TULSA, Okla. Three-time Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink winner Christopher Bell will return to the event Wednesday night for the first time in several years.

Thanks to Bells NASCAR team owner, Joe Gibbs, approving his return to dirt-track racing beginning with a Tulsa Shootout victory earlier this month, the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Chili Bowl champion will wheel the No. 71w entry for Keith Kunz Motorsports Curb-Agajanian during Hasty Bake Qualifying Night.

An eight-time preliminary feature winner during the Chili Bowl, Bell is among the early favorites to claim Saturday nights $20,000 top prize in the 39^th running of the event.

Racing to me is all about those moments rolling down the ramp for the Chili Bowl heat race, Bell said. Im going to nervous as can be and it all comes down to putting it all together. You just want everything to go right. I am cautiously optimistic. I had a really good race in the Race of Champions. The car felt really good.

Bell wont be the only Chili Bowl winner on the track Thursday, as Tanner Thorson, who topped the event in 2022, returns to his familiar No. 88 midget in an attempt to win the event for a second time.

Winged sprint car racers Spencer Bayston and Chris Windom each return to their midget racing roots with Bayston driving for RMS and Windom wheeling a Chad Boat Industries machine.

Four-time USAC sprint car champion Brady Bacon, non-winged sprint car star C.J. Leary and full-time USAC midget racer Jacob Denney will also be among the contenders on night four of the Chili Bowl.

Frequent national midget winner Karter Sarff and veterans Shane Cottle, Casey Shuman, Matt Westfall, Frank Flud and Ryan Bernal also get the green flag on Wednesday.

Indy car and road racer Katherine Legge will handle an Abacus Racing midget and frequent 360 sprint car winner Jordon Mallett takes his first crack at the Chili Bowl in a Swindell Motorsports machine.