Over the past several years, race fans have been treated to several classic Turkey Night battles between two of the best in midget racing’s current era — Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson, both of whom have gone on to success in NASCAR’s national levels but continue to return to the Thanksgiving race.
Bell is a three-time Turkey Night winner, while Larson got his second victory in 2016, the one time in the past five runnings that Bell wasn’t in the field.
In all three of Bell’s Thanksgiving wins, it was Larson he had to outduel to take the victory and plant the traditional winner’s kiss on the bronzed Agajanian hat that sits atop the perpetual trophy.
Those moments are ones that never get old, according to the Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR driver.
“You keep wins like that with you; you really do. It’s just an event that has so much history and it’s the only extra-distance event that there is in that discipline, at least it was until they announced Placerville (the Hangtown 100) earlier this year,” explained Bell. “But it was the only one for a long time, for sure, and it has so much history. You see that with the guys who have won it in the past, the guys who keep coming out year after year and the way that the Agajanians promote the event and make it special for all of us to spend our holidays out there in California racing cars each year.”
Bell admits he couldn’t necessarily pick out a “most memorable” win from his three Turkey Night scores, mostly because all three played out in similar fashion.
“The last two years, I’ve been toe-to-toe with Kyle and anytime you get to race with him like that it’s enjoyable for me because of how hard he makes you work for it,” said Bell. “We can’t seem to get away from each other it feels like, whether it’s at Turkey Night or in Tulsa at the Chili Bowl, but those are two of the hardest races to win in midget racing and when you see the shows that Larson and I, and (Darren) Hagen, and some of the other guys have put on in the past few years, you understand why that is.
“None of us want to give an inch because we all know that winning Turkey Night only happens once a year,” Bell continued. “It’s a race that you only get so many shots at in your career and we’ve definitely been fortunate now to be in contention almost every year and take a few of them home. Hopefully, we can again this year.”
Agajanian was of the same mind when asked about his favorite Turkey Night memory.
“They are each so special,” he said. “Each one of the editions of the Thanksgiving Night Grand Prix is special. I know that when we were at Irwindale, and we were on the pavement, we had some wonderful racing there. Of course, a lot of the purists said Turkey Night belongs on dirt, so we brought it back to the dirt at Perris and Bakersfield, but I really think that the home that Turkey Night has found now at Ventura is very special. It’s a little shorter than Ascot was. It’s a little more thrilling. It’s a little more exciting.
“This is a driver’s race. It’s not a horsepower track. It’s not a track where if you have the most money, you’re going to win. It’s a track that’s a short track,” Agajanian continued. “It’s a bullring that’s a little bigger than a bullring, but it’s that type of racing. It’s some of the best racing you’re going to see in the country, and I think that’s even one more reason that it’s so special to the drivers who win here.”
Though it has traveled across the Golden State over the past nine decades, the Turkey Night Grand Prix has become — and remains — intrinsically linked with the Thanksgiving holiday and with family, building a foundation that has endured through facility after facility and winner after winner.
It’s more than just a race. The Turkey Night Grand Prix is a tradition.