in the race.
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Ever since the Chili Bowl Nationals introduced a harder compound of tires in 2023, the lack of grip has been sorely missed by the competition, thus forcing a few to pertain to tactics such as tire doping. According to reports from FloRacing, the Technical Director of the series also has “kicked” someone out of the premises before addressing the competition this week.
“If you think it’s undetectable, I’m not going to sit here and babysit all of you. I can assure you, it is detectable. Think what you want. Play the game. But if you get caught, from here on out, you will not be back next year. And it will be known, and be made a scene,” said Cordell, clarifying the governance’s intentions from here on out.
#ChiliBowl officials have issued a stern warning to all competitors about tire doping.
Read the full story 👇https://t.co/wLubxgJ5PC
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 16, 2025
According to further reports from Sportsnaut, a few teams that remain anonymous have also revealed certain chemical compounds that can be used to dope tires and are undetectable.
Why not penalize the drivers/teams now?
Tire samples collected each night throughout the event are transported to Blue Ridge Race Lab in Lenoir, North Carolina to be tested for traces of doping chemicals. Necessary actions against drivers and/or teams are taken off the basis of this report.
However, logistical constraints surround the time taken to ship and test these samples. While all samples from Monday, January 13 have been analyzed and nothing out of the ordinary has been found, samples taken from Thursday through to the end of the event on Saturday night will not be able to be tested during the event.
Technical Report: Results from Tire Samples taken during Monday's Qualifying Night have been returned with all samples conforming to benchmark. pic.twitter.com/nAm0OERsSL
— Chili Bowl Nationals (@cbnationals) January 16, 2025
Since the results will also not be available soon enough, Cordell explained how Chili Bowl Nationals will approach and solve the issue. “What we’re going to do is I am going to get those results back next week. If anybody fails a tire test the rest of the week, you will not race next year. Plain and simple,” he elaborated.
Further clarifying what will happen to the samples and drivers from the weekend, he added, “The guys from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be penalized this year. The guys from the end of the week can’t be penalized this year, so you will be penalized next year.”
The governing body has certainly laid down the gauntlet for teams and drivers to navigate and conform to if they want to compete and win one of the nation’s biggest and most prestigious dirt racing events. Further news will surface as the event goes on.
