TULSA, Okla. — Brent Crews has made steady progress as a Chili Bowl Nationals contender since making his event debut in 2022.
At 13 years old, Crews donned his rookie stripes and immediately came out swinging.
On his first preliminary night, he won both his heat race and qualifier, then battled with eventual race winner Christopher Bell before blowing a tire and finishing 20th.
That Saturday, his climb through alphabet soup ended in the D main.
“Last year, coming back was just kind of coming for revenge,” Crews explained, referring to his 2023 game plan. “We ended up third (on our prelim night) and locked ourselves into the A main.”
Unfortunately, halfway through Saturday’s A main, Crews biked up on the curb and flipped, relegating him to a 24th-place finish after starting 15th.
This season, considering how far he’s come in the last two years, it’s only natural to assume Crews will be a threat come Saturday. At least, that’s how the 15-year-old sees it.
“I feel like I better myself every year. I come in with more confidence that I do last year, knowing how well we ran,” Crews said.
But his confidence doesn’t solely stem from his record inside the SageNet Center.
This past season, the Toyota development driver became the youngest racer to win the Trans-Am TA2 championship. He also made his ARCA Menards Series debut and claimed victory in his second start during the Dutch Boy 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. “Knowing all the success we had, even just on the asphalt side of things — I think that just boosts your confidence up even more,” Crews said.
Due to his Trans-Am accomplishments, Crews earned a slot in the Invitational Race of Champions at the Chili Bowl on Monday night, offering him another chance to learn the quarter-mile track ahead of his prelim.
“We qualified fifth, then we had a Jacob’s ladder break, so we were able to get that out of the way,” Crews said. “I think that’s what that race is for, right? To get your issues out of the way, and then you still obviously want to go for the win.”
Crews finished 13th in the Race of Champions, but will strap back into his No. 67k Keith Kunz Motorsports midget for his preliminary feature on Wednesday night.
His hope is to finish in the top two and lock into Saturday’s A main.
“You definitely have that pressure on your shoulders to go do it again, and you obviously want to one up it, right?” Crews said. “I feel like every year we come here, we get better.”