Taylor competes in Chili Bowl nationals this week

Zac Taylor is heading into his fifth run at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals presented by General Tire held inside the River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Okla., this week better prepared and more confident than ever.

Last year's Chili Bowl outing was the first race back for Taylor following a long layoff after having fractured his collar bone during the summer months of 2018.

Heading into the 2020 Chili Bowl Taylor is coming off some late 2019 testing in car owner Todd Henry's midget.

"We ran some before Thanksgiving and a couple of weeks ago went to Vado Speedway Park (in Vado, N.M.) and did some testing," he said. "The car handled great and the motor was hitting fantastic. I'm excited to get to the Chili Bowl. Last year we struggled and I feel that's because I was a little rusty having not raced in a few months. In 2018, Todd and I put together my best Chili Bowl, making it into the A Main on our qualifying night and a C Main on Saturday. I think this year will be the best performance for our team yet."

Taylor is heading to the Chili Bowl having earned the 2019 Lucas Oil POWRi Warrior Sprint Series championship in his first year of driving a non-wing sprint car.

He also piloted Henry's midget to a fourth-place finish in the Lucas Oil POWRi Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association championship standings last year.

This year's Chili Bowl started on Monday with a practice session before Taylor's preliminary Tuesday night. The event concludes Saturday.

"We have a team car that Buddy Tubbs drives and he is qualifying Friday and for me to go Tuesday just gives our team more time for maintenance," he said. "There's great racers every night of the Chili Bowl, but Tuesday I'll be going against arguably the toughest racer in the world - Kyle Larson. Since putting together his own midget team, look what he has accomplished the past couple of months. I'm excited to see how we stack up."

Taylor said his plans for the rest of 2020 are still being worked out.

"My dad and I learned a lot about non-wing sprint car racing," he said. "Todd told me if another opportunity in a midget came about I should take it. We would like to expand our racing this year and maybe run the sprint and midget in Indiana and the Midwest area. We are always looking for new opportunities to go racing."