Buddy Kofoid (Tyler Carr photo)

By Jacob Seelman, SWN News Editor

TULSA, Okla. (Jan. 12, 2026) – “Procedural” went out the sky-high windows of the SageNet Center quickly during practice day for the 40th Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink Sunday, when the news broke that expected contender Buddy Kofoid would be out of action due to a medical issue.

The news came to light during an interview that Kofoid’s longtime Chili Bowl car owner, Keith Kunz, gave to event broadcaster FloRacing from his team’s sprawling pit area space closest to the indoor dirt track.

A two-time prelim night winner at the Super Bowl of Midget Racing, Kofoid has made the championship feature five times in six attempts – all with KKM – since first debuting to much acclaim back in 2020.

His career-best Saturday night finish came two years ago, when he was second to winner Logan Seavey by a scant .392-second margin.

Kunz explained Sunday that Kofoid has been battling illness since his recent sprint car stint down in Australia, where he won both the Boxing Day Bonanza and a prelim feature of the High Limit International stint at Perth Motorplex.

“Everybody’s asking about Buddy,” said Kunz. “He went to Australia over the winter, was really good over there, got home … and we were on the way here [to Tulsa] and he came down with an illness here just in the last couple of days. He’s just too sick to get here.”

Kunz made several shuffling efforts within the team to try and open up space later in the week, in case Kofoid’s health improved enough to race, but he doesn’t view that scenario as likely to happen.

“We moved some dates around for our guys, trying to hope that maybe later in the week he might be able to come, but it doesn’t look like Buddy’s going to make it this year, just due to the illness,” Kunz noted.

Ashton Torgerson hot-lapped Kofoid’s car as a shakedown Sunday afternoon.

“We’re not replacing Buddy,” Kunz affirmed. “If some miracle [happens] and he shows up later in the week … but it doesn’t look like it.”

Kunz did note that he made calls to several drivers about possibly running the familiar Mobil 1-sponsored No. 71W in place of the ailing Kofoid, but that nothing came to fruition just due to the short notice of the situation.

“We called a couple of guys – I don’t want to say who – but we called a couple really good guys, and it’s just too late to get [any of] them here [the right way]. Without any preparation or anything like that, it wouldn’t make it worthwhile.

“We’re just going to let Buddy’s car sit here, and if something happens big where we need it, then we’ve got an extra car available to us.”

Kofoid was originally scheduled to compete during Tuesday’s Warren CAT Qualifying Night program, his traditional prelim slot during the annual week-long midget car event inside the sprawling SageNet Center.

Every lap of Chili Bowl week can be streamed live with a FloRacing subscription.