The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals was founded in 1987 by Lanny Edwards and Emmett Hahn. What began as a two-day, 52-car event has grown into a five-day spectacle that regularly attracts more than 300 entries. Because the A-main field is deliberately kept small — between 24 and 26 cars — and because the event draws talent from every corner of American and international motorsport, the qualification process functions as an event within an event, generating intense racing from the first preliminary night through to Saturday's main feature.
The qualifier system divides the entry list across five preliminary nights. Roughly one-fifth of the competing drivers appear on each qualifying night. Within each night, drivers compete in a series of escalating events: heat races, dash events, and a 25-lap feature known as the preliminary night's main event. The top two finishers in that preliminary night feature earn automatic transfer to the Saturday A-main, making those spots among the most valuable positions on the track during the first four nights.
Drivers who do not finish strongly in their heat race on their qualifying night are pushed into progressively more difficult consolation events. The structure creates a long ladder of events labelled alphabetically — from P-main down through O, N, M, L, K, J, I, H, G, F, E, D, C, and B — before the final A-main. A driver who enters the lowest P-main must advance through each event in that sequence, finishing high enough in each to move forward to the next. The requirement to run well through a chain of fifteen-plus events on Saturday night to reach the A-main is considered one of the most gruelling qualification processes in short-track racing.
On the final Saturday night, two B-main events are held. The top seven finishers from the combined two B-mains transfer directly into the A-main starting field, providing a second clear pathway to the feature for drivers who did not lock in automatically on earlier nights.
Beyond the performance-based transfer spots, the Chili Bowl format includes a small number of guaranteed starting positions. The winner of the Race of Champions — a preliminary event held between past Chili Bowl A-main winners, drivers nominated by former champion teams, and the reigning national Midget Driver of the Year — receives a guaranteed start in the Saturday A-main. Additionally, if the defending Chili Bowl A-main winner or the Race of Champions winner fails to qualify through the standard ladder, they are added to the field as the 25th and 26th cars respectively, ensuring that recognisable champions have a route to the feature.
The qualification process is widely regarded as part of the Chili Bowl's identity and appeal. Because entrants include USAC national series regulars, World of Outlaws drivers, NASCAR Cup and IndyCar veterans, and international competitors from Australia and New Zealand, the preliminary nights feature high-calibre racing from the outset. Tony Stewart, a two-time A-main winner, described the qualifying week as showcasing some of the best racing available anywhere, precisely because the competition for the limited A-main spots draws together the best drivers from every branch of American dirt racing.
The format also means that a single mistake or mechanical problem on a qualifying night can require a driver to run the full Saturday consolation ladder from the bottom, adding a pressure element that distinguishes the Chili Bowl format from standard point-based qualification systems used in most other racing series.
The Chili Bowl A-main qualifying format has remained largely consistent since the event grew to its current five-night structure, with the 2012 expansion of the A-main from 50 to 55 laps — introduced as a tribute following a family tragedy that affected a participating driver — being the most notable modification to the feature itself rather than the qualification process. The format's combination of on-track performance and second-chance survival events has influenced how promoters think about indoor dirt racing structure and continues to be cited as a model for creating meaningful racing across every night of a multi-day event.