Last season, Joe Gibbs allowed his drivers to take part in dirt events outside of their NASCAR duties. Chase Briscoe, once a regular at the Chili Bowl, instead chose to spend time with his wife as she delivered twins. This season, Briscoe has stepped back into the picture not as a driver, but as an owner, with Karter Sarff in his seat, though the journey began with heartbreak.
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Christopher Bell has also entered the fray as an owner-driver and appears intent on making Briscoe earn every inch of ground.
Sarff has been steadily honing his craft and emerging as a legitimate presence in the midget ranks. While Bell opened his week by winning the O’Reilly Auto Parts Race of Champions from the pole on Monday night inside the SageNet Center, then charged from eighth to win Thursday’s preliminary feature and secure his spot in Saturday’s championship race, Sarff, competing on the same night, finished eighth. The contrast highlighted the gap Briscoe, as an owner, is eager to close.
Briscoe conceded that as the owner of the No. 5 Midget entry, he came up short against Bell. As he put it, “It definitely could have been better. Last night still kind of stings. We, we just passed Christopher (Bell), and then a caution came out and started right behind him, and we kind of got shuffled on the start, and Christopher ends up winning, and we run eighth, so that one kind of stings, but we’ve been fast, at least.”
“So, yeah, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow night. We’ll have a little bit of work to do. I think Jordan’s in a D, and then Carter will be in the B, so, yeah, do what we can do, and hopefully, uh, we can sneak him in there,” he added. The plan, in his view, revolves around clawing forward through the alphabet mains and buying a seat at the table for the finale.
“I enjoy it way more.” #NASCAR star @chasebriscoe says the car owner role at the #ChiliBowl suits him just fine. pic.twitter.com/UfCVProTs1
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 17, 2026
Bell, for his part, feels a different kind of comfort as the owner of his own car. He explained that operating under his own terms has shifted the tone of his week in Tulsa. The atmosphere, in his words, is slightly less polished, but driving for himself instead of working as a hired driver has brought him a calmer rhythm. Without a team hierarchy to answer to, he has navigated the week with fewer obligations and more autonomy.
In general, car ownership has increasingly taken root among NASCAR regulars at the Chili Bowl, particularly those who grew up attending the event or honed their skills on the dirt. This season, five active NASCAR Cup Series drivers have entered cars as owners: Kyle Larson, Bell, Alex Bowman, Briscoe, and Kyle Busch.
