Engine problems ended McDougal’s hopes of a shot at the Chili Bowl

ballervisions 2026年1月17日

Jason McDougal will not compete in Saturday’s Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.

The Oklahoma native, known for his signature cases of using the bullet soup on race day, most notably his 2021 run from the I-Main to the D-Main, was forced to withdraw after engine problems hampered his chances on Friday night.

During his first year with team owner Dan Binks, a legendary team executive in sports car racing, McDougal was running second in the first C-Feature with two laps remaining when white smoke billowed from his No. 4P machine. He entered the field in his final game of the night, and it was also his last time this year at the Tulsa Expo Center. Following a series of events, Binks confirmed that the engine problems were so severe that McDougal would not be participating on Saturday.

“That’s my new engine and it vibrates bad, so he didn’t like it that much,” Binks told Motorsport.com. “We were working well at C when the oil filter gasket blew, hot oil poured over him. It was at 9500 rpm and seven pounds of oil pressure, he’s done. We’ll meet again next year and Darin (Naida) will run in the morning.”

Binks added that if the engine had better oil pressure at such a high rpm range, there would be some thought to make the change and give Saturday a shot.

Development has been a common theme for Binks since his debut in the 2022 Chili Bowl. His work ethic has made him a mad scientist, of sorts, constantly pushing the boundaries. This year is no different as he admitted that this engine is not the same as the one he ran last year.

“This is very different,” Binks said. “This is a clean sheet; totally different. Totally different size, bore, stroke, compression ratio, rpm range. Totally different. Everything I had read before, I tried to make sure it was strong enough to do everything better, and I think it did that.

“I mean, this thing doesn’t have a (push) rod on the side. It blew the vibrating oil filter. I didn’t plan for that, but I could do a little better job on that. We have work to do on the vibration components. It just vibrates really bad. He didn’t like that. He said the steering wheel felt like it was going around the thing, so we had to do three inches of work.”

The focus now is to make sure the same problems don’t happen to Darin Naida, McDougal’s teammate, who is the only other Binks contestant to compete on Saturday.

“We’ve learned a lot and changed a lot,” Binks said. “I didn’t expect the oil filter to explode, but this thing is cooled by oil, so many unusual things will happen, what we have learned now is to pay attention to this one and be a little closer to that and learn more in the future.